The introduction poses the central questions that run through the book, namely why nation-states are willing to expend such enormous amounts of financial and human resources to secure minuscule pieces of land, and why so many ordinary citizens are ready to sacrifice their lives for said pieces of land. Answers to these questions have so far tended to be addressed through rationality and security, with a predominant focus on migration and economics. Yet the examples provided suggest that these events are driven by emotions rather than rational calculations. Somatic States foregrounds the corporeal analogies that sustain these bordering efforts and suggests that this language is not simply poetic but that it reflects a genuine association of the individual body with the national outline, and that this identification has been greatly facilitated by the emergence of the national map.