The Capacity to Choose--or not? by S. Rocha

I wanted to first briefly respond in agreement with Pat Bc who addressed the Babcock article on reflexivity.  It was evident that the application of habitus in looking closely at Lawless and her struggle to clearly understand Sister Anna was a challenging task for the scholar.  This, I would suggest, is reflective of the interplay between social structures (in this case the academy) and her own learned presumptions that may have orginated in the academy. However they probably became shaped by the internalized schemas used to interpret the world of the Other—in this case, a woman pastor who lives with her own scheme of socially constructed understandings—a codified universe that directs her particular responses to the world in which she lives.

On another note, this concept of habitus (a new term for me), what I understand as a socialized norm that directs behavior and even worldview to some extent, evolves from a multitude of influences.  If it does in fact instruct our capacity to imagine, comprehend and synthesize life, then make decisions on how we respond, what is the implication on the spiritual?  What then of the cosmological nature of the human as an interconnected essence that might come into the world with a cellular memory that conducts the evolution of his/her worldview, his/her sense of the divine.  Is mere construction of carnal knowledge and social reflexivity that which deposits social norms into the enduring nature of the human being?

What does this say then about oppression or authoritative power that is culturally generated?  It must be more than symbolic power since it has the ability to actualize hegemony on multiple levels. Is this what Bourdieu means by  “structured structures” that do in fact exist as potential choices that can be made by the facilitator of the structures—one who has the ability to wield the baton of orchestration over others?  It is obvious this set of readings created for me more questions than conclusions.  I am still in the synthesization process as I ruminate and review these new and/or extended concepts.