Varieties of bodily experience Introduction Mary Douglas (Natural Symbols, 1970) described the human body as a microcosm of society. This is not a new idea, the word "microcosm" being derived from the Ancient Greek mikro-kosmos meaning "little world", a term first used by Plato (Schweitzer, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992). Plato wrote of the body as a mikro-kosmos, its substance representing the form of the makro-kosmos, or "big world", or the universe. Douglas, however, writes that "the physical …showed first 75 words of 1334 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1334 total…I believe that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ reveals a great deal about the relationship between body experience and violence. Conclusion What, then, do bodies in Britain today reveal about our society? I believe they reveal a society in huge tension. Though superficially British society appears informal and egalitarian it still exerts upon individuals a huge amount of pressure to perform and to conform. This is a pressure still largely experience by women.