A symbology of power is assigned to DNA and genetics both in the media and in scienti c publications. The term 'genohype' was offered by Holtzman (Are genetic tests adequately regulated? Science, 286 (4539), pp. 409-410, 1999) to characterize the discourse of exaggerated claims and hyperbole attached to DNA and the effort to map the human genome. In this paper, I examine the relationship between language and ideology in a systematic search for 'genohype' in biotechnology industry investor handbooks and annual reports. Three forms for 'genohype' are identi ed and one of these-'possessing nature'-is isolated as involving the making of medicine. Using the NVivo software, a search of nance-related and health-related keywords showed that 'genohype' is basically not present in this investor material. The results are interpreted as re ecting the separate domains of nancial capital and intellectual capital that are the ideological theatres for the production of medical commodities.An example of the relationship between symbols and political economy is the identi cation of the attribute of 'genohype' that has been attached to DNAbased medicine and the biotechnology business. A symbology of power is assigned to DNA and genetics both in the media and in scienti c publications, where it is said that molecular and DNA-based medicine is how allopathic medicine will confront cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, genetic diseases and most other challenges to the body, including baldness, obesity and certain mental health problems (Time
Advancements in biotechnology provoke fundamental questions about the relationship of humans to the natural world. A crisis arises as the knowledge, practice, and policies concerning biotechnology grow further out of step with each other. This paper examines the role of ritual performance as a means of resolving this crisis, uniting the organic with the socio-moral aspects of science, technology and regulatory policy. Ritual performance is evident in the public discussions of the United States' Secretary's Advisory Committee on Xenotransplantation (SACX). In an attempt to understand the cultural responses to new knowledge, this paper examines the transcripts of several SACX meetings for its ritual elements and references to authority. We find that time is used by scientists to structure ritual performance in a way that guides public policy and attitudes toward xenotransplantation.
Drawing on biblical and mythical imagery employed in the marketing and advocacy of healthcare biotechnology, this study is a methodological exercise in combining the diachronic methods of ethology and of symbolic structural anthropology. A medical anthropology of emotions is described as a fourth body, an evolutionary body and an addition to the individual, social, and political bodies described by Schepher-Hughes and Lock. This leads to an investigation of Fabrega' s sickness and healing adaptation model which assumes a neurobiological substrate for responses to disease and injury. Images used in healthcare biotechnology demonstrate formal and contextual features which show homologous development cross-culturally. This suggests the presence of phylogenetically developed social conventions for sickness and healing adaptations. At least for the healer/caregivers, these conventions are about the ritualized expression of ambivalent approach/avoidance tendencies. These signals may be interpreted as both a visualization of the liminal status of genetic technology and the unconscious sharing of psychic processes involved in sickness and healing adaptations.Nancy Schepher-Hughes and Margaret Lock (1987) organize the anthropology of the body into three analytic categories: the individual body, the social body, and the political body. The individual body is problematized as belonging with phenomenological inquiry where the body is`experience near' . At a second level they identify the social body where symbolic, structural, and social anthropology have¯ourished in constructing relationships between nature, culture, and society. The third bodyÐ the body politicÐ is about power and control, and the investigations of the body as an artifact to be used for purposes of social regulation and discipline. To integrate these levels of analysis, the authors suggest that emotion is the ª mediatrix of the three bodiesº (p. 28).
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