Abstract - The study of body culture – observing practice
Body and movement constitute fundamental conditions of human existence. They can be the starting point for a new understanding of what is the ‘material basis’ in social and cultural theory. Based on three decades of comparative studies in body cultures, some methodological and theoretical observations are concluded. They propose directions for a future phenomenology, history, and anthropology of practice. Body culture studies open perspectives for a new way of thinking dialectically and for a humanistic materialism. They contribute to inter-bodily democracy.