A Centre of Wonders

Images of bodies and bodily practices abound in early America: from spirit possession, Fasting Days, and infanticide to running the gauntlet, going "naked as a sign," flogging, bundling, and scalping. All have implications for the study of gender, sexuality, masculinity, illness, the "body politic," spirituality, race, and slavery. The first book devoted solely to the history and theory of the body in early American cultural studies brings together authors representing diverse academic disciplines. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources-including itinerant ministers' journals, Revolutionary tracts and broadsides, advice manuals, and household inventories-they approach the theoretical analysis of the body in exciting new ways. A Centre of Wonders covers such varied topics as dance and movement among Native Americans; invading witch bodies in architecture and household spaces; rituals of baptism, conversion, and church discipline; eighteenth-century women's journaling; and the body as a rhetorical device in the language of diplomacy.

Kathleen M. Brown is an associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania Elizabeth Maddock Dillon teaches English and American studies as an assistant professor at Yale University. Trudy Eden is an assistant professor of early American history at the University of Northern Iowa Martha L. Finch is currently a Faculty Fellow at Colby College, teaching courses in religion and American history and culture. Janet Moore Lindman is an associate professor of history and the coordinator of the Women's Studies Program at Rowan University Joanne Pope Melish is an associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky Jacquelyn C. Miller is an assistant professor of history at Seattle University. Alice Nash is an assistant professor in the History Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Nancy Shoemaker is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut-Storrs Todd D. Smith is the executive director of the Plains Art Museum in Fargo Jennifer M. Spear is an assistant professor of history at Dickinson College Robert Blair St. George is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania Susan M. Stabile is an assistant professor of English at Texas A and M University Michele Lise Tarter is an assistant professor of English at The College of New Jersey Teresa A. Toulouse is an associate professor of English at Tulane University