Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body [Two Volumes]

This is an amazing collection of culturally informed essays on body parts provides context and weight to the pop culture and media focus on the body beautiful.Pop culture and the media today are saturated with the focus on the aesthetics of the human body. Magazines speculate whether this or that actress had breast implants or a nose job. Many people are not just focusing on celebrities but on themselves too and today have unprecedented opportunities to rework what nature gave them. Pop culture vultures and students can indulge their fascination with the body beautiful through the cultural insight provided in this amazing set. "Cultural Encyclopedia of the Body" is a treasure trove of essays that explore the human body alphabetically by part, detailing practices and beliefs from the past and present and from around the world that are sometimes amazing and extraordinary.Body parts are examined through a multifaceted cultural lens. Readers will explore how the parts are understood, what they mean to disparate societies, how they are managed, treated, and transformed, and how they are depicted and represented. The entries draw from many disciplines that are concerned to some degree or another with human bodies, including anthropology archaeology, sociology, religion, political history, philosophy, art history, literary studies, and medicine. The encyclopedia proffers information on a number of cultures, tribes, and customs from East and West. Ancient practices to the latest fads (which in fact might continue ancient practices) are illuminated. Other considerations that arise in the essays include comparisons among cultures, the changing perceptions of the body, and issues of race, gender, religion, community and belonging, ethnicity, power structures, human rights.