Gesundheit und Bewegung bei den Maya, im christlichen Denken des frühen Mittelalters und im alten China – der Blick auf vormoderne Kulturen

The topic of health and physical activity is an important subject of research and teaching in sport scholarship. The present article focuses on the concepts of health and disease of the Mesoamerican Maya, Christians in the late antiquity and the early medieval period, and traditional Chinese medicine. This cultural-historical approach is based on the social history and particular living conditions which formed the Maya, the Christian and the Chinese people. Key sources include the holy book of the Maya, Popol Vuh, the Lorscher Arzneibuch, and the Chinese Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor. Although the concepts of health and physical activity differ greatly, they combined the same element: they always include a theory of life as a whole; they are always a contemporary construction based on the particular living conditions, thinking and belief; and they are always a means of stabilizing authority and social order.