Beauty around the world

Taking the concept of beauty seriously, this encyclopedia examines how humanity has sought and continues to seek what is "beautiful" in a variety of cultural contexts, giving readers an understanding of how to look at beauty both intellectually and critically. * Provides an interdisciplinary approach to world beauty practices, from the earliest experiments in plastic surgery in 600 B.C. to contemporary practices * Gives readers a representative overview of beauty practices around the globe * Documents how from cosmetics to clothing, exercise to body modification, being beautiful is a goal worldwide * Identifies numerous authoritative sources of information for further research and reading.