Preface
Beauty is one of ­those notoriously difficult concepts to try to squeeze into mere
words: we know it when we see it. Usually, beauty can elicit a response inside us,
that we are preconditioned to seek or desire. We need beauty to live ­something
because it draws us in, engages us, and touches our ­human experiences with
awe and plea­sure. It inspires us, gives us a sense of aspiration, taking us outside of
ourselves and motivating us. According to some, beauty is essential to life and to
happiness.
This text takes an interdisciplinary approach to the field of beauty studies. We
try to provide historical and cultural context to the biological notion of “beauty.”
The prior research of the authors represents forays into thinking about beauty and
bodies from the perspectives of the social sciences and the humanities. We are a
cultural anthropologist with research experiences in both East and West Africa (Erin)
and a cultural studies scholar specializing in cultures of Latin Amer­ i ­ ca (Elizabeth).
We’ve both taught extensively on the topic of beauty and bodies in introductory
classes to undergraduate students, where many of ­these entries ­ were born.
We also both identify as feminist scholars. As such, we bring a critical lens to
the ways that certain “natu­ral” ideas about beauty have been socially constructed
within patriarchal systems and the ways that ­ these ideas have circulated through-
out the postcolonial world. Using an intersectional framework, we are acutely aware
of the ways that ­ these notions may disproportionately affect ­ women and ­ people of
color. We tried in this text to be very sensitive about issues of repre­sen­ ta ­ tion: we
acknowledge and wish to never reproduce the symbolic vio­lences done to margin-
alized ­ peoples.
In this volume, ­ we’ve listed 166 alphabetical entries that deal with some aspect
of “beauty,” understood as the aesthetic plea­sure of visual appearance.
Of course, we found it difficult to be truly exhaustive in each entry, especially in
the historical sense of chronicling all beauty patterns throughout time and space.
In general, when a category is topped with the name of a nation, country, or tribal
group, we have tried to provide the most vivid, iconic, or best-­known version of
that term or location.
This book ­will be most useful as a starting point for ­ others looking for further
reading or preparing for more serious interrogation into the issues of beauty. Each
entry contains suggestions for additional sources that can be consulted. Readers
should also be aware of the extensive bibliography of materials culled from books,
popu­lar magazines, scholarly articles, and the Internet, including several sources
that we have translated ourselves from Spanish and French.
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