Anatomy: If you are doing a handstand, your head is _____ to your neck.

If you are doing a handstand, is your head considered superior or inferior to your neck?

In a normal, upright position, the head is superior to the neck.

If you're using the definition of superior as "toward the head end or upper part of a structure," I would think that the head is ALWAYS superior to the neck no matter what position the body happens to be in.

Am I wrong? If you flip the body upside down, would you then consider the head to be inferior to the neck?

The various anatomical terms for locations and directions usually refer to the so-called "anatomical position". This position is: standing with head and palms facing forward. By always using this as the reference position, one never has to describe the body's position or the configuration of arms, hands, legs, etc. So superior/inferior, anterior. posterior/ medial/lateral, proximal/distal always mean the same whatever the position.

These terms are not really meant for everyday usage, such as when standing on your head. They are standards that make possible the unambiguous identification of body parts. For example, if you had a cancer spot that needed to be removed from the lateral side of your left hand, the surgeon would not have to wonder about the position of your hand in order to find the spot.

So technically, in terms of anatomy, body position is ignored, and the head is always superior to the neck.

Anatomical terms are always in reference to the anatomical position, so no matter how you're facing, the head is always superior to the neck. The correct definition of "superior" is "above, when in the anatomical position." For a human, cranial equals superior. For a quadruped, like a dog, superior equals dorsal, since the dog's anatomical position is different.

The terms always have to be interpreted in reference to the organism you're talking about and always in reference to their anatomical position, not the position they happen to be in at any given time.