Basics of Quantum Electrodynamics

teractions with the world. It is through our bodies that we undertake our daily activities, pursue our goals, and interact with each other. However, the body is not a mere vessel that houses the true self, but is constitutive of that self. Our physical bodies are crucial to how we see ourselves and how others see us. They are fundamental to our identities, where our bodies serve as a locus for classification and separation, but also for inclusion and kinship. How do people identify each other? What features are unique to each person? And how does the biological body shape a person’s social body and vice versa? Rebecca Gowland and Tim Thompson explore these and other questions as they discuss the many features that constitute people’s biological and social identities and how these features are used in identification. In the opening chapter, Gowland and Thompson set out to merge the literature concerning the physical identifiers of the body with scholarship that examines how the social environment shapes the biological body. They give an overview of the history of human identification and disciplines that rely on identifying the physical body, such as forensics and archaeology, and touch upon some early examples of the intersections between social thought and the body. The second chapter discusses various social categories, including gender, age, race, and socioeconomic status, and their relationship to the body. These categories reflect ideas of sameness and difference but have fluid, overlapping boundaries that intersect with each other at political, biological, and personal levels. The subsequent chapters divide the body into various systems, working their way from the visible outer layer to the inner molecular mechanisms. Each of these chapters discusses the physiological features of the systems, giving general overviews of some of their functions and mechanisms. They then delve into how various components of these systems have been used for identification purposes, explaining the features that are unique to each person. They examine the ways in which the social categories introduced in Chapter 2 shape the physical body and vice versa, affecting how we see and interpret ourselves as well as each other. This book aims to move the field of human identification sciences toward a more holistic and nuanced perspective by incorporating social dimensions of identity and their effects on the body and the person into anatomical and physiological discussions of human identification. In this attempt, the authors are largely successful, merging disciplines that have distinct perspectives. However, because their scope is so large, they do not delve into either the physiological or social dimensions of identity and identification in great detail, giving instead general overviews. Thus, those already familiar with either area may wish for more specificity and detail but will find novel perspectives and additional points to consider in the less familiar areas. The book is quite readable even for those unfamiliar with any of the areas and can serve as a helpful introductory text.