>
>Hi all;
>
>I am in the process of writing a paper on Aboriginal reserves in Canada, and
>am having a difficult time in coming to terms with Foucault's notion of
>'dividing practices'. Any suggestions of literature or comments concerning
>this would be much appreciated.
Well, the phrase dividing practices virtually explains itself. But, if
you need explaination, it's all good. :) Basically, dividing practices
is tyhe process in which one studies how a subject has been objectified,
by what practice was she made into a subject. In your case, with the
Canadian reserves, you would probably examine the certain governmental
functions that objectified the Aboriginies(sp?). Just as Foucault
frequently cites French revolutionary period politics, and the times
before and after that to link one practice to another, the process would
be the same with your study of reservations. An example of Foucault
using the dividing practices method would be: "the isolation of lepers
during the Middle Ages; the confinement of the poor. the insane and
vagabonds in the great catch-all Hopital General in Paris, 1656; the
classifications of disease and the assosiated practices of clinical
medicine in early nineteenth-century France; the rise of modern
psychiatry and its entry into the hospitals, prisons and clinics
throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and finally the
medicalization, stigmatization, normalization of sexual deviance in
modern Europe."(Foucault Reader, '84; good book by the way)
--
Eric Smith
ROK, MI
"Come join the army," he said, "go to foreign lands, see the people,
then kill them."