Find the word definition

Crossword clues for habitus

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Habitus

Habitus \Hab"i*tus\ (h[a^]b"[i^]*t[u^]s), n. [L.] (Zo["o]l.) Habitude; mode of life; general appearance.

Wiktionary
habitus

n. 1 (context zoology English) habitude; mode of life; bearing, general appearance. 2 (context botany English) habit; general shape and appearance of a species or variety of plant. 3 (cx sociology English) The lifestyle, values, dispositions and expectations of particular social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life.

WordNet
habitus
  1. n. person's predisposition to be affected by something (as a disease); "the consumptive habitus"

  2. constitution of the human body [syn: physique, build, body-build]

Wikipedia
Habitus (sociology)

Habitus is a system of embodied dispositions, tendencies that organize the ways in which individuals perceive the social world around them and react to it. These dispositions are usually shared by people with similar background (in terms of social class, religion, nationality, ethnicity, education, profession etc.), as the habitus is acquired through mimesis and reflects the lived reality to which individuals are socialized, their individual experience and objective opportunities. Thus, the habitus represents the way group culture and personal history shape the body and the mind, and as a result, shape social action in the present.

Pierre Bourdieu suggested that the habitus consists of both the hexis (the tendency to hold and use one's body in a certain ways, such as posture and accent) and more abstract mental habits, schemes of perception, classification, appreciation, feeling, and action. These schemes are not mere habits: Bourdieu suggested they allow individuals to find new solutions to new situations without calculated deliberation, based on their gut feelings and intuitions, which Bourdieu believed were collective and socially shaped. These attitudes, mannerisms, tastes, moral intuitions and habits have influence on the individual's life chances, thus the habitus is both structured by an individuals' objective past position in the social structure; and structuring its future life path. Pierre Bourdieu argued that the reproduction of the social structure results from the habitus of individuals (Bourdieu, 1987).

The notion of habitus is extremely influential (with 400,000 Google Scholar publications using it), yet it also evoked criticism for its alleged determinism, as Bourdieu compared social actors to automata (while relying on Leibniz's theory of Monads).

Habitus

Habitus may refer to:

  • Habitus (biology), a term commonly used in biology as being less ambiguous than "habit"
  • Habitus (sociology), a structure of the mind characterized by a set of acquired schemata, sensibilities, dispositions and taste
  • Habitus: A Diaspora Journal
  • Habitus, a 1998 novel by James Flint (British novelist)

Usage examples of "habitus".

Statius Albius Oppianicus, had been prosecuted by his stepson, Aulus Cluentius Habitus, for attempting to murder him.

Mr Etermon taking a z-nap on the divan or stealing into the kitchen to sniff with erotic avidity the sizzling stew, represented quite unconsciously a living refutation of individual immortality, since his whole habitus was a dead-end with nothing in it capable or worthy of transcending the mortal condition.