The ethology of mythical images in healthcare biotechnology: A methodological approach to uncovering ritualized behavior in the evolution of sickness and healing

Abstract

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).

What can we say about substance use? Dominant discourses and narratives emergent from Australian media

“…Exemplified in the following excerpt is the manifestation of the 'disease' of addiction and its explanatory power: His addiction to amphetamines or speed was so strong that Mr Marquet would sometimes inject himself while sitting in his Parliament House office after doing a drug deal at the West Perth building. (The West Australian, 24 April 2006) Within contemporary Western society, this discourse holds substantial 'truth' value since the empirical essence is consistent with the current episteme in which reason and rationality are given preference (Foucault 1970), and in which health can be conceptualised as analogous to deity (Fleising 2000). Hence, medical discourse pervasively frames both illicit and licit substances.…”

In search of genohype: A content analysis of biotechnology company documents

“…These authoritative documents are one way to trace the regimes of value of a commodity from bench to bedside. The annual report is a narrative form that animates the social life of medicines; advertisements are another such form (see Fleising, 2000). The annual report is a 'story' about the sacri ces offered in the form of capital investment to produce medical products.…”

Comprendre et gérer la peur existentielle

“…Nous reprenons ici l'expression d 'Hallowell, « other than human person » (1976 : 405), pour signifier qu'aux yeux des Dene Tha et autres peuples amérindiens, ces animaux rencontrés dans les forêts ou dans les rêves sont supérieurs aux humains par leur intelligence, autonomie, savoir-faire, et pouvoir. Au sujet du lien ambigu que tout au cours de leur évolution les humains entretiennent avec les animaux, voir Mundkur (1988) et Fleising (2000.…”