Anthropology of the Body (L6065A)

30 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

On this module, you'll explore the human body from an anthropological perspective, looking at how different societies and cultures conceptualise and experience the body. You’ll investigate key academic contributions, including those from Foucault, Bourdieu, and Merleau-Ponty, focusing on approaches that emphasise the senses or explore tensions between experience and agency.

The module addresses how the body challenges anthropological research, drawing on recent ethnographic work. You’ll consider the body as:

• a site where social and cultural processes are inscribed
• a space where power relations converge and are expressed
• a location where agency is performed.

You'll study perspectives from both non-western and western societies.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 36 hours of contact time and about 264 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.