A History of the Foot

An episode of the Gresham College Lectures podcast, hosted by Gresham College, titled "A History of the Foot" was published on May 14, 2020 and runs 36 minutes.

May 14, 2020 ·36m · Gresham College Lectures

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Summary

The science of feet and footprints has a long, yet often forgotten, history. In this lecture, I look at what people from the late eighteenth century to the present thought they knew about toes, arches, heels, and ankles. What makes a beautiful foot? How have ideas of foot-beauty changed over time? Size, shape, colour, smell, and even taste have been important markers in the literature, science, and sociology of feet. A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 May The transcript and downloadable versio...

Episode Description

The science of feet and footprints has a long, yet often forgotten, history.

In this lecture, I look at what people from the late eighteenth century to the present thought they knew about toes, arches, heels, and ankles. What makes a beautiful foot? How have ideas of foot-beauty changed over time? Size, shape, colour, smell, and even taste have been important markers in the literature, science, and sociology of feet.

A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 May

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-foot

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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