An Anthropology of Biomedicine - M. Lock, V. Nguyen (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) WW

521 Pages·2010·2.21 MB·English

An Anthropology
of Biomedicine

Margaret Lock and Vinh-Kim Nguyen

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

An Anthropology
of Biomedicine

An Anthropology
of Biomedicine

Margaret Lock and Vinh-Kim Nguyen

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

This edition fi rst published 2010
© 2010 Margaret Lock and Vinh-Kim Nguyen

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The right of Margaret Lock and Vinh-Kim Nguyen to be identifi ed as the authors of this work has
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lock, Margaret.
An anthropology of biomedicine / by Margaret Lock and Vinh-Kim Nguyen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-1072-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-1071-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Medical anthropology. 2. Public health–Anthropological aspects. 3. Human body–Social aspects.
I. Nguyen, Vinh-Kim. II. Title.
GN296.L63 2010
306.4′61–dc22
2009040192

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Set in 10/12.5 pt Galliard by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
Printed in Singapore

01 2010

To Richard and Frank

Contents

Acknowledgments
xii

Introduction
1
Improving Global Health: The Challenge
3
Biomedicine as Technology
4
Does Culture Exist?
6
A Word about Ethnography
9
Outline of Chapters
11

Part I: Technologies and Bodies in Context
15

1 Biomedical Technologies in Practice
17
Technological Mastery of the Natural World and Human Development
19
Technology and Boundary Crossings
20
Biomedicine as Technology: Some Implications
22
Technologies of Bodily Governance
24
Technologies of the Self
27
The Power of Biological Reductionism
29
Techno/Biologicals
30

2 The Normal Body
32
Cholera in the 19th Century
33
Representing the Natural Order
35
Truth to Nature
35
The Natural Body
37
A Numerical Approach
38
Other Natures
39
Interpreting the Body
42
How Normal Became Possible
43
When Normal Does Not Exist
46
Problems with Assessing Normal
47