In this module, we will examine a range of anthropological theories and ethnographies examining everything from ways of walking and bodily adornment, to zombies and the international trade in body parts. We will explore how different societies conceptualise notions of purity and pollution and how the ways we eat, walk and talk are shaped through power. We will investigate how bodies are transformed through rituals and how social bodies are created through sharing food, sex, song and dance. We will also explore the presence of multiple genders among Inuit, Amerindian and Southeast Asian societies and how gender is being reshaped in the West. We conclude looking at virtual and cyborg bodies in the 21st century. Rather than simply reading anthropological and ethnographic texts, on this module, we also examine the representation of bodies on the screen and in other media such as graphic novels, computer games and museums.
Featured module: Anthropology of the Body
Explore how different societies conceptualize notions of purity and pollution, how the ways we eat, walk and talk are shaped through power.
