culture" itself. The word and concept of "body culture" – alternative practice The word "body culture" appeared for first time around 1900, but at that time signifying a certain form of physical practice. The so-called "life reform" (German Lebensreform) aimed at the reform of clothing and of nurture and favoured new bodily activities, which constituted a new sector side by side with established gymnastics and sport. The main fields of this third sector of movement culture were nudism, rhythmic-expressive gymnastics, yoga and body building (Wedemeyer-Kolwe 2004) as well as a new type of youth wandering. Though highly diverse, they found a comprehensive term in the German word Körperkultur, in English physical culture (→physical education), in French culture physique, and in Danish kropskultur. Inspirations from the movement of body culture gave birth to early studies in the history of bodily positions and movements (Gaulhofer 1930; Marcel Mauss 1934). In German Socialist workers' sport, the concept of Körperkultur had a prominent place. The concept also entered into Russian Socialism where fiskultura became an alternative to bourgeois sport, uniting the revolutionary fractions of more aesthetical Proletkult and more health-oriented "hygienism" (Riordan 1977). Later, Stalinism forced the contradictory terms under the formula "sport and body culture". This continued in the Soviet bloc after 1945. When the 1968 student movement revived Marxism, the concept of body culture – Körperkultur in West Germany, "somatic culture" in America – re-entered into the sports-critical discourse, but received new analytical dimensions. Quel corps? (Which body?) was the title of a critical review of sports, edited by the French Marxist educationalist Jean-Marie Brohm in 1975-1997. In Germany, a series of books under the title Sport: Kultur, Veränderung (Sport: culture, change) marked the body cultural turn from 1981, with works of Rigauer, Elias, Eichberg and others. Body culture studies – a new critical school In Denmark, a particular school of Body Culture Studies – kropskultur – developed since around 1980 in connection with the critique of sport (Korsgaard 1982; Eichberg 1998; Vestergård 2003; Nielsen 1993 and 2005). It had its background in Danish popular gymnastics and in alternative movement practices – outdoor activities, play and game, dance, meditation. In Finland, the concept ruumiinkulttuuri found a similar attention (Sironen 1995; Sparkes/ Silvennoinen 1999). In international cooperation, "body anthropology" became the keyword for French, Danish and German philosophers, sociologists and educationalists who founded the Institut International d'Anthropologie Corporelle (IIAC) in 1987. They undertook