1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811350303321

Autore

Bamford Sandra C. <1962->

Titolo

Biology unmoored : Melanesian reflections on life and biotechnology / / Sandra Bamford

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley : , : University of California Press, , 2007

©2007

ISBN

1-282-35837-5

9786612358371

0-520-93947-6

1-4337-0138-3

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 230 pages) : illustrations, maps

Disciplina

305.89/912

Soggetti

Hamtai (Papua New Guinean people) - Ethnobiology

Hamtai (Papua New Guinean people) - Agriculture

Hamtai (Papua New Guinean people) - Psychology

Human body - Social aspects - Papua New Guinea - Gulf Province

Indigenous peoples - Ecology - Papua New Guinea - Gulf Province

Ethnobiology - Papua New Guinea - Gulf Province

Biotechnology

Genetic engineering

Gulf Province (Papua New Guinea) Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-218) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: conceptual frameworks -- Cultural landscapes -- Insubstantial identities -- Embodiments of detachment -- (Im) mortal undertakings -- Conceiving global identities -- Conclusion: conceptual displacements.

Sommario/riassunto

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).