Translating Practices: Situated Bodies between Cognition and Expression

Abstract

Practices correspond to a multitude of performing acts that articulate themselves in interpretation and entail circumstantial and cultural features. Considering that different sets of practices involve bodies with distinct backgrounds and diverse ways of expression, the assimilation or rejection of practices assumes to some extent translation, insofar as it requires intermediation between and among conflicting cultures. Particularly in situations marked by colonization, one is inclined to reproduce not only the hegemonic language but also its corresponding practices, often leading to a concealment of other possibilities of articulation. The capacity of translating practices involves, consequently, finding an adequate way of expression, one that understands hegemonic practices and their meanings, but which nevertheless also conveys a unique voice corresponding to one’s situation and marginal practices. It also requires attention to meanings that operate at a pre-predicative level—because practices are based in prejudices that cannot be completely manifested—and to their affective or emotional correlation. The chapter suggests that a complementary discussion of 4EA cognitive science and hermeneutics provides a conceptual base to approach translating practices, insofar as embodiment, affectivity, situatedness, language, and historicity play a key role in these theories. It concludes by exploring the potential of feminist, postcolonial, and decolonial studies, in delivering a political basis to understand how these processes of translation assume a situated body.