American Bodies: Cultural Histories of the Physique

by Tim Armstrong

Book Overview

Most human bodies have two arms, two legs, hands, feet, a head. Yet the body, as we perceive it, is ultimately a cultural construct defined by the values and meanings each individual, and each culture, ascribes to it. Beyond its corporeal realities, the implications of the body-how we adorn, alter, heal, and please it-are potentially endless, limited only by the manner in which we frame it.
Revealing how the human body has served as as metaphor...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814706576
• ISBN13: 9780814706572
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.5" x 9.3"