The Body in History

'This book is amazing. Robb and Harris take us on a grand tour of the human body, tracing its diverse forms and attachments over a span of 50,000 years. Rarely do so many fascinating ideas come together in one place. For scholars who study the body in Africa, Asia, or the New World, the book offers a steady stream of comparative insights. As an experiment in multiscalar analysis, The Body in History is a tantalizing, indispensable model for future work.' Andrew Shryock, University of Michigan
'An encyclopedic collection of articles that addresses the crucial question of how and why bodily understandings and practices change throughout history. Wide-ranging and creative in its sources, and innovative theoretically and methodologically, The Body in History is an invaluable contribution to, and will be required reading for anyone interested in, the field of body studies.' Chris Shilling, author of The Body and Social Theory
'A masterful book that brings multidisciplinary analysis to bear on the question of the social body. The focus on diachronic change – on transition and transformation – as well as on scales of practice, makes this an original and much-needed contribution that will be of interest not only to historians and archaeologists but also to scholars from diverse fields that engage with study of the body. This text is a must-read that will be used in both teaching and research.' Barbara L. Voss, Stanford University, California
'This remarkable volume demonstrates how the idea of the body has been dramatically reworked in successive eras, from the Pleistocene to the present day. Spanning archaeology, history, and cultural studies, the chapters argue that, more than a concept, the body is simultaneously a collection of gestures and comportments that can vary from one era to the next. In a world transfixed by the prospects for robotic and bionic engineering, where the body/technology boundary is becoming increasingly porous and zombies are everywhere, this beautifully written study demonstrates how the body itself has always been in history.' Daniel Lord Smail, Harvard University, Massachusetts