Body Hair and the Construction of Concepts of Personhood

This study is located within a broad theoretical field of socio-cultural understandings of human appearance, body image, modification and its adornment (anthropology of the body). Different cultures encounter and perceive body hair differently. This study investigates the relationship between religious and cultural perceptions of body hair and the social construction of concepts of personhood, gender and sexuality. Based on our analysis of Bakalanga ethnography, we conclude that hair defines what it means to be a person as an ethical and relational being. It is part of what we are - our personality, spirituality, gender and sexuality: i.e. everything that expresses and enhances our personhood. Therefore, like the human body, body hair is more than meets the ordinary eye.