Anthropological Approaches to the Body

This course is an in-depth exploration of theoretical and analytical approaches to the body in socio-cultural anthropology. Topics covered include: the body as site and sign of the social order; theories of embodiment and the cultivation of the self; bodily order and social ritual; the senses; the relationship between bodily epistemology and socio-political structures; the commodification of the body; technological intervention in the body; the visualization of the bodily interior; and state interventions and regulations of bodily processes.