Thinking Through the Body

What is the archaeology of the body and how can it change the way we experience the past? This book, one of the first to appear on the subject, records and evaluates the emergence of this new direction of cross-disciplinary research, and examines the potential of incorporating some of its insights into archaeology. The contributors have explored issues such as `embodiment' (the conceptualization of the past and the present as lived sensual experience), the links between body and personhood, and the cultural meaning of the human body as symbol, artefact, or metaphor. The discussion is based on theoretically informed, detailed case studies which take us from early prehistoric societies to post-medieval times, from Oceania to Scandinavia, and from the Near East to Crete, Italy, and Britain. Despite the complexity of the issues and concepts involved, the book is written in a clear and accessible manner, summarizing, explaining and discussing large bodies of literature from a range of disciplines. As such this book will be of interest to students, researchers, and teachers in archaeology, as well as in cognate disciplines such as anthropology and history. This volume includes contributions from Elisabeth Ardwill-Nordblach, Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, Jos Bazelmans, Brian Boyd, Chris Fowler, Alan Petfield and Christine Morris, Paul Rainbird, John Robb and Julian Thomas.