人們對「健美」的定義和態度隨時空而改變。由此，醫療史學者重新思考健康與 疾病的界線，並檢討醫療傳統中的身體文化。本文從史語所「健與美的歷史研討 會」中的十三篇論文談起，並簡介最近有關醫療傳統中身體觀的研究，認為性別 分析的角度和醫療社會學者所提出的「醫療化」理論，對於歷史學者探討身體文 化的議題尤其有用。

　　　　　 The definitions of health and beauty and people's practices to enhance them vary in different societies. The awareness of this helps medical historians to reconsider the boundaries between health and illness and to evaluate body culture in different medical traditions. This article starts with the review on the thirteen papers presented in the "Symposium on the History of Health and Beauty" sponsored by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, and goes on to introduce recent publications on the study of body culture. It proposes that it is particularly useful for historians to apply the category of "gender" and the concept of "medicalization" in analyzing the issues concerning body culture in medical traditions.