Azyl, próg, funkcjoznak. O macie do jogi na przykładzie dwóch poznańskich szkół
Asylum, Threshold, Function-Sign: The Yoga Mat in Two Poznań-Based Schools

Summary/Abstract: The yoga mat serves as a point of departure for an analysis of contemporary conceptions, practices, and tensions surrounding yoga, particularly in relation to materiality, spirituality, and consumption. Although mats in their current form did not exist in traditional Indian practices, their emergence in the 1980s reflects a shift in emphasis from yoga’s spiritual core toward its physical and fitness-oriented dimensions. Understood as a liminal object, the mat enables an examination of how boundaries of intimacy, individuality, and community are negotiated, as well as how practices of self-care are ritualized. The study is situated within the framework of the turn toward materiality and research on consumer culture and aesthetics. It is based on a qualitative case study of two yoga communities in Poznań (within the metropolitan middle class), drawing on autoethnographic observation, participant observation, interpretative interviews, practitioners’ and teachers’ accounts, and an analysis of yoga mat design and marketing materials.

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