The body has gained a central importance among sociological subjects since the 1980's. Sociology deals with body by its sociocultural features and tries to emphasize the social sides of it. In this respect, the effects of religions, powers, ideologies, and lifestyles over body provide remarkable sociological data. In this article, it is discussed that how the body has been transformed by relying on the social mentality and understandings in historical period. In other words, it will be explored

more »

... how the body is approached by the general sensibilities in traditional, modern and postmodern societies and in relation to this, how the importance and status of body is changed during the historical processes. In the study, firstly, the approach of religion (in specific to Christianity), which mainly effected the social life in pre-modern or traditional life, on the body has been discussed. Religion, which recognized the body as the source of the sins, insults the physical pleasures and necessities, so body is given such a lower position. Religions, on the other hand, want to create their own power and show their existence over bodies by means of rituals, prohibitions and dressing formats. After modernization and secularization, the body is freed from the domination of religions and it gains a new status. Instead of being humiliated and recognized as the source of the sins; body alters to the source of acclaim, desire, and pleasure. However, the modern nation state becomes the new master of the body, which was freed from the control and supervision of religion, and it is targeted as the main subject of "bio politics". Lastly, in postmodern era or consumption culture, body in fact becomes a private property by coming to the forefront due to some dimensions such as body care, vanity, identity, and health. The understanding of body by postmodern culture is very different from both modern and traditional periods. In this postmodern culture, body becomes a subject of consumption, pleasure and vanity rather than being a subject of religion and state. STRUCTURED ABSTRACT The body has gained a central importance among sociological subjects since the 1980's. Sociology deals with body by its sociocultural features and tries to emphasize the social sides of it. In this respect, the effects of religions, powers, ideologies, and lifestyles over body provide remarkable sociological data. In this article, it is discussed that how the body has been transformed by relying on the social mentality and understandings in historical period. In other words, it will be explored how the body is approached by the general sensibilities in traditional, modern and postmodern societies and in relation to this, how the importance and status of body is changed during the historical processes. ANKARA/TURKEY, www.turkishstudies.net, DOI Number: http://dx.