RELG282

This course investigates the roots of contemporary European and American understandings of the human body in social, cultural, and religious traditions from the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world. Students explore texts that illuminate the importance of the body to individual and group identity and discuss how these texts’ definitions of "normal", "beautiful", and "healthy" bodies continue to wield influence. Among the course's questions: how was the central role of the body in identity (before and after death) shaped by Christian theology of a God who was embodied, suffered, and died? What assumptions were made about how biological sex dictated identity—and how did pre-modern authors reckon with those who fell outside the sex or gender binary? How was spiritual morality understood to be inscribed on the physical body in complex ways (skin color, physical features, illness, pain, sexual activity)? How did racism and nascent colonialism shape ideals of body size and appearance? Students read primary sources ranging from patristic theology to werewolf stories, as well as important works of scholarship. No prerequisites.