THE MINDFUL BODY AND GEOPOLITICAL EMBODIMENT DURING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA  AND UKRAINE

Marina Hakkarainen

doi:10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3737

Published: 2024-12-17

Vol. 45 (2024)

THE MINDFUL BODY AND GEOPOLITICAL EMBODIMENT DURING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

Marina Hakkarainen

Ethnologia Polona

Section: Main topic of the issue

https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3737

Abstract

In this article, I argue that the war between Russia and Ukraine has “geopolitical embodiment”, meaning personal bodily experiences that people associate with inter-state relations. In this case, the embodiment includes the “imprints” of feelings, moral sentiments, memories and relations connected with nation-states and their political relations. The “mindful body” theory (Scheper-Hughes and Lock 1987) allows me to continue their metaphorical conceptualisation and talk about the “geopolitical body”. When approaching the topic, I explored the stories of four Russian citizens who experienced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine painfully. Ukraine was an integrated part of their personal, social and geopolitical space. They were strongly against the invasion and talked about changes in their lives and bodies that they attributed to the war: social fragmentation and physical sickness experienced as corporeal disintegration. To resist it and recollect their social and corporeal unity, they left Russia soon after the war began. Speaking about their experiences, they also represented their post-Soviet geopolitical subjectivities.

Keywords:

war, narratives, embodiment, disintegration, violence, resistance, mobility

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Hakkarainen, M. (2024). THE MINDFUL BODY AND GEOPOLITICAL EMBODIMENT DURING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE. Ethnologia Polona, 45, 105–126. https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3737

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