Place and Space

I keep coming back to these two terms as being so extremely important to the body. And now, as I search for a theoretical framework that encompasses them, I find myself critiquing and rearranging theories so that they fit. Here's an attempt at a summary of where I'm at with it:

After spending last semester reading on embodiment, I've nearly come to the conclusion that so much of the mind is socially-mediated that it barely exists within the body anymore. The purpose of the mind, as I understand it, is to mediate the physical and social environment for each particular person/body. To do so, it employs (and *is part of* to such a great extent that it might not be able to be separated from) the body -- nerves, senses, impulses, chemical reactions, etc. -- in information-gathering of the spaces around it.

It's important here to stress that each person is different -- chemically, physically, structurally, etc. and therefore each person has needs that are specific to its unique makeup. (MIT's Technology Review has an article on the advent of genomic diets in the latest issue.)

As I mentioned, the "spaces" that the person/body is situated, and must navigate, include not only the physical environment (indoor/outdoor, clothed/naked, polar/equatorial, mountain/swamp/valley/sea, etc.) the body is situated in, but also the social environment (school/work/mall/church/home, with lover/neighbor, etc.) one is situated in. CHAT deals well with this, but seems to have less to say about physical space.

I'll add more later, but want to go see Julie Underwood's talk on the Supreme Court at noon.