Anatomophilia The Liberation of the Body

Reimagines the human body as a site of theory, relational care, ethics, and political knowledge rather than an inert object to be regulated, corrected, or erased. Drawing from South Asian, Indigenous, feminist, and queer philosophies of Kali’s body, at once beautiful and abominable, wounded and regenerative, violated and resistant, Anatomophilia develops the theory of anatomophilia as a radical love and reverence for diverse anatomies. Moving across medical education and clinical encounters, embodied histories of migration, dance and performance, protest in the streets, visual art, and everyday bodily rituals, Devaleena Das argues that Global South bodies do not merely illustrate theory; they think, resist, and generate knowledge through touch, affect, grief, and resilience. Challenging disembodied and technocratic models of justice and care, she offers an ethically demanding framework for teaching, learning, and practicing medicine and care differently. Essential reading for scholars in health humanities and social sciences, clinicians, and students of feminist, queer, and justice studies, Anatomophilia speaks to urgent questions about embodiment, care, and what it means to live and love through the body.