The human body defines a lucrative site of reusable parts, ranging from whole organs to minuscule and even microscopic tissues. Although the medical practices that enable the transfer of parts from one body to another most certainly relieve suffering and extend lives, they have also irrevocably altered perceptions of the cultural values assigned to the body. In Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies, Lesley A. Sharp probes the ideological assumptions underlying the transfer of body parts, the social significance of donors' deaths, and the medico-scientific desires surrounding complex forms of body repair. She also considers the experimental realm, in which nonhuman species and artificial devices present further opportunities for recovery and controversy. A compelling scientific investigation and social critique, Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies explores the pervasive, and at times pernicious, practices shaping American biomedicine in the twenty-first century.
This fascinating study, grounded in vivid depictions of local life, relates to larger questions about the postcolonial exercise of political and economic power, when ostensibly sovereign states such as Madagascar are so profoundly controlled by international organizations unattached to any particular state. Sharp asks how young people in these radically changing circumstances are taught and teach themselves to understand their past, present and future."--Gillian Feeley-Harnik, author of A Green Estate "Sharp's work is in the best tradition of classic anthropology, extending the critiques of Fanon, Mannoni, Memmi, and Freire by examining the effects of the socialist revolution, the birth of Malagasy nationalism, and the imposition of a postcolonial pedagogy on the minds of the 'sacrificed generation.' Her detailed ethnography is superb."--Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of Death without Weeping
The human body defines a lucrative site of reusable parts, ranging from whole organs to minuscule and even microscopic tissues. Although the medical practices that enable the transfer of parts from one body to another most certainly relieve suffering and extend lives, they have also irrevocably altered perceptions of the cultural values assigned to the body. In Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies, Lesley A. Sharp probes the ideological assumptions underlying the transfer of body parts, the social significance of donors' deaths, and the medico-scientific desires surrounding complex forms of body repair. She also considers the experimental realm, in which nonhuman species and artificial devices present further opportunities for recovery and controversy. A compelling scientific investigation and social critique, Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies explores the pervasive, and at times pernicious, practices shaping American biomedicine in the twenty-first century.
Flee through the golden fields of the Holy Land with Alexandra, strong-willed and gray-eyed descendant of the House of David, sold as a slave into the incredible degradation that was Rome -- walk the streets of Jerusalem with Eleazar, the warrior fighting to free his people from Rome and himself from the memory of the woman he can never have -- join them in the glory that was Masada where they meet in the tempest of the greatest battle and the most magnificent love the world has ever known.
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