The Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities of medieval Western Europe conceived of the human body in manifold ways. The body was not a fixed or unmalleable mass of flesh but an entity that changed its character depending on its age, its interactions with its environment and its diet. For example, a slave would have been marked by her language, her name, her religion or even by a sign burned onto her skin, not by her color alone. Covering the period from 500 to 1500 and using sources that range across the full spectrum of medieval literary, scientific, medical and artistic production, this volume explores the rich variety of medieval views of both the real and the metaphorical body. A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Medieval Age presents an overview of the period with essays on the centrality of the human body in birth and death, health and disease, sexuality, beauty and concepts of the ideal, bodies marked by gender, race, class and age, cultural representations and popular beliefs and the self and society.
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A thematic overview of how the human body was perceived in the period from 500 to 1500, covering birth and death, health and disease, sex and eroticism, medicine, popular beliefs and the self.
IntroductionMonica H. Green (Arizona State University, USA)1 Birth and Death Katharine Park (Harvard University, USA)2 Health, Disease, and the Medieval Body Ann G. Carmichael (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA)3 The Sexual Body Ruth Mazo Karras (University of Minnesota, USA) and Jacqueline Murray (University of Guelph, CANADA)4 The Body Inferred: Knowing the Body through the Dissection of Texts Fernando Salmón (University of Cantabria, SPAIN)5 Bodies and the Supernatural: Humans, Demons, and Angels Anke Bernau (University of Manchester, UK)6 Beautiful Bodies Montserrat Cabré (Universidad de Cantabria, SPAIN)7 Bodily Essences: Bodies as Categories of Difference Monica H. Green (Arizona State University, USA)8 The Diversity of Human Kind Monica H. Green (Arizona State University, USA)9 Cultural Representations of the Body Samantha Riches (Lancaster University, UK) and Bettina Bildhauer (University of St Andrews, UK)10 Self and Society Sylvia Huot (University of Cambridge, UK)Notes Bibliography Contributors Index
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A thematic overview of how the human body was perceived in the period from 500 to 1500, covering birth and death, health and disease, sex and eroticism, medicine, popular beliefs and the self.
The first, systematic cultural history of the subject
The Cultural Histories are multi-volume sets that survey the social and cultural construction of specific subjects across six historical periods, broadly: - Antiquity - The Medieval Age - The Renaissance - The Age of Enlightenment - The Age of Empire - The Modern Age The subjects covered range from Animals to Dress and Fashion, from Sport to Furniture, from Money to Fairy Tales. Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters so that readers may gain an understanding of a period by reading an entire volume, or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume. Each six-volume set is illustrated. Titles are available as printed sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com). PRAISE FOR THE SERIES A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion “Intriguing, surprising, and thought-provoking essays covering many cultural layers of dress history.” CHOICE A Cultural History of Fairy Tales “A comprehensive treatise that belongs in every academic library concerned with a form of literature that has had broad appeal for centuries and continues to do so.” CHOICE A Cultural History of Hair “A thick, tangled and deliciously idiosyncratic history of hair.” Times Literary Supplement A Cultural History of Law “These introductions should be of great use to scholars from across the periods.” Law & Literature A Cultural History of Peace “The set is a good introduction to the study of peace and encourages looking at world history in a new way.” CHOICE A Cultural History of Theatre “All six volumes are aesthetically attractive, with well-chosen cover illustrations in color and numerous halftones throughout. Page layouts with wide margins, good paper, subtitles, generous bibliographies, notes, and index all add to the appeal.” CHOICE A Cultural History of Tragedy “A highly contemporary work, alert to politics, social theory and sexuality.” London Review of Books A Cultural History of Western Empires “Students seeking a comparative, interdisciplinary, and compelling account of the spread of Western empires will find much of interest here.” CHOICE A Cultural History of Work “[Programs] such as economics, American and world history, women’s studies, and art history will benefit from the information herein.” American Reference Books Annual
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781847887894
Publisert
2012-03-01
Utgiver
Vendor
Berg Publishers
Vekt
689 gr
Høyde
244 mm
Bredde
172 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
320

Redaktør

Biographical note

Linda Kalof is Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University and author of Looking at Animals in Human History and editor of A Cultural History of Animals (Berg, 2007).