Meet by clothes - a characteristic feature of a person. Appearance can reveal a lot to others about a person, it is often called habitus. How universal and deep is this concept, does it affect only external aspects? Let's try to figure it out in order.
Habitus in the "human" sense
In the conceptual apparatus of psychology and sociology, mental habitus denotes a set of stereotypes of perception and principles of practical activity formed in the process of activity. The concept was introduced by Elias and Bourdieu.
Deep understanding of the surrounding world, passed from experience into a way of life and thinking, which has become the "nature" of a person, is habitus. Bourdieu defined it as "a system of stable, transferable dispositions which, by integrating past experience, functions at every moment as a matrix of perceptions, understandings and actions and makes possible the achievement of infinitely varied goals."
Anthropology also successfully operates with this concept. In physical terms, habitus here is a set of appearance parametersperson, including physique, clothing, skin and hair color, facial expressions, gestures, and similar visible signs.
Applied aspect of habit characteristics
Assessment of habitus allows a specialist to penetrate into the essence of a person's psychosomatics, when a lot can be said about the state of he alth and lifestyle by posture and gait. Physicians often determine the possible conditions and problems of the patient by the physique and appearance.
For example, asthenic habitus is a combination of thin physique, tall stature, muscle atrophy, pale skin coloration. It is characterized by a predisposition to neuropsychiatric disorders and various infectious diseases.
Short, red-nosed fat women with a picnic physique represent an apoplectic habitus. It, in turn, gives a greater likelihood of impaired blood supply to the brain (stroke) and the work of the cardiovascular system as a whole.
The concept of habitus is applicable not only to humans, it is also found in applications to plants and animals.
Plant habits
In botany, the habitus of woody plants is usually referred to as a characteristic life form (biomorph). A number of factors influence the formation of the appearance of a tree or shrub:
- lifestyle and habitat (climate, topography, soil);
- barrel shape and thickness;
- direction of growth of large branches (vertically, at an angle, horizontally);
- type of shoot branching;
- size and shape of the crown, its density.
Depending on the living conditions of the plant habitual characteristics may vary. For example, trees on marshy soils grow with a twisted thin stem, and in depleted soil conditions they rarely reach their maximum size.
In landscape design, habitus is a kind of pattern that is used by a specialist to design a landscape background and make tree groupings. This is handy as seedlings do not give a complete picture of the final result of the artistic intent, differing from adult plants.
Habitus in veterinary medicine
Veterinarians and zoologists, when determining the habitus of an animal, rely on several characteristics:
- The physique is determined by the state of the skeleton, muscles, skin, the development of subcutaneous tissue, as well as the proportionality of the ratio of the body parts of the individual.
- Fatness can be assessed by sight (rounded or angular contours of the body) and by palpation (volume of fatty tissue and muscles). Gradations of this parameter: good, medium and unsatisfactory fatness. The extreme degree of the latter means the exhaustion of the animal.
- Evaluation of body position (normal, forced, abnormal) can help diagnose injuries and illnesses. Abnormal positions of body parts are often characteristic symptoms, and the nature of the damage is diagnosed by the forced position of the limbs.
- Temperament is determined by observing the behavior of the animal. Sluggish andapathetic individuals are characterized by a phlegmatic temperament, nervous and violently reacting - excitable. Animals in good he alth have a calm or lively temperament.
These signs give a three-dimensional picture of the state of the animal, help to assess its danger and choose a certain style of behavior when interacting with it.
As you can see, habitus is not just a set of external parameters, but in addition a set of mental attitudes, habits and behavioral patterns. For those organisms, of course, that are able to act actively.
