When Greek sculptors portrayed the health, musculature and proportionality of the body, the ‘Father of
Western Medicine’, Hippocrates was investigating these very issues in relation to ‘the four humors’. When
Roman sculptors produced lifelike busts and equestrian statues showing blood vessels, Galen was dissecting
animals in Ancient Rome to understand blood circulation. Not long after Leonardo and Michelangelo secretly
dissected the body, Andreas Vessalius did so publicly, overthrowing Galenic anatomy and generating new
portrayals of the body. After examining these interrelationships, this course will investigate the pseudosciences
of craniometry, physiognomy and phrenology, August Morel’s theory of degeneration, Charles
Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’, Francis Galton’s theory of eugenics and Fascist theories of Race Hygiene in
order to comprehend the docile body, degenerate body, hysterical body, Semitic body, racial body, eugenic
body and Nazi Body. It will conclude by examining the Human Genome Project, Stem Cell Research and
xenotransplantation in relation to the contemporary genetic body.