Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Linda Kalof (Michigan State University, USA) ,  Kalof ,  Linda Kalof (Michigan State University, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Berg Publishers
Dimensions:   Width: 17.20cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 24.40cm
Weight:   0.689kg
ISBN:  

9781847887894

ISBN 10:   1847887899
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   01 March 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

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 Salmon (University of Cantabria, SPAIN)5 Bodies and the Supernatural: Humans, Demons, and Angels Anke Bernau (University of Manchester, UK)6 Beautiful Bodies Montserrat Cabre (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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Author Information

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).

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