Conceptual myths - the common human body

Quoting from (a very interesting author) C. Tilley ("Phenomenological Archaeology"),
in Colin Renfrew's and Paul Bahn's (very useful) book:
Archaeology. The Key Concepts
London, Routledge, 2005, p. 203:

"The human body itself (...) provides a starting point for knowledge of the world, and all modern human beings (Homo sapiens sapiens) have the same kinds of bodies and perceive and experience the world in similar ways at a basic biological level. This is what links past and present, me and you, us and the people who constructed the ancient monuments or made a pot."

Although, the same author adds a very important point: that an essentialist "notion of a universal human body" would be meaningless.

I agree with this last and useful precaution. In fact, to universalize the "body" as a "basic biological level" would be one of our latest myths in archaeology, anthropology, or whatever.

When Maurice Leenhardt (beginnings of the XXth century) asked Boesoou (New Caledonia) what the Europeans had given to the local people, expecting as an answer "the spirit" or something of that kind (Leenhardt was a missionary and an anthropologist), his surprise was great when that answer was: "You have brought us the body." (See S. Breton et all, "Qu' Est Ce Qu'un Corps?" catalogue of the exhibition now open in the Museum of Quai Branly, Paris, 2007, p.13).
Now, shall we impinge "the body" on the prehistoric people? They can not answer except through our own precaution.