“Technique is an action, which is
effective and traditional. There is no technique and no transmission
in the absence of tradition.” (Mauss 75). This is a quote from the
article “Techniques of the body” which is written by Marcel
Mauss. Mauss believes that, all the human actions are developed by
the connate body and people’s acquire practices. Base on this idea,
I begin to observe the activities I have done in my everyday life.
These activities include every single movement that I’ve done
starting when I wake up in the morning.
Throughout my observation, I found the
temperature of the environment is the main element that begins and
leads my body to start with the activities of everyday life. Everyday
when I open my eyes, my body started to adjust the surrounding
temperature, and then report he message back to my brain to by
telling whether the temperature is warm or cold. ; If the temperature
is warm and decent, I will just pull away the blanket and get out
from the bed. But if the temperature is cold, my brain will tell my
body to move my arms out of the blanket and search for the jacket,
But usually, even I have put on my jacket right after I get out of
the bed, my hands will rub back and forth quickly on my arms in order
to keeps the warm body temperature in the cold environment. By
explaining Mauss’s definition of body technique by using my body’s
action as an example; the action of my hand reaching for a jacket and
rubbing back and forth around my body goes for the effective, and the
feeling of coldness is traditional. But the action of reaching a
jacket and knowing to leave a jacket close to my bed is an acquire
practices. Because, before, I didn’t know that I would feel cold
after I got out of the bed, so I won’t prepare a jacket around my
bed. But once, when I got out of the bed and feel the coldness, I
will learn that I should prepare a jacket for next time.
Extending this
thought to the question of what and where would I want to have
technology to enter or replace a part of my assembly. My answer would
be my hair; hair that around my whole body. I would like replace each
of my hair into many little temperature conditioner. A temperature
conditioner that can balance the surface of my body temperature to
the best condition base on inducting the surrounding temperature,
which means I would never have problems with freezing to death when
the weather suddenly gets cold or putting on and off my jacket while
entering to an interior or exterior.
Work
Cited :
Mauss,
Marcel: Techniques of the body, Economy and Society,2:1,70 —
88
