Description: This book is a long-term history of how the human body has been understood in Europe from the Palaeolithic to the present day, focusing on specific moments of change. Developing a multi-scalar approach to the past, and drawing on the work of an interdisciplinary team of experts, the authors examine how the body has been treated in life, art and death for the last 40,000 years. Key case-study chapters examine Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Classical, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern bodies. What emerges is not merely a history of different understandings of the body, but a history of the different human bodies that have existed. Furthermore, the book argues, these bodies are not merely the product of historical circumstance, but are themselves key elements in shaping the changes that have swept across Europe since the arrival of modern humans.
Brief description: John Robb is Reader in European Prehistory at the University of Cambridge. He has worked extensively in Central Mediterranean prehistory and archaeological theory and human skeletal studies, and is the author of The Early Mediterranean Village (Cambridge, 2007). He edits the Cambridge Archaeological Journal and is currently researching prehistoric art in Europe.
Review Quotes: "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