Extraordinary Bodies on Display

This volume explores the collection and display of human, animal, and cryptid bodies from antiquity to the present. An increasing amount of attention has been paid to impairment and disability in classical antiquity in recent years. However, one aspect of the subject that has not received significant attention, despite recent developments in the study of ancient paradoxography and ancient collections, collectors, and collecting, is the public display of impaired and disabled people. The same applies to other different, perhaps even extraordinary (in all senses of the word), bodies. Whether those bodies were human, animal, or cryptid, when scholars have acknowledged this phenomenon, the focus has been placed squarely on those individuals responsible for the displaying. What is less often considered is how the extraordinary individuals and creatures themselves felt about being displayed. This volume, in its coverage of bodily display from antiquity through the contemporary world, seeks to explore the lived experience of impairment and disability, and provide a fresh perspective on a range of related issues. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars working on ancient disability, collecting and the history of science and medicine from the disciplines of classics, history and archaeology, as well as museum professionals, and medical professionals who work with medical collections.

Jane Draycott is a Roman historian and archaeologist who investigates science, technology, and medicine in the ancient world, and is particularly interested in the history and archaeology of medicine; impairment, disability, and prostheses; and botany and horticulture. Recently, she has begun exploring the use (and abuse) of history and archaeology in video games, particularly those set in classical antiquity.

Extraordinary Bodies on Display: Humans, Animals, and Cryptids from Antiquity to the Present - Jane Draycott; Part One: Display of the Self; 1. 'The sort of man you all see me to be': Visible Disability and Citizenship in Classical Athens - Jasmine Sahu-Hough; 2. Bodily Display as a Form of Commemoration: The Case of Myropnous the Dwarf Flute-Player - Jane Draycott; 3. Displaying, Hiding: Narratives and Images of Sarcoma - Natalia Fernández Díaz-Cabal; 4. 5. Baby Monsters and Centaur Families: Humanizing Mythic Creatures and Other Extraordinary Beings - Adrienne Mayor; 6. s - Dan Mills; 7. Bodily Display in the Context of the Banquet - Anastasia Meintani; 8. Visual Arts and British Imperialism in India - Shreya Sharma; 9. Taxidermy for Education: Taxidermized Animals in Chilean School Cabinets during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Carolina Valenzuela Matus; 10. Medical Bodies on Display: the History and Context of Human Remains in Medical Museums - Cornelia Thompson; 11. Pathological Bodies: Visitor attitudes towards the display of historical potted specimens at a British medical museum - Aoife Sutton-Butler, Karina Croucher and Monica Ann Walker; 12. Displaying the Dead in the Shadow of Vesuvius - Virginia L. Campbell; 13. Divinity turned Deviance: Displaying the Displaced Ancient Egyptian Dead - Campbell Price.