Tainted Rituals: An investigation into the body culture and spatiality of Muay Thai Part 2 Dissertation 2019 Charlie Whittington University of Kent | UK This paper seeks to establish a base knowledge of the relatively new sociological concept of Body Culture. Identifying the importance of its application in today’s society. Having established the base theory, the research will form a framework for investigation using Bourdieu’s concepts of Habitus and Psychical and Social Place as well as Foucaults’ Power and Discipline and his spatial concept of Heterotopia. This framework will then be used to carry out a spatial investigation into the body culture of Muay Thai, Thailands’ national sport and greatest cultural export. The investigation uncovers how Thai culture and society manifests itself in the movements of the Muay Thai body, through the appropriation of the standardised boxing ring space. Speculating how the complex layering of sociocultural structures transform a “space” to a “place”. The investigation begins to suggest an interdisciplinary approach to the way we understand “space” through Architecture and Sociology. Martial arts can teach us a lot about the way in which we perceive and understand movement through space. As social beings, we are all engaged in the collective embodied activities performed within the circles of our shared commitments, for we are all martial artists of everyday life. Charlie Whittington Tutor(s) Dr. Timothy Brittain-Catlin