This book presents some eruptions of archaic compulsions and behaviors and the forms that they acquire in contemporary societies. It explores how we see and feel our bodies and some of the ways evolution and culture are transforming them.

Alphonso Lingis is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He has published several books and contributed essays to numerous volumes and journals.

Introduction -- Discontinuities -- Our Species: Premature, Symbiotic, Atavistic -- The Evolution of Splendor -- Quadrille -- How One Feels, How One Looks -- Dismemberments -- The Social Body -- The Physiology of Art -- Transparency -- Attachments -- Appetite -- Fetishism -- Potlatch -- Flesh Trade -- Good Deeds.