Dear Jinan,
Your query is good: “What is EMBODIMENT and what is not? Sorry to ask this question. I am totally confused as I find this term is being used in many different ways.”
The confusion is understandable. The term is used in may different ways. As with many common words used in a professional context or in research, the person who uses the word should define it in the context of the project at hand. For example, an article might require a sentence that says something like,
“I this article, I use the term [embodied knowledge] to mean ‘[————] of [—————] in [—————]’. This rests on several philosophical assumptions. These are that … .” And so on.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary at Britannica Online provides two crucial — but only partial — definitions. The verb embody means,
“1 : to make a part of a body or system : incorporate <embodied a tax provision in the new law>; 2 : to express in a concrete or definite form <embody one's ideas in words>; 3 : to represent in visible form <a person who embodies courage>”
The related noun embodiment means,
“1 : the act of embodying : the state of being embodied; 2 : one that embodies something”
Even in a context as careful and precise as a dictionary, the words have several kinds of meaning. To make the word clear and meaningful in a project, it would be necessary to make clear what one means. To embody a series of defined steps in a work flow process is one possible meaning.
Many service professions from surgery to restaurant table service train people to undertake specific processes in specific ways, embodying the work flow to achieve a specific result. This is also the case for the established patterns of movement used in martial arts kata for practices such as kendo (swordsmanship) or karate. In each case, the practitioner — surgeon, waitperson, kendoka, or karateka — learns a specific set of skills. Through practice, he or she brings these skills into a smooth, effective process. As the process becomes embodied in the practitioner — or, to put it differently, as the practitioner comes to embody the process — the skill is embodied. This is a common way of speaking about the traditional skills of an expert tradition.
Two books offer particularly rich descriptions of how the practice of kendo leads to embodiment. One is the well-known classic, The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. The Thomas Cleary translation (1993, Boston: Shambhala) is especially useful, coming with an elegant introduction and the house book of Munenori Yagyu, sword teacher to the shogun.
Yagyu was one of the historical yet legendary samurai of 1600s. He was an embodiment of the samurai tradition, in this sense that he so mastered the way of the sword that he himself came to represent what it meant to be a swordsman in feudal Japan. An excellent book by David Lowry sited Autumn Lightning (1985, Boston: Shambhala) tells much of the story. Along the way, it offers a good account of embodiment in one sense of the word. The chapters from pages 87-100 and 115-131 are especially useful. Lowry gives a particularly crisp account (pp. 120-121) of a sword battle in which Munenori responds swiftly to a threat to the shogun from a scouting party at the Winter Battle of Osaka Castle in 1605. Munenori’s response was so swift and decisive that he had killed several of his opponents and dispersed the remainder while the rest of the shogun’s retainers were still gathering around the shogun in a defensive circle. While this kind of fight is common in samurai movies, it was uncommon in real life for a single warrior without help fighting under the weight of armour to defeat a much larger group of opponents.
These two books will give you a good sense of how embodiment takes place and what it means in one profession, swordsmanship, now a traditional sport in Japan.
Another meaning of embodiment is that of representation. The large panorama of New York City at The Queens Museum is a good example of this meaning of the word embodiment. The panorama represents an urban area in a large scale model. Even though the scale is 1:1200, the model fills an exhibition hall, and it gives visitors a sense of the city.
https://queensmuseum.org/2013/10/panorama-of-the-city-of-new-york <https://queensmuseum.org/2013/10/panorama-of-the-city-of-new-york>
In each case, the meaning of the word embodiment is defined by context and purpose. The term becomes increasingly precise and rich as the understanding of context grows — the more one learns about medieval Japan, for example, the better one understands the deeds and achievements of Yagyu Munenori. In turn, the better one understands Yagyu’s well-documented life and deeds, the better one understands the writings of the historical Musashi.
In each case — as in writing about embodiment today — careful description with attention to context gives the word its meaning. In this sense, it is helpful to take a look at Clifford Geertz’s concept of thick description in his classic 1973 book, The Interpretation of Cultures. (2017, New York: Basic Books, 3rd edition, revised.)
Simple words often have many meanings. These must be defined and exemplified to reveal what each author means in any specific context. The way one uses a word in one context doesn’t mean that the same word have the same meaning in another context. For that matter, an. Author may use the same word different ways in different articles — what’s vital is to state clearly what the word means in the specific context at hand.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
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