The body-mind relationship and the perception of these relationships are important for defining humanity in all cultural contexts. Issues related to the body have been a major theme not only in the history of European civilization but also in many other cultures documented in ethnographic archives. This book covers a part of this intercultural archive using an approach that was developed in the 1980s within the field of medical anthropology, the approach of the "thinking body". Through the study of material from Europe and Melanesia, Andrew J. Strathern shows that on one hand, the depiction of the biocosm of other cultures has been influenced by European categories, while on the other hand, there are indeed similarities, such as between ancient Greek medical theories of "bodily humors" and the corresponding contemporary perceptions of the cultures of New Guinea. Additionally, other issues related to the body are explored, such as health, illness, possession, and healing; the concept of embodiment and its use in contemporary anthropological theory; and the understanding of spirituality as a form of historical consciousness.