Embodied Lives:: Figuring Ancient Maya and Egyptian Experience

The ancient Maya and Egyptians gave high status to the body in both life and death, most obviously manifested in their common practices of pyramid building and mummification. Yet in spite of these apparent similarities, the two civilizations had very different ways of treating, theorizing, and experiencing the body. Taking the body as a crucial starting point to the understanding and formation of self in any society, Lynn Meskell and Rosemary Joyce offer a new approach to both civilizations using the concept of embodiment.

Lynn M. Meskell is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University.