Course description
We have bodies and are bodies at the same time. The body as the prerequisite and basis for human existence makes it a universal concern. During centuries, the foreign, exotic and possessed body functioned as a counter-image to the body of Western societies. In addition to the aesthetic value, the social significance of clothing and body adornment in the form of tattoos, scars, body paint or hairstyles aroused research interest. However, it was only in the last few decades that the manifestation and embodiment of social and cultural norms in Western societies became a focus of research.

While the body was initially conceptionalized as a (passive) object of social inscription and mirror of social order by structural approaches, phenomenologically and praxeologically oriented perspectives have increasingly come to the fore that conceive the human body as the starting point and subject of culture.

However, for a long time the biotic body was perceived as an undisputed given on which the body's sociocultural analysis took place. In the meantime, the seemingly natural body is also understood as constructed. This shift in perspective was made possible by the ethnographical study of Western societies, the influence of Michel Foucault's work, feminist and science-critical positions and a critical medical anthropology since the 1980s. The sociocultural aspects of the emergence and application of biomedical knowledge about (gendered) bodies in particular began to be analyzed; medical science was no longer regarded as exclusively objective, but rather as part of one specific epistemological model among others. Transsexual and intersexual bodies in particular provoke a reflection on biological essentialisms and dual categories that were previously taken for granted, like those of body and mind, nature and culture, subject and object, man and women or sex and gender.

Moreover, fundamental changes in biomedical research and practice such as reproductive technologies, plastic surgery or organ transplantation provoke a change of body boundaries and raise new questions about human identity. Research in the context of new kinship studies and critical medical anthropology analyses these new realities; Donna Haraway's conceptual creation of the cyborg or Orlan's performative artistic interventions problematize boundaries in a radical way. By dealing with resistant, disciplined, intersexed, modified and commodified bodies in this seminar, we will explore their temporal and spatial as well as their scientific, sociopolitical and cultural boundedness. We will also analyze the complex relationships between conceptual dualisms that continue to influence natural and social sciences.

In addition to a theoretical discussion, we will explore methodological questions in research inspired by the anthropology of the body, as the course participants will engage in a joint research project in Venice. A visit of the in-house museum Museo del Manicomio, which traces the history of the former psychiatric hospital of San Servolo, will also be part of the course.

Learning outcomes
Students in this course will:

• learn about theories in the anthropology of the body

• get acquainted with approaches in medical anthropology and new kinship studies

• demonstrate an understanding of contemporary approaches in the field by analyzing and contextualizing a variety of texts

• develop self-reflection and critical thinking through the engagement with feminist and science-critical approaches

• get acquainted with anthropological research methods and conduct an own small research in group in the city of Venice

• articulate convincing evidence-based reasoning in presentation, discussion in working groups and plenum and in the final written paper

Teaching and evaluation methods
The seminar is based on weekly readings. Students have to prepare the reading for each session and bring the texts to the classroom (printed or in electronic version) for collaborative exercises and common discussion.
The course is open to students from all disciplines and does not require preliminary knowledge about the topic. However, students are required to prepare at least one text per week. In addition to regular attendance and active participation (1), each student has to give an oral presentation of 15 minutes in class based on reading and own research (2) and to write a final paper of 12-15 pages, including bibliographical references and notes (3). The topic of the paper is chosen in agreement with the professor.

Grade distribution

40% attendance and active participation in class based on the weekly readings
20% oral presentation in class
40% written paper

Bibliography

Ahmed, Sara - Stacey, Jackie (eds) 2001. Thinking through Skin. London and New York: Routledge

Bourdieu, Pierre 2013 (1972). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press Braidotti, Rosi 1994. Nomadic Subjects. Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia Univ. Press

Carsten, Janet 2011. Substance and Relationality: Blood in contexts. In: Annual Review of Anthropology 40 (2): 19-35.

Carsten, Janet 2003. After Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Csordas, Thomas S. 1999. The body's career in anthropology. In: Henrietta Moore (ed.): Anthropological Theory Today. Cambridge, p. 172–205.

Taboo. London and New York: Routledge

de Ras, Marion - Grace, Victoria 1997 (eds). Bodily Boundaries, Sexualised Genders and Medical Discourses. Palmerston North: Dunmore.

Dorezal, Luna 2010. The (In) Visible Body: Feminism, Phenomenology, and the Case of Cosmetic Surgery. In: Hypatia 25 (2): 357–75.

Douglas, Mary 2001 (1966). Purity and Danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Douglas, Mary 1996 (1970). Natural Symbols. London and New York: Routledge

Dreger, Alice D. 1999: Intersex in the Age of Ethics. Hagerstown: University Publishing Dreger, Alice D. 1998. Hermaphrodites and the Medical Intervention of Sex. Cambridge and London: Harvard Univ. Press

Edmonds, Alexander 2007. "The poor have the right to be beautiful". Cosmetic surgery in neoliberal Brazil. In: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13(2): 363–381.

Epstein, Julia 1990. Either/or - neither/both: sexual ambiguity and the ideology of gender. In: Genders 7: 99-142.

Epstein, Julia 1995. Altered Conditions. Disease, Medicine and Storytelling. New York and London: Routledge

Featherstone, Mike (ed) 2000. Body Modification. London and Oxford: Sage Foucault, Michel 1989 (1961). Madness and Civilization. London: Routledge Foucault, Michel 2003 (1963). The Birth of the Clinic. London: Routledge

Fraser, Mariam - Greco, Monica (eds) 2005. The body. A reader. London and New York: Routledge

Haraway, Donna 1991. Simians, Cyborgs and Women. The Reinvention of Nature. London and New York: Routledge

Inhorn, Marcia C. - Tremayne, Soraya. 2016. Islam, Assisted Reproduction, and the Bioethical Aftermath. In: Journal of Religion and Health 55 (2): 422–30.

Inhorn, Marcia C. - Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna 2008. Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Culture Change. In: Annual Review of Anthropology 37: 177–96.

Katz, Jack - Csordas, Thomas J. 2003. Phenomenological Ethnography in Sociology and Anthropology. In: Ethnography 4 (3): 275–88.

Kessler, Suzanne 1998: Lessons from the Intersexed. New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press Lock, Margaret et al. (eds) 2000. Living and Working with the New Technologies. Intersections of Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press

Orlan. http://www.orlan.eu

Repo, Jemima 2013. The Biopolitical Birth of Gender: Social Control, Hermaphroditism, and the New Sexual Apparatus. In: Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 38 (3): 228–44.

Rabinow, Paul (ed) 1991. The Foucault reader. London. Penguin

Scheper-Hughes - Wacquant, Loic (eds) 2002. Commodifying Bodies. London: Sage Schiebinger, Londa 2004 (1993). Nature's Body. Gender in the Making of Modern Science. New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press

Turner, Terence 1980. The social skin. In: Jeremy Cherfas - Roger Lewin (eds.): Not Work Alone. London: Sage, p. 112–140.

Wacquant, Loic 2011. Habitus as topic and tool. Reflections on becoming a prizefighter. In: Qualitative Research in Psychology 8: 81–92.

Last updated: April 2, 2026