Nancy Scheper Hughes and the Status of the Human Body in Globalization Epoch

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Anthropology Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tehran University

2 Anthropology, Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tehran University

Abstract

Analyzing the status of the human body in present epoch from Nancy Scheper Hughes (NSH) the medical anthropologist points of view is the main goal of this article. Since the mid 20th century and following the rapid growth of science and technology in the western world, the processes of globalization and also basic transformations in medicine have been making great influences on human body status. For example the consequences of body manipulation via new medical technologies, the process of medicalizing the lives and societies, alienation of human body from human , degrading of the statues of body via commodifying it as a whole or in parts in national and global markets , all have caused many objectional reactions from many social scientist in different disciplines especially in medical anthropology in which many scientists like NSH have had an active position against these issues. This is a documental study the data of which are in most parts gathered from NSHs field works with the focus on the problem of commodifying bodies in the global markets. One of the most important findings in the present study is the primacy of "the ethical" over "the social" and "the cultural" as a preassumption that philosophically supports NSHs approach to stand up as a political, ethical and militant anthropology in a vivid protest to the fallen status of human body in the late globalized capitalism era. Compared to the traditional approaches, critical militant anthropology does ask some important ethical questions about the main duty of anthropologists and ethnographers in the present epoch. Must they impartially continue writing their applied ordinary ethnographies more or less? Can they on the contrary to traditions make ethical decisions and guide their analyzing critical writings at the aim of helping change the present conditions? 

Keywords

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics