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Cited by 117Language, Metaphor, and CognitionStudy and Philosophy of ReligionReligion and Society Interactions

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A Hunger for God: Embodied Metaphor as Cultural Cognition in Action

Winchester, Daniel·2016·Social Forces
DOI 10.1093/sf/sow065
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Abstract

Drawing from an ethnographic study of fasting among converts to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the United States, this article develops a conceptualization of embodied metaphor as a form of cultural cognition in action. The findings demonstrate that fasting reshaped converts’ subjectivities and subsequent actions through the creation of a series of metaphorical associations between concrete, bodily experiences related to food, hunger, and appetite and more abstract religious discourses pertaining to the soul, sin, and the acquisition of religious virtue. While current influential models of cultural cognition in sociology have focused on explaining the divide between cognition at the semantic level of discourse (i.e., discursive consciousness) and the somatic level of bodily perception and habit (i.e., practical consciousness), this study argues that embodied metaphor is a cognitive process that accounts for the dynamic, mutually informing interactions between these two cognitive registers. By way of conclusion, I argue for the broader theoretical, methodological, and empirical significance of this study for sociological scholarship on culture and cognition.

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Metadata

Authors
Winchester, D.
Affiliations
Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
Corresponding author
Winchester, Daniel
ORCID
Winchester, Daniel
Venue
Social Forces
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2016-08-17
Volume
95
Issue
2
Pages
585-606
ISSN
  • 0037-7732 (ISSN-L)
  • 1534-7605
DOI
10.1093/sf/sow065
OpenAlex
W2507423954
Cited by
117
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 4
FWCI
26.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Social Forces (publishedVersion)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion and Society Interactions
Keywords
embodied metaphor, cultural cognition, fasting, religious conversion, food and religion, religious virtue, sin, soul, practical consciousness, discursive consciousness, body and religion, culture and cognition

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: A Hunger for God: Embodied Metaphor as Cultural Cognition in Action. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/sf/sow065
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Winchester, D. (2016). A Hunger for God: Embodied Metaphor as Cultural Cognition in Action. Social Forces. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sow065