The moving body is an essential aspect of being human, in where we have come from and in where we are going. This talk aims to address the generative capacity not only of the human body as such, but specifically of the moving body from an analytical and methodological point of view. I will, firstly, look at mobility and dance as an aspect of social organisation in the post-forager group of the Baka in central Africa. Examples from my fieldwork in Gabon will show how the transformation of mobility and dance movements can be considered as a ‘bodily commentary’ on the social changes occurring in Baka sociality. The second set of data on human movement in relation to socio-political changes comes from the Sardana dance and the castells, human towers, in Catalonia. Comparing these two movement phenomena exemplifies socio-historical differentiations in Catalonia and highlights current developments from the perspective of the moving body. Drawing together these diverse examples, which nevertheless come from the same research framework, I will introduce the concept of motility, which refers to the capacity to be mobile and the notion of a ‘politics of touch’, and show how they can serve as useful analytical and methodological ideas in understanding human movement. I conclude with an outlook on being human and social in a moving body in times of the growing importance of virtual realities.

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