Contemporary theory across a wide range of disciplines denaturalizes the body and reveals it to be a social construction. Cultural practices which deform, adorn, mutilate, and obliterate the body illustrate that it is an important site for the inscription of culture. The authors draw on cross currents in feminist theory, literary criticism, anthropology, and history to analyze several such cultural practices as examples of the power of culture to encode its messages on the human form.

Frances E. Mascia-Lees is Professor of Anthropology at Simon's Rock College of Bard where she is also co-director of Women's Studies. She is the author of Toward a Model of Women's Status.

Patricia Sharpe is Professor of Literature and Women's Studies at Simon's Rock College of Bard.