This volume gathers the papers presented during an interdisciplinary research seminar entitled "The individual and his body in the Ancient Mediterranean Basin." This seminar was at the crossroads of history of religions and social anthropology, creating a dialogue between philologists, archaeologists, historians of religions and anthropologists. Its main aim consisted in studying self-perceptions of the body in the Ancient Near East, with incursions in other parts of the Mediterranean Basin in a comparatist perspective. In this volume, various themes are examined, such as: 1) the relationship between the body and language; 2) the body, perceptions and society, including a study of the senses as they are described in the texts; 3) the body as a symbol of social belonging; 4) the body as a medium for religious experience.