A comprehensive survey course looking at different types of body arts around
the world, including but not limited to scarification, tattooing, henna and
body paint, jewelry wearing and piercing of both men and women, and its
interface with clothing. Body adornment will be used to analyze both group
and individual identities, as a means by which to both conform to societal
standards as well as to manipulate these same norms to distinguish oneself
as an individual. Furthermore questions of aesthetics will be examined, both
positive and negative examples of beauty and sexual attraction, and how body
arts are used to adhere to or repel against these in a given society. The
course is concerned not only with the individual adorned, but also with the
beholders and the larger frameworks of family, religion and society as they
apply to the judgements and assessments of the decorated body. Finally the
class looks critically not only at body arts in traditional societies but
also in the United States, paying special attention to how the actual forms,
meanings, reactions and motivations have diminished or enhanced in the
translation and appropriation of various types of body decorations.