85 (Melucci 1989, 122-123)

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(Melucci 1989, 122-123)

The new areas of knowledge opened up recently by sciences such as biology, anthropology and genetic psychology locate human beings as an integral part of the natural world, at the same time as providing the opportunity for conscious intervention in nature, to inspect or change it. Knowledge of the body testifies to the discovery of humanity’s membership of nature and its potential emancipation (or, as we shall see, renewed dependence). Thanks to these new sciences, it becomes evident that society is a product of humanity, a result of collective action, as well as the field of encounter and conflict between two areas of human belonging: the nature of which we are constituted, and the social relations which are created by us and which allow us to intenvene in the natural process.

A second component of the new culture of the body has to do with awareness of the body as a subject of needs. The body is accepted as the centre of impulses and desires, as a source of energy that is no longer considered a foreign or alien force possessed by mysterious demons. Whether one talks of libido or biological energy, the new body culture reveals a human dimension which is neither reducible to instrumental rationality nor stamped with the sign of darkness or penversion. Desire, impulse, energy and emotions all become dimensions of experience, recognized and accepted as one measure of humanity among many. At the same time they create problems for a society which is structured around instrumental effectiveness and which tends to deny or denigrate whatever does not conform to its logic. [Melucci, Alberto. 1989. Nomads of the Present. London: Hutchinson Radius.]