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Course Description

Summary

The body has been crucial (but sometimes overlooked) in anthropological theory since the early days of the discipline. This course begins with an introduction to recent anthropological analysis and methods of studying the body as both social and individual, biological and cultural, object and subject. We then explore its conceptualization in relation to topics such as the self, gender, disability, health and language. Using primarily ethnographic sources and cross-cultural data, we explore the meaning behind Lock’s assertion that anthropologists must “be content with a body that refuses to hold still”.