"This ground-breaking, taboo-exploring book might just make you re-think your relationship to bodily fluids."
“It sweats and spits. It poos and pees. It bleeds and squirts. The human body is like a leaky sieve. And this fluidity is essential to our lives and the health of our bodies… So why do we have such a difficult relationship with our bodily fluids? And has that always been the case?” Such are the big questions at the heart of Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Thoroughly fascinating and engagingly written, here Ruben E. Verwaal presents an illuminating “overview of histories of all fluids that leak, flow or are ejected from the human body” through a fluid-by-fluid work that explores why bodily fluids are considered taboo, why we find them acceptable in some places and not in others, and why we have such an uneasy relationship with them.
Featuring historic documents, illustrations and photographs, and covering sweat, saliva, earwax, blood, menstrual blood, pus, urine, semen, milk and tears, the book is framed in an anthropological context — in anthropology, bodily fluids falls into a “matter out of place” category, a concept that refers to matter that falls outside the man-made boundaries and rules of culture, as first posited by Mary Douglas in her seminal book, Purity and Danger. Also investigating whether humans have always had a problem with bodily fluids through taking a look at the histories and longstanding symbolism around each fluid, Blood, Sweat and Tears is a must-read for readers who are into medical history, cultural history and anthropological topics.
The human body leaks. It oozes. It sweats and spits. It bursts, it bleeds and it squirts. Over the history of humanity, our bodies have evolved into sophisticated vessels for survival, leaving a long trail of fluids in our wake.
Whether we're coughing it up or swallowing it down, our bodily fluids are essential to our life and health. Yet, in the past couple of centuries, we have developed a difficult relationship with these fluids: today we find pus, poo and vomit unhygienic and even repellent. But this has not always been the case.
In Blood, Sweat and Tears, Ruben Verwaal embarks on a deep dive into the story of our bodily fluids, the changing perceptions around them and the practical uses that have trickled down through the generations. Whether it's bile or breastmilk, semen or snot, Verwaal examines how each one of our bodily fluids is dripping with symbolism, mythology and its own rich cultural history.
So the next time you have a runny nose, waxy ears, or sweat through your clothes, remember it wasn't always as gross as you think.
Blood, Sweat and Tears features in the following genres: Health & Fitness, History, Popular medicine and health: the human body, Health, illness and addiction: social aspects, History: plagues, diseases, famines, Human biology, Human figures depicted in art, The Arts, The Arts: treatments and subjects, Human figures depicted in art, Society and Social Sciences, Society and culture: general, Social and ethical issues, Health, illness and addiction: social aspects, History and Archaeology, History: specific events and topics, History: plagues, diseases, famines, Mathematics and Science, Biology, life sciences, Human biology, Family and health, Popular medicine and health, Popular medicine and health: the human body
Blood, Sweat and Tears is available in Hardback
Blood, Sweat and Tears was written by Ruben E. Verwaal and published by August Books an imprint of Canelo
Blood, Sweat and Tears has 304 pages
£17.09
