Human body  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Robert Fludd

The Flayed Angel[1], anatomical drawing (1746) from Myologie complete en couleur et grandeur naturelle, by Jacques Gautier d'Agoty

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See Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the grotesque body and notes on an embodied philosophy.

With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual, and contrasts with soul, personality and behavior. In some contexts, a superficial element of a body, such as hair may be regarded as not a part of it, even while attached. The same is true of excretable substances, such as stool, both while residing in the body and afterwards. Plants composed of more than one cell are not normally regarded as possessing a body.

"Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death. The body of a dead person is also called a corpse, for humans, or cadaver. The dead bodies of vertebrate animals and insects are sometimes called carcasses.

The study of the structure of the body is called anatomy. The study of the workings of the body is physiology.

The human body consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.

A body is also a held-together collection or group of physical objects or abstract ideas and, in particular, an organisation of such. The whole is more than the simple sum of the individual members, because the whole contains, in addition, information about the relationships among the elements of the whole. The body of evidence is a phrase which defines the sum total of all knowledge or evidence of some thing.

Body Ecology focuses on the interactions among animals and various microbes living inside them.

There are 206 different bones in the human body, and over 600 muscles.

Reproductive system

Reproductive system

Human reproduction takes place as internal fertilization by sexual intercourse. During this process, the erect penis of the male is inserted into the female's vagina until the male ejaculates semen, which contains sperm, into the female's vagina. The sperm then travels through the vagina and cervix into the uterus or fallopian tubes for fertilization of the ovum.

The human male reproductive system is a series of organs located outside the body and around the pelvic region of a male that contribute towards the reproductive process. The primary direct function of the male reproductive system is to provide the male gamete or spermatozoa for fertilization of the ovum.

The major reproductive organs of the male can be grouped into three categories. The first category is sperm production and storage. Production takes place in the testes which are housed in the temperature regulating scrotum, immature sperm then travel to the epididymis for development and storage. The second category are the ejaculatory fluid producing glands which include the seminal vesicles, prostate, and the vas deferens. The final category are those used for copulation, and deposition of the spermatozoa (sperm) within the female, these include the penis, urethra, vas deferens and Cowper's gland.

The human female reproductive system is a series of organs primarily located inside of the body and around the pelvic region of a female that contribute towards the reproductive process. The human female reproductive system contains three main parts: the vagina, which acts as the receptacle for the male's sperm, the uterus, which holds the developing fetus, and the ovaries, which produce the female's ova. The breasts are also an important reproductive organ during the parenting stage of reproduction.

The vagina meets the outside at the vulva, which also includes the labia, clitoris and urethra; during intercourse this area is lubricated by mucus secreted by the Bartholin's glands. The vagina is attached to the uterus through the cervix, while the uterus is attached to the ovaries via the fallopian tubes. At certain intervals, typically approximately every 28 days, the ovaries release an ovum, which passes through the fallopian tube into the uterus. The lining of the uterus, called the endometrium, and unfertilized ova are shed each cycle through a process known as menstruation.

See also

• Anatomy
• Bodily function
• Body parts
• Body politics
• Body genres
• Disease
• Embodied philosophy
• Grotesque body
• Human beauty
• Health
• Orifice
• Somatopia
• Ugliness