Epochs of embodiment: men, women and the material body

Using middling-sort letters dating from 1726 to 1827, this article explores individuals' physical, affective, mental and spiritual experiences and their understanding of the relationship between mind, body and self. The everyday and metaphorical language used in these letters gives the historian arguably more authentic evidence about the complexity of embodiment – a person's perception or experience of the body – than do works of medicine or philosophy. Gender was not found to be a principal factor in determining individuals' sense of embodiment; instead, correspondents' relationship, religion and life stage were key to how they discussed their experience of the body.