CULTURAL AND SYMBOLIC

Probing the Skin: Cultural Representations of Our Contact Zone

- Skin is bound to cultural implications that have read and rendered it in different ways throughout history. Language, literature, art, and science become archives of historical perceptions of the body; they function as sources and documents of knowledge about skin
otherwise inaccessible or lost.

- Skin is not merely a cultural sign which we see and interpret but is a sensually perceiving and feeling organ.

- This volume wants to contribute to the discussion of the symbolic potential of skin without losing sight of its material/organic properties.

- Skin has become the object of cultural explorations because it harbours an ambiguous potential: Skin is an organ and a surface, a border and a cloak, it hides as much as it reveals, and it separates us from the world as much as it connects us with our surroundings. Skin is perceived as the mirror of the true self but also as a mask, as a sign of our unchanging identity as much as a malleable integument

- As such, skin is a real body part as well as an ever changing locus of inscriptions and interpretations of cultural meaning

Written by Caroline Rosenthal and Dirk Vanderbeke

What are the material and symbolic characteristics of skin?

Sensual organ:
The skin is our largest organ; it sends out, receives, and responds to sensual stimuli and gives us insight into both corporeal conditions and affective states. In an emotional sense, it reacts to various stimuli with goose bumps, shivers, sweat, blushing or physical signs of lust or disgust.

Identity:
- Skin is a visual marker of our identity; it makes us knowable at first sight.
- The skin is what we present to the world, it shows our youth or age, health or sickness, it renders us pretty or ugly, marks us as masculine or feminine, and it has been the allegedly most obvious sign for racial and ethnic affiliation.
- Skin can be marked to include, ostracize, brand, and stigmatize a person and be a sign of voluntary or forced group membership.

Symbolic

Cultural

Having thick skin

Maori tattoos:
De oude Polynesische culturen beheersen het tatoeëren al meer dan 2000 jaar. In Oud-Polynesië was bijna iedereen getatoeëerd. Tatoeages gaven onder andere volwassenheid, afkomst en statusniveau aan.

Fingerprint is part of an identity of a person

Sensual organ

To show or not to show skin