The human body

Before any of the wonderful things where made or even thought about there was the human body. This had to evolve. Brains got larger, limbs changed so we became upright walkers and endurance runners, fingers shortened once they were no longer needed for climbing trees and opposable thumbs made precise grasping possible. The fine breathing needed for speech had to evolve as well as the cognitive changes that could frame sentences. The pain and reward systems that are part of the chemistry of our bodies also responded to our creativity rewarding us with opiate highs and dampening pain through endorphin releases. Contained in our bodies is a history of our lineage; a history that can be read from our genes and anatomy. But the body is more than neurons and bone, flesh and blood. The body is also our greatest cultural creation; tattooed, painted, dressed and perfumed and presented as sculpture, paintings, photographs and carvings. The human body is the most wonderful thing.

Reading

• Dunbar, R. 2004. The Human Story. London: Faber and Faber.
• Sofaer, J. 2006. The body as material culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Stringer, C. and P. Andrews. 2005. The complete world of human evolution. London: Thames and Hudson.