Biology Unmoored is an engaging examination of what it means to live in a world that is not structured in terms of biological thinking. Drawing upon three years of ethnographic research in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, Sandra Bamford describes a world in which physiological reproduction is not perceived to ground human kinship or human beings' relationship to the organic world. Bamford also exposes the ways in which Western ideas about relatedness do depend on a notion of physiological reproduction. Her innovative analysis includes a discussion of the advent of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), the mapping of the human genome, cloning, the commodification of biodiversity, and the manufacture and sale of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Author(s): Sandra Bamford
Edition: 1
Publisher: University of California Press
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 246
Contents......Page 8
List of Illustrations......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Introduction: Conceptual Frameworks......Page 16
1. Cultural Landscapes......Page 35
2. Insubstantial Identities......Page 61
3. Embodiments of Detachment......Page 95
4. (Im)Mortal Undertakings......Page 132
5. Conceiving Global Identities......Page 165
Conclusion: Conceptual Displacements......Page 184
Notes......Page 194
References......Page 206
Index......Page 234
