Living Bodies, Dead Bodies, and the Cosmos

This volume presents a collection of essays exploring transculturally and historically recurring conceptions of the human body and the natural world. Sixteen case studies from a range of disciplines, including psychology and history, delve into concepts related to the living body, the dead body, and the cosmos found in the cultural traditions of different eras and world regions, from ancient times to the present. The contributions highlight the mutual interrelations of human conceptions of the body and the cosmos; they explore the role of physically grounded experiences in shaping such concepts and investigate different factors contributing to the universality as well as the historical variability of these concepts.