Cultural Perspectives on the Body

This Seminar explores the human body in multiple cultural contexts across time and space. We will study theories of origin and conception, representations of social identity through bodily adornment and modification, concepts of health and disease, and the post-mortem body. While the essential physicality of human beings is shared, the course will focus on divergent cultural practices, such as tattooing, body building, cannibalism, cross-dressing, spirit possession, and organ transplant.