The Bible’s lex talionis, “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Exodus 21:24), has captured the human imagination for millennia. This idea served as a model for ensuring justice when bodily harm was inflicted. But where did such laws originate? A recent study by Yunsuh Nike Wee, Daniel Sznycer and Jaimie Arona Krem sheds light on this question, revealing links between laws about bodily damage and shared intuitions about the value of body parts.