Medicines and the embodiment of substances among pogoro catholics, southern tanzania

Anthropological theories of embodiment which assume that the human body is mainly an agent of representation tend to overlook the significance of actual practices dealing explicitly with the body. Among Pogoro Catholics, such practices involve the use of substances classified as medicines which arc potentially able to transform people's physical states. The transformative powers of Pogoro medicines do not derive from their symbolic properties, but from the specific social conditions governing their manufacture and consumption. Pogoro people's concern with the body is a concern with the incorporation of substances and not with the inscription of representations. The article concludes that the human body is not a transcultural symbol interprétable independently of ideas about the constitution of persons.