Perfect Bodies

Out now:

amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Bodies-Medicine-Immortality-Publication/dp/0861591887" target="_blank">Perfect Bodies: Sports, Medicine and Immortality Ancient and Modern, edited with an introductory essay by CCHH Director Vivienne Lo (London: British Museum Research Publications, 2012).

Based on an interdisciplinary conference convened by Dr Lo at the British Museum in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, this book explores diverse traditions of training and perfecting the body and soul in East and West, and traces changing ideas about how exercise can contribute to health, long life and even the avoidance of death.

It brings together papers by eminent academics from many fields, including historians, anthropologists, sociologists and public health experts, which collectively challenge orthodox notions of the perfect body and its pursuit.

The book is richly illustrated with images from the British Museum's own collections and other culturally and historically significant archive material.

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