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The body politic is a polity —such as a city, realm, or state —considered metaphorically as a physical body. Historically, the sovereign is typically portrayed as the body's head, and the analogy may also be extended to other anatomical parts, as in political readings of Aesop 's fable of "The Belly and the Members".
Body politic is a metaphor for a state, society, or church and its institutions as a biological body. Learn how this metaphor originated in ancient Greece and Rome, evolved in Christianity, and influenced political theory and practice.
Jul 5, 2024 · Body politic is a term that refers to the human body as a subject of social, political, and cultural struggles and practices. It can also mean the visual representation of the body in media and communication. Learn more about its meanings and related concepts in Oxford Reference.
Body politics refers to the practices and policies through which powers of society regulate the human body, as well as the struggle over the degree of individual and social control of the body. Learn about the history and examples of body politics in feminism, racism, and cross-cultural perspectives.
The body is the base of the body politic.1 We have seen multiple examples of human bodies as the forum for political debate. Not just the dead body as evidence - corpses laid out to bear witness against the Assad
If the body politic, whereby the nature and composition of the civil state is described analogically in terms of the human body, was not a dead metaphor by the early seventeenth century, it was at best in critical condition. It suffered from chronic overexposure before.
Charles W. Mills critiques the liberal conception of the state and the body politic as abstract and raceless, and argues for a materialist critique of race and the social contract. He explores how race and the body shape the anatomy and functions of the body politic, and how the state controls and protects differentiated bodies.
