Body of Law

Laws are cultural constructions, scholars say, varying across centuries and cultures. Still, some laws are universal across time and custom, such as those against murder.

Now, a team of psychologists is wondering whether the way that humans value body parts is just as universal.

“The Bible’s lex talionis – ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’ – has captured the human imagination for millennia,” the authors wrote in the Conversation, detailing their new study. “This idea of fairness has been a model for ensuring justice when bodily harm is inflicted.”

“Our new study explored a different possibility” they added, “that laws about bodily damage are rooted in something universal about human nature … shared intuitions about the value of body parts.”

The study found that people across different eras and societies instinctively agree upon the worth of body parts when it comes to legal and financial compensation.

The researchers said that principles of ensuring fairness when bodily harm is inflicted have existed for centuries, stemming back to ancient texts such as the Code of Hammurabi, which famously details “an eye for an eye,” embodying the principle of lex talionis, or retributive justice.

This idea is also found in Chinese culture during the Tang dynasty, the Enga people of Papua New Guinea, and many other civilizations, researchers said. The Anglo-Saxon word “weregild,” meaning “man price,” now designates the practice of paying for body parts.

The research team conducted their study with 614 people from the United States and India, none of whom had training in medicine or law. The participants read descriptions of body parts such as “one arm,” “the nose,” “one molar tooth,” and “one eye.”

The researchers chose these body parts because they were found in legal codes from five different cultures and periods. They used the Law of Æthelberht from Kent, England, circa 600 CE and the Guta lag from Gotland, Sweden, circa 1220 CE, and compared these two with worker compensation laws from the United States, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

The participants answered questions about the different body parts they were shown, such as how much compensation an employee should receive if that person lost the body part in an accident in the workplace, or how difficult it would be for them to function in daily life without that body part.

The team found that the values placed on body parts by laypeople and lawmakers were largely consistent through time and space. For example, people across cultures and centuries generally agree that the index finger is more valuable than the ring finger and that one eye is more valuable than one ear.

The researchers added that a person’s local environment and culture might create some differences in how they value body parts. For example, sight would be more important for someone who is a hunter than someone who is a shaman.

The team plans to do more research on these differences but has for now concluded that people such as the authors of the Guta lag, King Æthelberht, or Emirati – and American lawyers – have similar views on the importance of their body parts.