Body Maps

Overview & Synopsis

A historical and cultural study of how representing invisible anatomical structures has reshaped our understanding of human anatomy.In Body Maps, Lan A. Li unveils a rich history of the hidden landscapes of the human body. This compelling study explores the world of "invisible" anatomy, explaining how hand-drawn body maps have shaped our understanding of the human form across cultures and centuries. From the meridian charts in East Asian medicine to neurophysiological illustrations, Body Maps traces the evolution of anatomical representation from the tenth to the twentieth centuries. Drawing on case studies across time and place, from Kaifeng to Dejima and from Beijing to Berlin, Li expertly navigates the complex interplay between Eastern and Western medical traditions. At the heart of this history remains a perennial mystery: How did representations of jingluo (meridians) become intertwined with—and sometimes subsumed by—concepts of nervous anatomy? By examining the graphic history of these invisible structures, Body Maps challenges our assumptions about the stability of medical knowledge and invites us to reconsider the nature of anatomical "reality." Each chapter opens with a single image and explores how practitioners negotiated between materiality and metaphor, with the nature of the body and the symbols used to represent it. Body Maps is a thought-provoking exploration of how images shape our understanding of the world. By bringing together insights from the history of science, postcolonial studies, art history, Chinese studies, critical cartography, and medical anthropology, Li offers a fresh perspective on the cultures of objectivity that have defined our approach to the human body.