1.Introduction29Classical Foundations[微笑]This approach to the body as a multi-dimensional medium for the constitution of society is developed in different ways, and through different terminologies, in the writings of Durkheim, Simmel and Marx. As I focus on them in this study, Marx is predominantly concerned with the structural properties of economic (including material/technological) factors, Durkheim with the structural characteristics of culture (including ritual and symbolic phenomena), and Simmel with the structural elements of society he refers to as ‘social forms’ (which pattern interaction). Nevertheless, it remains the case that each theorist views the body as a source of, a location for and a means by which individuals are emotionally and physically positioned within and oriented towards society. The notions of source, location and means are thus ‘umbrella’ terms, referring to a range of closely related concepts, but their general meaning and relational status are clear: they refer respectively to the generative properties of the body, to the social receptivity of the body, and to the body’s centrality to the outcomes of interaction between (groups of) embodied individuals and the structural features of society.