The self in self-decoration

Abstract

The submited article is a translation of a publication by Marilyn Strathern (1979), "The Self in Self-Decoration", that discusses decorative performances of the moka ritual among the Hagen. The author establishes a network of relations between the presentation of the self among the Hagen and the performances by them orquestrated through their embellished decorations, with analogous perceptions towards theories of the body and the person that could be fictionally rehearsed in cultures that don't operate with defined concepts of person. The analysis is a preview of the analytcal capacity of the author to relate situations and contexts originally thought as divorced to evoke meanings submerged in cultural actions and conducts, with her sharp interpretation regarding western conceptions of esthetics and of the act of embellishment in a confluent manner to her mentions of the Hagen costumes of self-decoration. Strathern points out to an ontological distinction between these two contexts that could allow us to comprehend more clearly the critiques presented throughout her work The Gender of the Gift (1988), posterior moment of intensification of her analysis on the nature of the social relations among the Hagen.