Alimentação enquanto antropotécnica: a dieta em tempos modernos

Abstract

The human alimentary scope is bounded by a specific field which contains deep meanings, norms and distinctions. This context also emerges as the space for the execution of the selfimprovement project of the human being - by moving away from nature and creating a hybrid environment, which embraces nature and culture in less rigid terms. Seeking to understand this project within contemporary dietary programs described within specific diets, this thesis follows the Sloterdijkian idea: the human being is a project in process as they produce their existence through the production of cultural means for their survival. Along this constant process, technics is a instrument of discipline and education. We can only understand man if we understand him as a product, a process, a program and identify him within the practice of his production. Thus, we can interpret the human condition in the light of the emergence of its autoplastic enterprise. As a project, the man is a result of schedules and training, thus, a product of his own diverse anthropotechnics. In this work, the goal is to identify the anthropotechnical character of today’s diets, while reconstructing the argumentative framework and discourse that these practices present. As disputed narratives, these discourses carry specific meanings about notions such as health, man, and society that have a profound reach in self-referential, social, and political terms. As an underlying discussion, the critical analysis of the dietary narratives in the present selection enabled the analysis of these notions as well as their redefinitions whereas making it possible to identify the ascetic character of such dietary practices.