RELIGION AND THE BODY AN OVERVIEW OF THE INSERTIONS OF RELIGION IN THE EMPIRICAL PSYCHO-SOCIAL RESEARCH LINES ON THE BODY

The personal approaches, experiences and modifications of the human body represent topics that have catalyzed empirical research efforts of representatives of all social sciences. Accordingly, any research endeavour should adopt an inter-disciplinary and integrative perspective on the topic, which would benefit from the integration of the empirical results of the psycho-social studies in this area. We present an overview of the insertions of the religion topic in the empirical psycho-social approaches on the body, at various levels: body image, body satisfaction, body-related behaviours, body modifications and organ donation. In each case, the research context, the main research findings and their explanations are presented, as well as their connections (sometimes contradictory) to the theoretically-driven assumptions in Sociology and Anthropology on the same particular issues. Most of the psycho-social research revealed positive effects of religiosity on one's relationship to his or her body, ranging from the emotional to the health, behavioural or social sphere. Nevertheless, associations of religiosity to negative aspects have also been pointed out.