We proposed to examine the phenomenon of somatic identities, understood as new modes of perception and new socially established relationships with the body, and with food and eating, including abnormal ways of eating that do not necessarily constitute pathological conditions. We followed a phenomenological and interpretative theoretical perspective, making use of the corporeity concept that was developed by Thomas Csordas based on MerleauPonty's body perception concepts, and on the socially informed body originating in Bourdieu's habitus concept. We focused our analysis on the narratives of women who drew up their paths according to corporal turning points, thereby aiming to elucidate corporified sociocultural and affective dynamics, interpreted in relation to ethnic identity, social class and gender. We discuss the paroxysms of modern individualization, in which, through eating compulsions, the individual body takes upon itself the huge task of expressing, giving meaning to and reversing the group's ills.
Corporeity; Somatic identities; Phenomenology; Racial relationships; Eating compulsion