HOGLE - 2005 - Enhacement Technologies and The Body

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Enhancement Technologies
and the Body
Linda F. Hogle
Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2005.34:695-716. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Department of Medical History and Bioethics and Department of Anthropology,

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706; email: lfhogle@wisc.edu
by University of Guelph on 10/08/12. For personal use only.
Annu. Rev. Anthropol. Key Words

2005. 34:695–716
medical anthropology, bioethics, technology
First published online as a
Review in Advance on
June 28, 2005
Abstract
The Annual Review of The technological ability to alter biology, along with the social con-
Anthropology is online at ditions and cultural expectations that enable such transformations,
anthro.annualreviews.org is spawning a variety of techniques that augment bodily forms and
doi: 10.1146/ functions. These techniques, collectively known as enhancement
annurev.anthro.33.070203.144020 technologies, aim to improve human characteristics, including ap-
Copyright
c 2005 by pearance and mental or physical functioning, often beyond what is
Annual Reviews. All rights ‘normal’ or necessary for life and well-being. Humans have always
reserved
modified their bodies. What distinguishes these techniques is that
0084-6570/05/1021- bodies and selves become the objects of improvement work, unlike
0695$20.00
previous efforts in modernity to achieve progress through social and
political institutions. There are profound effects on sociality and sub-
jectivity. This chapter reviews analytical approaches through which
researchers have attempted to illuminate the practices, moral and
economic reasoning, cultural assumptions and institutional contexts
constituting enhancements, framing the discussion by examining the
concept of the normal body. Examples from cosmetic, neurological
and genetic enhancements will illustrate.
695
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herent body of literature; rather, works from

Contents anthropological and feminist studies of the
body, social studies of science, technology,
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696
and medicine, bioethics studies, and disabil-
WHAT’S NORMAL? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
ity studies explore aspects of body alterations
ENHANCEMENT
and the cultural assumptions that underlie
TECHNOLOGIES AND
them. Also, the array of technologies are
BIOETHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
not yet well represented. There are numer-
ENHANCEMENT
ous examples of cosmetic surgeries and pro-
TECHNOLOGIES AND
cedures, some on pharmaceuticals used to
ANTHROPOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
improve performance (particularly cognitive
THE TECHNOLOGIES . . . . . . . . . . . 704
enhancers), and a growing number of works
Cosmetic Procedures:
on genetic and regenerative medicine, but sur-
Free to Be Me? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
prisingly few exist to date on technological

Cyborg Prosthetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
assists such as computerized prosthetics or,
Cognitive Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . 707
excepting cochlear implants, artificial organs
Genetic Enhancement and
that may have enhanced capabilities. This re-

Regenerative Medicine . . . . . . . . 709
view focuses on technologies that have ap-
CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
peared since the mid-1980s and have been
used primarily in wealthy societies where in-
dividuals are more likely to be able to ac-
cess them, often outside the usual health care
INTRODUCTION payment schemes.
Some scholars suggest bodies as they now ex- One must consider many social and ethical
ist are an arbitrary, evolutionary solution to implications, including the possibility of dif-
issues of mobility, communication, and func- ferent life strategies and subjectivities for in-
tioning in the environment (Hockenberry dividuals and societies on several levels. The
2001). If this is true, the solution we have pursuit of enhancement technologies also in-
may not be the best one—bodies are im- dicates the kinds of decisions being made
perfect, variable, and in a state of constant about the appropriateness of using biology
degeneration and needed repair. This state to solve social problems such as aging, fair-
of affairs may be changing as innovations in ness and inequality of opportunity, and care
biomedicine and bioengineering make it pos- of the self. As is the case with all techno-
sible to alter biological form and function. A logical innovations, enhancements exist in a
belief in the technological ability to improve nexus of complex social, political, and his-
on the body’s natural capabilities along with torical relations, media representations, and
cultural assumptions about what is considered medical and legal definitions of disorder and
to be “deficient,” “normal,” or “enhanced” well-being. Although the rise of consumer
have led to a variety of body-altering tech- culture plays a role, bodily enhancements are
niques that not only repair or replace func- about more than commodification processes.
tions, but may go beyond what is typically They are a manifestation of changing ways of
considered therapeutic medical intervention. thinking about biological and social life that
In essence, the ability exists to redesign the is fundamentally transforming institutions,
human body according to particular needs and economies, and meanings.
desires, altering or building in new features. Enhancement technologies are most com-
This review considers how anthropolo- monly defined as interventions intended to
gists and others have viewed these so-named improve human function or characteristics
enhancement technologies. There is no co- beyond what is necessary to sustain health
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or repair the body (Pres. Counc. 2003). The Questions of what is being seen as defi-
difficulties inherent in attempting to analyze cient and what exactly is being enhanced, both
enhancements can be seen in this definition biologically and socially, are also significant.
itself. What is necessary to sustain health? Judgments about physical and mental charac-
At which point does a repair become some- teristics differ among societies and traditions
thing more than restorative, and for which and over time. Martin (1992) has suggested
(and whose) purposes are interventions de- that the drive toward productivity and flex-
fined as “therapeutic”? For example, a pros- ibility in the United States has called for a
thetic arm could be little more than a stick new type of body, possibly specific to Amer-
to stand in for a missing arm, a grasping ican culture: one that is vigilant, responsive,
tool, or a sophisticated device with comput- needs little sleep, and can work harder. If true,
erized sensory response and beyond-human the average body may be viewed as deficient,
strength or flexibility. Tissue-engineered car- and the conditions are conducive to accep-
tilage can be designed to withstand greater- tance of a variety of enhancements. Other so-
than-average mechanical loads, making joints cieties, however, have different values around
more durable than “normal.” Vision can po- productivity and what counts as competence.
tentially be restored enough to enable the As Lock (2000) put it, arguments about ills
blind to discern shapes and identify faces with and deficiencies are moral disputes about the
some devices now in testing, but designers boundaries of normal and abnormal as well as
could also adapt the devices to include non- the social significance of creating such bound-
human spectra of light detection. Who could aries. The relationship of economic factors
and should use such devices, and under which and the hierarchy of cultural values will affect
conditions? How are we to make moral judg- individual and social decisions about enhance-
ments about enhancements, to discern which ments, particularly because not all individuals
treatments are empowering or harmful or to will be able to afford them.
decide which should or should not be allowed? Traditionally, the practice of medicine has
Does the type of function make a difference in been based on finding pathology. This defi-
terms of cultural meanings or what societies ciency approach focuses on causality of dis-
find acceptable—that is, are cognitive im- ability, variance, or disease and treatment
provements morally or socially equivalent to that will bring the patient to a function-
improvements in mobility? ing state. Enhancement, by comparison, may
The issues are clearly complex. First, it is or may not have a starting point of defi-
difficult to distinguish between what is ther- ciency. The focus is on invention, redesign,
apeutic and what constitutes enhancement. and upgrading capabilities. To talk about what
Whether anti-aging techniques are a way to is viewed as needing fixing and what ex-
stave off the suffering of degenerative dis- actly is being enhanced, one must first con-
orders or a quest for immortality may de- sider the cultural assumptions that constitute
pend on the conditions in which they are “normal.”
used (Post & Binstock 2004). What may
be therapeutic in one circumstance may be
considered an enhancement when used by WHAT’S NORMAL?
healthy individuals and adapted for other pur- The concept of “normal” is a relatively recent
poses, such as the use of hormones to retard addition to the English language, adapted for
the effects of aging, neurochemicals used by use in biological states only around the mid
healthy people to stimulate productivity, or nineteenth century. L. Davis (1995), Hacking
beta blockers (heart drugs) used to avoid stage (1990), Lock (2000), Porter (1995), and
fright (Elliott 2003, Rothman & Rothman Sinding (2004) provide excellent accounts of
2003). the conditions that led to changes in thinking
www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 697

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about normality, health, and disease, strated with the history of eugenics. Physical
including the rise of statistics. In brief, older conditions can be given political significance
ideas about the health necessity of balanced because the nonstandards may be perceived
bodily states of excesses and deficiencies were as costly to a society both economically and
augmented by later findings about pathology politically. It then becomes conceivable to at-
that could be generalized to populations. tempt to “norm” the nonstandard or “defec-
Measurements of individuals in populations tives” using social-scientific programs (Kevles
were collected and yielded a distributed range 2003, Pernick 2000).
of data points on everything from physical Just as population statistics tell a state who
traits and intelligence to behaviors, initiating and what is normal, quantifiable laboratory
the concept of a “normal curve.” Most people measurements tell individuals if they are nor-
will fall within the main range of the curve, mal or in need of medical intervention. Yet
but others are considered to be outliers. The the growing phenomenon of using probabil-
further one is from the hypothetical statisti- ity statistics to predict who may get a disease is
cally average person (the “norm” becoming creating new categories that are neither nor-
the center point of a curve), the more likely mal nor abnormal. Persons in the new “at
he or she is to be defined as “not normal.” risk” and “worried well” categories are urged
Canguilhem (1989) suggested that, in health, to know their own risk profile and do some-
the idea of a normal curve was consistent thing to bring themselves to a more norma-
with conceptualizing disease in terms of a tive state (Dumit 2003, Lock 2000, Rabinow
continuum of qualities that constitute health 1992). Treatments may not be available, yet
states. Because of the state’s interest in using individuals are encouraged to consume prod-
information to manage populations’ health ucts, change behaviors, and even intervene
and labor, however, distinct categories were in their genetic fates (Buchanan et al. 2000).
constructed, creating a dichotomy of normal Adding new classifications of potential targets
and pathological states. for enhancement, augmentation, and mod-
Lennard Davis would call this an institu- ification as new technologies become avail-
tional state of “normalcy” (as distinguished able is an easy outgrowth from categories of
from “normality,” the state of being physi- deficiency and normality.
cally normal). He understands this to be “the Whereas statistics may be quantifications
political-juridical-institutional state that re- based on observations, perceptions of what
lies on the control and normalization of bod- constitutes normal or abnormal may be quite
ies” (L. Davis 2002, p. 107). Key to the institu- subjective. Canguilhem was interested in the
tional state of normalcy is the use of statistics way that norms are constituted by medical, le-
to delineate individuals into groups and de- gal, and social practices and narratives, mak-
scribe their position as they fall within or out- ing norms understandable only within par-
side of expected norms. Classifications and ticular contexts (Sinding 2004). For example,
definitions can then be used by governmen- a measurement of a given population’s blood
tal or medical authorities to create guidelines cholesterol level will yield an average and a
for how to deal with things and people out- range of actual points, but some parties (drug
side the norms. For example, the Americans companies, insurers, or others) may have
with Disabilities Act in the United States and a strong interest in pushing the acceptable
the National Survey of Disabled Persons in range lower for purposes of persuading use of
China could thus define who is normal or dis- therapy, selling a cholesterol-lowering drug,
abled, and consequently, who should receive or avoiding potential illnesses linked with
which kind of care (Kohrman 2003). Outliers cholesterol. Observed behaviors not in line
can more easily become targets for interven- with moral customs, religious beliefs, or polit-
tion, as Kevles, Pernick, and others demon- ical regimes could also be labeled as abnormal
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and either medicalized or criminalized, as has cally “necessary” (Brock 1998, Daniels 2000).
been done with homosexuality across soci- As the number and type of available enhance-
eties and time periods. Levels of lead, mer- ments expanded, many felt that enhancements
hGH: human
cury, or other contaminants can be defined should be thought of in the same category growth hormone
as normal for certain amounts of exposure, as futile treatments—that is, beyond medical
but in the context of political debates over responsibility.
regulation of water or air pollution, either Enhancement thus drew attention to the
a narrower or wider tolerance range may be problem of defining the proper goals of
used. medicine and distinguishing these from social
A society using a concept of norms, where goals and values. In the oft-cited case of hGH,
all people must fit somewhere along a distri- for example, treatment for a child with a con-
bution curve, differs significantly from a condition resulting in retarded growth would be
cept of the ideal, where everyone would fall considered therapy. However, a short child of
short and no one is expected to have an ideal short parents could also suffer social conse-
body. Nevertheless, Hacking (1990) argues quences because average or even tall stature
that the idea of normality has a moral quality: may improve an individual’s chances for life
success.1
The norm becomes the way we ought to be.

Understanding competing concepts of norms Ethicists Allen & Fost (1990) asked if it
is essential to the study of enhancements be- would be fair to withhold treatment just be-
cause as a norm comes to stand for something cause it would not be medically therapeutic.
to strive for, rather than a centered, neutral, In this logic, varying from the average can
or positive condition, the average comes to be be constructed as a medical problem warrant-
seen as the deficient. Judgments about natu- ing intervention if normative views of social
ral characteristics, particularly as they relate well-being are privileged. In American cul-
to merit, may also shift, providing an oppor- ture, the claim to fundamental values of equal-
tunity for enhancements to be seen as main- ity of opportunity comes into play. As L. Davis
tenance or needed self-improvements, rather (1995) put it, “Democracy needs the illusion
than a luxury or a fantasy of perfection. of equality, and equality needs the fiction of
the equal or average citizen. So with the cre-
ation of a representative democracy comes the
ENHANCEMENT need for an ideology that will support and
TECHNOLOGIES AND generate the aims of normalcy” (p. 110). Yet
BIOETHICS other highly valued characteristics, such as
Much of the existing literature on enhance- competitiveness, may conflict with notions of
ment technologies comes from bioethicists advancement based on natural characteristics
(Parens 1998, Pres. Counc. 2003). It arose and merit.
from debates about the increasing use of an- Shapiro (2002, p. 774) argues that differ-
abolic steroids and other drugs to enhance ing notions of equality may affect the way en-
athletes’ performances in the 1980s, as well hancements are valued, and vice versa. Equal
as the expanding use of human growth hor- opportunity (understood as rights against in-
mone (hGH) for short children made pos- terference by others with equivalent access
sible with recombinant molecular techniques
at about the same time. Primarily concerned
with the moral permissibility of extending hu- 1
A key ethical issue in such cases is proxy decision making
man capabilities, bioethicists were also oc- for children. Decisions about some bodily changes, such
cupied with questions about the obligations as stature, the implantation of devices such as cochlear im-
plants, or some genetic interventions must be made at early
of physicians to provide certain treatments ages, raising the question of the interests of parents and
when they may not be warranted or medi- caregivers and their own values regarding enhancement.

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to enhancement resources) does not neces- in fact the spirit of competitiveness allows
sarily translate into better medical or so- for considerable latitude in techniques used
cial outcomes, however. Unequal outcomes to gain an advantage, just like war or com-
IGF-1: insulin-like
growth factor that parallel existing inequalities in status, petition for jobs or mates. At stake are cul-
power, or wealth can still result. A “keep- tural notions of individual merit and perfor-
ing up” atmosphere could be created because mance often symbolic of a nation’s collective
the more common an enhancement becomes ability.
the more the less able need it to avoid losing Brock, Daniels, and other ethicists have at-
ground. tempted to create guidelines to simplify med-
This phenomenon is evident particularly ical decision making: Treat only when med-
in sports medicine, where an intense drive to ically necessary, treat when there is a need
win, income incentives, and national compet- to eliminate something that puts a person
itiveness have made performance-enhancing at a disadvantage, or treat whenever some-
techniques commonplace. Anabolic steroids one has a desire to eliminate a characteristic

have been the subject of considerable pub- (Brock 1998, Daniels 2000). This is an actu-
lic controversy because of alleged abuses arial approach, which focuses on costs, ben-
and health risks, and some of these have efits, and entitlements. For purposes of pol-
been removed from the market and outlawed icy making, such classifications are useful, yet
from competition use. A somewhat differ- they presume the ability to locate an interven-
ent situation exists with erythropoietin and tion in a grid of normal or abnormal states on
insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), both of one axis, with clearly defined boxes of ther-
which were created to treat disease (anemia apy or enhancement on the other. Further-
and muscle-wasting diseases, respectively) but more, they are problematic because of the dif-
have been taken up by athletes because of ficulty in defining “disadvantage,” “necessity,”
their effects on endurance and muscle build- and “desire.” Is augmentation with a silicone
ing (Behar 2004). Such enhancements cre- implant after removal of a cancerous breast
ate an advantage specifically for sports ac- a cosmetic procedure or a therapeutic one?
tivities (which are also work and income Beyond the question of whether it is med-
activities for professional athletes) but are ically necessary or advantageous—physically
currently seen in very different legal and regu- or psychologically—to replace that particular
latory frameworks than the enhancement of a body part, the answer may determine whether
normal person’s school performance with the societies or insurance companies must pay for
use of attention-deficit drugs or one’s social them. Should physicians prescribe Modafinil
performance with the adapted use of antianx- only for its indicated use of narcolepsy and
iety drugs for shyness. It is far more difficult Alzheimer’s disease, or should they respond
to police appropriate uses of treatments when to requests to use it for off-label purposes,
they must remain available for the ill, and such as improved memory and mental per-
it is sometimes difficult to draw a clean line formance in healthy persons (Farah & Wolpe
around “therapeutic need.” Objections to per- 2004, Healy 2004)? The answer is linked with
formance enhancement are based on the ex- the way regulatory authorities view approval
pectations of a level playing field and the idea and policing of medications.
that the dignity of human activity is dimin- Such arguments expose a weakness of
ished, as distinct from other forms of prepa- bioethics writings on enhancements, namely
ration of athletes, such as special training or that they extrapolate the situation of individu-
nutrition (Pres. Counc. 2003, see especially als (often ideal-type) to society and universal-
Ch. 3). But these writings assume that sports ize across cultures, societies, and time frames.
are inherently fair and are played fairly, when The moral debates in this body of literature
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about the nature of being human, the blurring risk for disease. The old may be perceived not
of natural and cultural domains, and the inter- only as having less value, but also as being a
sections of medical and social goals have long burden on society. At the same time, the de-
been the focus of anthropological inquiry. Yet sire for youthfulness, engendered by cultural
the overriding bioethics focus on Western no- privileging of youthful vigor, has led to high-
tions of fairness and equity, risk, and prescrip- priority research programs and commercial
tive judgments for policy purposes excludes efforts toward the twin goals of extending lives
analysis of social disparities, differences in lo- and reversing specific age-related illnesses and
cal political, economic, and health conditions, physical characteristics (including the appear-
and differing value systems that are central to ance) of being old ( Juengst et al. 2003, Post
anthropological understandings of health and & Binstock 2004). Competitiveness (whether
medicine. What might enhancement mean in for mates or for resources in local and global
a poor society where an artificial limb specially markets), consumer desires, political rational-
designed for working in rice fields or a bicycle ities regarding the regulation of populations,
designed to provide mobility means the dif- and scientific concepts of temporal biological
ference in a person’s ability to make a living? processes are all parts of the contingent so-
Compare these situations with a wealthy social conditions that can produce enhancement
ciety, where an amputee might own multiple technologies directed against aging.
artificial limbs with sophisticated bioenginer- Many anthropologists, influenced by
ing designed for various sports. Anthropol- Foucault’s (1978) concept of bio-power, point
ogists Kurzman (2003) and Kohrman (2003) to the relations of modern forms of power,
and historians such as Serlin (2002) explore which operate through bodily disciplines
such questions through their studies of cul- and modifications. Foucault’s formulation
turally specific responses to disabilities. was based on the observation that from the
eighteenth century, forms of power changed
such that repressive measures were no longer
ENHANCEMENT necessary or effective means of controlling
TECHNOLOGIES AND people. Instead, political authorities con-
ANTHROPOLOGY trolled and improved the state by taking on
Anthropologists formulate questions in differ- the role of managing life itself. This role
ent ways: What are the relations among in- entailed making life an object of study, gath-
dividuals, technologies, health care delivery ering information about individuals’ lives and
systems, political ideologies, national com- bodies. With this knowledge, administrative
mitments, and market conditions in various techniques could be employed to plan health
locales that produce, enable, or constrain cer- services and regulate social life. This gave rise
tain enhancements? How do ways of ordering to modern life sciences, the clinic, and con-
and valuing individuals, groups, and their cepts of “health,” “illness” and “deviance.”
characteristics affect the way bodily capabil- The state could thus foster well-being while
ities are seen? One has only to think of the making citizens subject to regulatory control:
way societies deal with aging to see how these Behaviors and bodies, disciplined through
relations shape what are considered appropri- administrative means, would be productive,
ate interventions. Whereas some societies ac- good citizens. Central to modern forms of
cept aging as a normal social and biological power, however, was the need for individuals
process, others see aging as a pathology to to internalize norms set forth by the linkage
be overcome. Aging can be a social and eco- of intimate information, emerging institu-
nomic problem for individuals (for women, in tions, and practices. “Technologies of the
particular) and for societies if it is seen as rep- self” involve constant processes of self-moni-
resenting reduced productivity and increased toring and self-mastery, most of which

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operate on the mind and body through ing to some social scientists. Turner (1996)
medical means. Biomedicine thus became the and Featherstone (1991), among others, de-
means by which the quality of collective and scribe efforts to create identities and mean-
individual lives could be improved. ings through goods by illustrating the history
As Rose (2001) points out, when human of transformations in social life that resulted
capabilities are couched in terms of biology, in increased attention to bodily practices.
variation from norms based on population To summarize, after labor-saving devices
statistics can lead to the exclusion of those and mass-produced goods became readily
found to be inferior, and health comes to be available to the public, leisure time expanded.
seen as fitness of a particular sort. The public This resulted in more free time and dispos-
health, hygiene, and eugenics programs of the able income to spend on maintenance and
early twentieth century, operating on popula- pleasuring of the self. A consumer culture de-
tions, gave way to self-help programs by the veloped, driven by images of youth, beauty,
end of the century as the cost of defective citi- luxury, and fun, departing from pre–World
zens and their necessary support technologies War I values of thrift and hard work. At the
became burdensome. The strategy of shifting same time, less hard physical labor combined
the burden to individuals is couched in terms with diets characteristic of more prosperous
of personal empowerment, and individuals (or at least less poor) classes led to changes in
are reconceptualized as autonomous actors health status and obesity. Increased attention
who can choose behaviors, practices, and most was paid to maintaining the body, for both
importantly, products. social and aesthetic reasons. However, indi-
Martin (2000) sees the shift to self-mastery viduals, rather than governments or institu-
as being related to the shrinking of social insti- tions, were now deemed responsible for their
tutions traditionally relied on for well-being, own maintenance. Neglect was seen as lazi-
support, and community. Forms of employ- ness, low self-esteem, and even moral failure.
ment become less reliable as technological in- The body became a project through which self
novations accelerate change in work and social identity was constructed, particularly identity
practices, employers downsize or outsource as a good, productive citizen. But body main-
jobs, and national governments cede responsi- tenance requires the consumption of goods,
bilities to local authorities and alternate forms turning the wheel of desire, production, and
of governance. Wealth is becoming more po- consumption, and key to creating desire was
larized and often predicated more on back- the circulation of images by commercial in-
stage machinations and public performances terests, as Bordo (1998), Featherstone (2000),
than on meritorious labor. Martin (2000) ar- and others have demonstrated in their anal-
gues that individuals then become more like yses of advertising and health promotional
“nodes in a network”: “[T]he person comes campaigns that promulgate specific images of
to be made up of a flexible collection of as- the ideal body and person.
sets; a person is proprietor of his or her self Ironically, as individuals select among bod-
as a portfolio” (p. 578); that is, people identify ily practices and modifications to suit both
and develop perceived, valued assets to posi- external expectations and a sense of fulfill-
tion themselves properly within rapidly shift- ment, a question of authenticity arises. Elliott
ing flows of global capital. The distinction asks the question, is this an authentic self or
between traditional ways of preparing oneself one invented by altering the biology (through
through training or gaining new skills is that surgery, medicines, or devices) and imagined
the new way of putting forth one’s assets is through advertising, media, health advisory
through body modifications. groups, or other images (Elliott 2003)?
The politics of identity and the self can In her study of assisted reproduction,
be linked to the rise of consumerism, accord- Strathern (1992) observes that the ability
702 Hogle
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to augment biology occurs within the con- as Haraway’s (1985) landmark “Manifesto for
text of what she calls enterprise culture— Cyborgs,” writers considered a range of topics
the nexus of technoscience, consumer desire, in the physical and life sciences, many of which
and contemporary medical marketplaces. In explored emerging relationships and intimate
her view, marketing and cultural expectations connections between technologies and bodies
of how the body should perform are central (Gray 1995). Haraway, a feminist historian of
to shaping the relationship of bodies and science, used the image of the cyborg to ex-
technologies. To illustrate her point, she dis- plore such boundary crossings, including the
cusses the way produced goods are designed ability to create chimeras, human-machine
for selling as much as for use, with attributes entities, virtual communities, and other forms
made explicit to consumers in ways that meet of biological and social life. From a perspec-
their cultural expectations. “To select an ap- tive that refuses discourses about purity and
ple for its appleness is to discriminate be- natural categories, Haraway creates opportu-
tween those which conform more or less to nities to analyze the various ways that subjec-
cultural expectations about what the natural tivity and agency are being transformed. At
apple should be” (p. 39). Although her exam- the same time, changes to the body are posi-
ple uses a common commodity and not hu- tioned within the reconfigurations of techno-
mans, her point is that there is a collapse in the science and multinational capitalism, which
difference between what is taken for granted she terms the “new world order” (Haraway
in nature and what is perceived to be the result 1997).
of human effort. This is instructive for human The cyborg as both a technological artifact
enhancements because the work that goes into and a cultural icon is central to understanding
both identifying and amplifying certain char- the new relationships between bodies, infor-
acteristics as being amenable to change and mation technologies, and technologies used
constructing certain traits as desirable does as prosthetic extensions, according to Hayles
more than essentialize them as preferred hu- (1999). The seamless articulations among hu-
man traits. Rather, it forms a circuit of enter- mans and technologies make it clear that the
prise, biology, medicine, and culture in com- concept of an autonomous, bounded subject
plex relations to each other. In this sense, is giving way to a different kind of subjectiv-
the traits being enhanced are not inherently ity, which she calls the posthuman. The cy-
natural but cultural. This finding is evident borg literature thus challenges romanticized
in regenerative medicine, in which the body notions of a pure or natural self that should
itself is directed to do engineering-guided, not be tampered with, a notion that charac-
self-repair according to specified, desired terizes much of bioethics and social science
characteristics (Hogle 2003). The concept literature.
of culture itself is changing as the tech- Much has been said about the culture of
nologies used to modify bodies—to “assist perfectibility promised by the marriage of
nature” as Strathern (1992) puts it—become technoscience and consumer markets (Kalb
so integrally bound with biology that it is im- 1999). However, the phenomena of enhance-
possible to think of natural and cultural do- ment technologies may not be so much a pur-
mains as distinct. “Technology literally helps suit of perfection or immortality as much as
‘life’ to ‘work’”(p. 60). a way of controlling, designing, and plan-
In the early 1990s, a body of literature col- ning the body as an integrated unit of biology
lectively called cyborg anthropology formed and technology (Hogle 2003). Enhancements
a linkage of anthropological works in science, are upgrades. Upgrades support scientific re-
technology, and medicine with the social study search agendas and the ongoing production
of science, technology and society, and sociol- of goods and services that suit the needs of
ogy of knowledge. Inspired by key works such global exchanges. At the same time, the ability

AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
to engineer bodily functions gives currency to racialized thinking about appearance can take
the illusion of controlling predictability in an extreme forms, as in the linkage of hygiene to
unpredictable world. From this viewpoint, if the cult of beauty and bodily perfection that
environmental stressors and social ills are too occurred in pre–world war Germany (Hau
large a problem to tackle, and trauma or war is 2003). The medicalization of appearance in
too unpredictable or technology too necessary such ways has had a lingering influence on
to change, then the injury to bodies must perceptions of visible variation and disabil-
be made fixable. In the emerging ethics of ity. Social and medical judgements of certain
enhancement technologies, bodies made to traits as desireable or undesireable serve to
be resilient, more enduring, and attractive make the body an object to be “corrected.”
will be prepared for any contingency of so- Cosmetic surgery then becomes a technology
cial life, labor, or global condition (Hogle through which the body is normalized and
2004a). homogenized as much as enhanced.
Haiken (1997) demonstrated the relation

of beauty culture to surgical innovations after
THE TECHNOLOGIES World War I. As she explained, demand for
technical expertise in reconstructive surgery

Cosmetic Procedures: and prosthetics increased owing to the mas-
Free to Be Me? sive number of injuries from war. But ex-
For many people, the term bodily enhance- panding this area resulted in an excess of ex-
ment first conjures images of plastic surgery. pertise and investment in the postwar era.
Indeed, the development of surgical and pros- Surgeons began looking for ways to extend
thetic techniques, along with social concerns their practices, including dealing with ag-
about aging and fitness and a reliance on body ing bodies. Americans were healthier and
modifications to deal with these concerns, more prosperous after the war than ever be-
has made such procedures commonplace in fore and were thus more capable of endur-
the twenty-first century. There are two types ing and paying for elective procedures. In a
of plastic surgery: reconstructive procedures time of growing consumer culture, the time
performed to correct congenital abnormali- was ripe for a professional specialization of
ties or damage from an injury, and cosmetic aesthetics.
procedures performed not as a treatment for At about the same time, the second wave
illness. Both depend on judgments of physi- of immigrants came to the United States
cal and social function, but also are related to from eastern and southern European coun-
ideals about visible appearance. tries. Gilman’s (1999) work emphasizes the
Physical appearance has cultural impor- importance of passing for those who looked
tance in terms of identity and notions of different to be acceptable to mainstream soci-
beauty, but also has been used socially and ety, most of whom were northern and western
medically to evaluate general well-being and European descendents (1999). Haiken (2000)
even moral behavior, particularly before the points out that nose and facial surgeries were
advent of diagnostic instrumentation. Writ- used to deemphasize ethnic features because
ing about the history of eugenics, Proctor of concerns about anti-Semitism and racist at-
(1988) and Weindling (1990) explain how titudes engendered by the growing interest in
measurements of body symmetry and propor- eugenics in the early twentieth century. To-
tion were central to definitions of fitness. Vis- day, procedures to minimize ethnic features,
ible impairments and anomalies were used to including skin lightening, nose and lip reduc-
cull out those who varied too greatly from tion, and removal of eye folds, are resurging
the imagined ideal form and subjected them (Haiken 1997, Kaw 1993). Kaw interviewed
to various interventions. Such normalizing, Asian American women and plastic surgeons
704 Hogle
AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
about ethnic modification procedures, find- spond to transient fashions, including colla-
ing that both groups reinforce stereotypes of gen injections to foot pads and the short-
Asian features that they believe belie traits of ening of toes to suit shoe styles, nipple en-
dullness and passivity (see also Serlin 2002 on hancement and navel repositioning for tight
Western interpretations of plastic surgery for or revealing clothes, and modification of spe-
Asians). Kaw concluded that the women inter- cific parts to mimic favorite movie stars (Kalb
nalized American values of assertiveness and 1999).
quickness and changed their appearances to The number and types of cosmetic proce-
match. dures are proliferating, which indicates that it
Notions of attractiveness or proper ap- is not a preoccupation with youth or beauty
pearance may be culturally specific in some alone and not just older, wealthier women, as
ways, yet Featherstone (1991), among others, stereotypes suggest. There were 8.3 million
argued that through globalized consumerism procedures done in the United States alone
and images projected through the media and in 2003, a 20% increase over 2002. Of these,
advertising some homogenization is occur- 37% of patients had previously had at least one
ring, with a preference for Westernized ap- procedure, and a growing number are having
pearances that may be connected to beliefs multiple, simultaneous procedures (Am. Soc.
about success and well-being. In later works, Plastic Surg. 2004).3
he further suggests that there is a tempo- The majority of procedures are purchased
ral aspect of body modifications that paral- by those individuals with annual incomes less
lels the fluidity of identity in modernity: Im- than $50,000, and 20% are purchased by indi-
ages can be borrowed from other cultures or viduals younger than 34 years of age, includ-
time periods or changed to associate with cer- ing a growing number of teenagers having
tain groups (Featherstone 2000). There is a liposuction and breast augmentations (Am.
paradox of conformity to an imagined norm Soc. Plastic Surg. 2004, Kalb 1999). Penises,
and a desire to express individuality that char- breasts, and calf and pectoral muscles are
acterizes wearable fashion. This finding can enlarged while thighs, arm flaps, and ab-
be seen in the increasing popularity of non- domens are diminished or “sculpted.” Among
surgical treatments and so-called lunchtime the fastest-growing procedures, however, are
face lifts that are performed in about an hour, hand vein reductions and chin and hair im-
usually in an office setting, and are priced plants, changes that individuals claim give
to make treatments more affordable than a them a competitive advantage in work fields
surgical procedure, which can cost several where appearance is important. Here we see
thousand dollars.2 an implicit link of appearance with percep-
The results are transient, lasting from a few tions of competency and productivity. Identity
weeks to months, requiring periodic repeated politics, consumer culture, perceived compe-
treatments. While giving the impression of tition for jobs or partners, institutional con-
being able to opt in and out of participation, texts, and technology all contribute to the
the effect of repetition is to draw continual, demand for aesthetic body enhancements.
deliberate attention to worries about aging
and appearance. Ironically, there are other
procedures with permanent effects that re- 3
The latter phenomenon may have stimulated—or have
been stimulated by—the explosion of television reality
shows depicting “total makeovers” for men and women.
Televised competitions judge people not necessarily for the
2
Nonsurgical treatments include botox injections, chem- best surgical outcome but the greatest overall change, in-
ical peels, or the use of collagen to remove wrinkles and cluding transformations in clothing and psychological dis-
plump skin or to fill in lines or acne scars with collagen, position. This speaks to the ways individuals seek to mani-
gel-like materials, or calcium-based materials. The skin can fest spiritual, mental, and physical performance from bodily
also be evened with acids or sanding materials. modifications.

AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
The most significant debates in recent 1999, K. Davis 2002). K. Davis (2002) feels
years, however, insist that cosmetic practices that cosmetic surgery cannot “enhance” mas-
must be situated in discourses and practices culinity for men in the same way it “enhances”
of gender (Negrin 2002). Basalmo argues that femininity for women for the simple reason
no matter how fashions of appearance change that the very act of having surgery signi-
over time, the principles are the same in fies a symbolic transgression of the dominant
that individuals are responsible for their own norms of masculinity (p. 59). In the cultural
beauty and for embodying the ideal of their meanings associated with masculinity, Davis
sex (1992). Gender, she argues, organizes our argues, the body and its vulnerabilities must
interpretations and treatments of bodies. Men be hidden and denied, and men who admit
with tanned, leathery skin or graying tem- they are suffering—and do something about it
ples may be perceived as physically active through interventions—are acting “feminine”
or authoritative, whereas women with simi- (see also Dutton 1995 on masculinity and the
lar characteristics may simply be seen as old male body).

and unattractive.
K. Davis (1995), among others, believes
Cyborg Prosthetics
that cosmetic surgery is usually seen as more

acceptable for women because they are ex- The icon of the cyborg, as previously de-
pected to have low self-esteem. In her ethnog- scribed in Haraway’s work, embraces the idea
raphy of western European women, how- that one can choose one’s own embodiment.
ever, she argued that women are not simply As performance artist Stelarc puts it, “this is
passive victims of commodification and con- evolution by the individual for the individ-
sumer culture. Rather, bodily imperfections ual” (Stelarc 2004, personal communication;
may spur women into action, and through a Zylinska 2002). The body becomes a set of re-
desire to improve themselves, they become ac- lations, rather than a package with some form
tive agents in changing their position in soci- of agency. Technological prostheses provide
ety. Having surgery can thus be a form of em- good examples to think about the evolving na-
powerment. Bordo (1998), however, argues ture of subjectivity and agency, as they may be
that it is difficult to think of choice of proce- far more than mere extensions in an attempt
dures outside of cultural norms and the gen- to regain bodily unity.
dered practices of power and authority. Many As Serlin (2002) and others note, disfigure-
such norms may be harmful, she argues, be- ments create public anxieties about their own
cause by accepting and participating in cos- vulnerability and autonomy. For those with
metic procedures, negative messages become missing or disfigured parts, passing as able-
reinforced and pressure is increased for other bodied is important for social as well as phys-
women to participate. Furthermore, there will ical functioning. Although there is an exten-
always be more deficiencies to fix because the sive literature on disability in its various forms
female body is always seen to be in need of reg- (amputation, sensory loss, physical malforma-
ulation and constraint (Bordo 1998, Turner tions, or mental disorders), there are fewer
1996). works on prosthetics or how protheses affect
Some scholars say gender differences in embodiment and identity. Notable exceptions
bodily experiences are converging in global- include a collection of histories of prosthetic
ized modernity. Both Bordo and K. Davis are design and use (Ott et al. 2002, Serlin 2002)
skeptical of this stance, stating that although and an ethnography of limb prosthetics in the
taboos are lessened, there are unequal pres- United States (Kurzman 2003).
sures of cultural ideals of beauty, and differ- Designs that take the form of a mere struc-
ences remain in the way men and women ex- tural replacement complete the fiction of “fill-
perience their bodies and embodiment (Bordo ing in” the missing part, but other designs may
706 Hogle
AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
allow for specialized or enhanced functions, to do things we can’t do, like operate a com-
such as tools that grasp or articulate specific puter faster or do very precise tasks” (Kotulak
to sports or work needs or arms that are more 2004).
durable than human flesh and do not suffer fa- Contrary to arguments about identity and
tigue. Sophisticated, computerized limbs may body image in the previous section on cos-
have sensors to fine-tune balance and spring metic procedures, Hockenberry (2001) sug-
or operate in response to bodily electrical im- gests that the history of assistive technol-
pulses. These kinds of things beg the prag- ogy for the disabled shows that people will
matic question, of course, of who gets ac- sacrifice traditional body image if they can
cess to which level of enhancement (Brock have equivilant capabilities: “The greatest
1998). Beyond this, however, is the fact that thing people with disabilities have done for
like all technological objects the replacement the general population is to make it safe to
is not a neutral adjunct to the body; rather, look weird” (p. 101). Not surprisingly, many
depending on the context in which it is used, assistive technologies such as screen read-
a new subjectivity may be created for the user, ers, text enhancers, and voice simulators are
and new meanings of embodiment may be being adapted for use by healthy individu-
created. als, primarily for learning purposes and en-

Journalist John Hockenberry (2001), him- hanced productivity (E. Morrison, personal
self a paraplegic, celebrates the advent of en- communication).
hancing assistive technologies such as minia- Blume (1997) analyzes another bionic
ture wireless devices and voice simulators. In technology, examining the complex moral and
an article subtitled “Your Body: Get Over medical issues concerning cochlear implants
It,” he describes the world of the disabled for children (1997). Designed to provide the
and their relations with assistive technologies. Deaf with some ability to amplify and dis-
One immobile patient who has subcranial cern sound, the assumption of designers was
cortical implants producing muscle motion that Deaf people are disabled and in need
through brain signals was able to move a cur- of a bionic ear. Many of the Deaf, however,
sor on a computer screen, begging the ques- think of themselves not as being disabled but
tion, “because of the implant, is a Dell Pen- as having a community identity based on a
tium cursor now more a part of [the patient] particular variance. They resisted the drive
than one of his own paralyzed arms” (p. 96)? to bring them to a normative state through
Hockenberry describes the experience of op- a technological intervention, comparing hear-
timizing brain-machine interfaces by likening ing enhancement to racism and other forms of
it to being like a puppet; that is, improvizing discrimination.
motion by merging available body function-
ality (arms, neck, head) with a small arsenal
of customized machines (wheelchairs, grab- Cognitive Enhancement
bers, remote controls) (p. 101). Functional If cosmetic body enhancements rely on cul-
electronic stimulators, deep brain stimula- tural explanations and attempts to achieve
tion, neural prostheses, and other direct social outcomes using medical interventions,
brain-technology interface devices, as well then neurological enhancements rely on a bio-
as communications technologies, do more logical reductionist assumption that all behav-
than substitute function for the disabled; they ior, interactions, and physiological functions
transform the experience of movement, bal- are related to neuronal structures. This per-
ance, and communication. According to a Cy- spective erases the social, creating a subjectiv-
berkinetics company spokesperson, “we can ity reliant on assistance (Rose 2003). To make
help people who are disabled become super- a person happier, more outgoing, or better
able in a new sense. These people may be able able to perform mental tasks, then, requires

AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
taking psychopharmaceutical drugs. A par- sages in patterned ways (Hoag 2003). Poten-
tial corrective to assumptions of universal tially, a type of synthetic memory could be
biological reductionism is found in Lakoff’s implanted, such as how to perform routine
ADD: attention
deficit disorder (2004) study of antianxiety and antidepres- activities for individuals with Alzheimer’s or
sive drugs in Argentina. In his ethnography, other memory loss ailments.
globalization and economic insecurity are Many brain-electronic devices are under
used as the model of depression rather than investigation for military uses, for example,
biology. for pilots to make split-second decisions re-
Chemical enhancers purport to help peo- garding flying and weapons discharge (Gray
ple sleep less, work harder, and have greater 2001, Talbot 2002). In fact, about 10% of the
mental acuity. Although little clinical evi- Defense Advance Research Projects Agency
dence supports this claim, the belief that budget is devoted to the Brain-Machine In-
performance is enhanced is enough to create a terface Program (Hoag 2003). These exam-
soaring demand for off-label uses of drugs de- ples show the traffic across medical, commer-
signed for Alzheimer’s disease, narcolepsy, and cial, and military domains that impact bodily
attention deficit disorder (ADD) (Hall 2003). modifications (Hogle 2004a).
Hall details some evidence of the growing use Elliott (2003) uses interviews with patients
of chemical enhancement from sales figures, and psychiatrists to conclude that in many
such as $200 million per year for Modafinil, far cases, people seek changes in their identity and
more than the market for narcoleptics would behavior with psychopharmaceuticals because
need. The explosion of diagnoses of children they seek authenticity. Kramer (1993), in his
with ADD and the subsequent high number landmark book Listening to Prozac, explored
of prescription requests for Ritalin and sim- the same issue when patients reported that
ilar drugs (already suspect in terms of im- they felt “more like themselves” on Prozac
proper diagnosing and medicating of behav- than without. Elliott’s primary critique of this
ioral states) has now been extended to adults. phenomenon is that pharmaceutical compa-
Those who have difficulty concentrating or nies capitalize on the late modern trend of
wish to perform better on certain tasks are obsession with personal identity by market-
urged to get a diagnosis of ADD and consume ing an array of drugs as a key to self-fulfillment
this class of stimulant drugs. Hall, a veteran and the removal of barriers to the “real” self.
journalist who covers ethically controversial In the market-driven economies of the West,
technologies, brings attention to an impor- he explains, antidepressents are sold for a va-
tant social aspect of what he calls the “brave riety of personality problems besides clini-
new pharmacology” by highlighting the re- cal depression, such as “social anxiety disor-
lationships of drug industries and a regula- der” and “premenstrual dysphoric disorder,”
tory regime geared to evaluate certain forms medicalized conditions hyped through ill-
of risk. ness awareness campaigns and faked support
Memory is a particularly significant and groups (Caplan & Elliott 2004, Dumit 2003,
symbolic capability, receiving renewed atten- Elliott 2003). Similarly, using examples of
tion because of the fears of senility among ag- the rapid sales growth of psychiatric drugs
ing baby boomers but also because of the rein the United States, Latin America, Africa,
cent studies of posttraumatic stress and false and Asia, Rose (2003) shows how strategic
memory syndromes. A prosthetic hippocam- marketing practices of drug firms are aligned
pus (part of brain where memories are pro- with the reframing of the self and illness in
cessed) is a microchip designed to recreate modernity, in which individuals must identify
memory processing. Funded by the military, problems as neurological ones and then be-
researchers are testing to see if chips could re- come active agents in change by consuming
place parts of the brain or at least relay mes- neurochemicals.
708 Hogle
AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
The brain is considered to be the organ uals are expected to deal with social suffering:
of mind and consciousness and, particularly bear it or medicate it.
in Western cultures, the locus of selfhood. As What is missing in the current litera-
such, neurological interventions have differ- ture is a more nuanced view of neural self-
ent ethical implications than do other body improvement activities as they relate to vary-
parts, according to Farah & Wolpe (2004). ing models of productivity, work, and life
The basis for ethical concerns, said Farah & management in different societies. For exam-
Wolpe, is that persons are responsible for ple, in her new work, Martin (2005) points
good or bad actions and must take the re- out that what is valued in American society
sponsibility, blame, or praise. Improving brain as productivity are actually forms of mania.
behavior pharmacologically may detract from The aggressive, hyper-productive, creative,
the responsibility of the person for his or her unpredictable behaviors that represent one
own actions and reduce the effort needed for extreme of manic and bipolar disorders are
personal accomplishments. desired characteristics of corporate and world

Elliott, Fukuyama, and other commen- leaders. So, on the one hand, people may
tators worry that people are simply trying self-medicate to become more manic-like,
to eliminate troublesome behaviors and feel- whereas on the other hand those with true ma-
ings (Elliott 2003, Fukuyama 2002, Pres. nias may be rewarded for not medicating their
Counc. on Bioethics 2003). Elliott views this disorder.
as a pursuit of happiness while attempting
to avoid the difficult, real problems of ev-
eryday life. Not only does the use of tech- Genetic Enhancement and
nologies to avoid emotional discomfort ignore Regenerative Medicine
possible risks, but also such consumption for Perhaps the most publicly debated technolo-
the sake of individual enhancement ignores gies that promise to modify human biology
long-term consequences for society. Will this involve genetics.4
cause a ramping-up effect? What will it mean The array of interventions are described
to have large numbers of neurally medi- most completely in bioethics literature
cated people? Caplan dismisses such concerns (Buchanan et al. 2000, Pres. Counc. 2003).
about social changes and commercialization. Such work shows the myriad ways life itself
He argues that attempts to achieve better
performance should not be squelched and
self-improvement techniques should not be
restricted because science should be allowed 4
Some clarification is in order. Genetic tests can predict the
free rein for discovery. Furthermore, because probability of a disorder (such as breast cancer or Hodgkin’s
there is no agreement on what constitutes hu- disease) and can detect the presence of a gene mutation in
man “nature,” detractors cannot successfully an unborn embryo or fetus, indicating an abnormality or
potentially life-threatening condition. With this informa-
argue that there is an essential humanness that tion, individuals can choose to undergo prophylactic treat-
is threatened by such technologies (Caplan & ments (if they exist) or terminate a pregnancy, but the con-
Elliott 2004). dition cannot be eliminated without a proven gene therapy.
Gene therapies, by comparison, are designed to replace or
Existing writings on cognitive enhance- modify genetic structures to produce normal function (as
ments resonate with bioethicists’ more gen- in the case of inserting a missing gene required to make
eral concerns about fairness and identity in key proteins), or potentially, to improve function (as in the
case of using IGF-1 to build muscle). Somatic cell thera-
the use of enhancements but also underscore pies work on body cells (for example, in an adult with a
the neoliberals’ claim that the responsibility to genetic metabolic disorder) and affect only the individual
deal with social inequities and the difficulties being treated, whereas germ-line therapies could be used
to affect future offspring (for example, in the attempt to
of modern life has shifted to individuals, not prevent a known hereditary disorder from being passed on
societies. The difference lies in how individ- to future generations).

AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
can be changed as biology-as-information is moral evaluation, privileges the single stand-

made malleable. point of the genetically canonical person
Social science work on genetic interven- and enhances the dichotomy between ‘nor-
tions is growing but is still speculative and ex- mal’ and ‘not normal.’ This distracts from
ploratory, for the most part. Ethnographies the work of uncovering the real grounds
of particular genetic disorders are appearing to setting limits to genetic manipulations”
(Rapp et al. 2001), as are a few collections of (p. 87). The National Institutes of Health
commentaries on social and ethical implica- in 1997 attempted to create guidelines for
tions (Goodman et al. 2003). Anthropologists interventions but was unable to agree on
are observing the new kinds of sociality, in- what was acceptable, or what constituted
cluding kinship relations (Franklin & Roberts an unwarranted enhancement, so they aban-
2005, Strathern 1992). In a now classic arti- doned the process (Rothman & Rothman
cle, for example, Rabinow (1992) illustrates 2003).
how bio-power works with the new genetics: Fukuyama (2002), political scientist and
New forms of sociality are being created with appointee to the President’s Council on
groups whose identity has to do more with Bioethics, in his widely cited book on medical
their genome profile or calculable genetic risk innovations argues for a return to an ethics
than with traditional ways of identity-making based on natural rights. This philosophical
through communities. Some anthropologists, view holds that there is a universal human na-
however, are beginning to take on the work ture on which “oughts” can be derived and
of following global capital, as genes become that rights (not interests) should organize hu-
trade entities (Franklin 2001, Sunder Rajan man ends and goods. From this standpoint,
2003). genetic engineering and all other forms of
Rabinow (1996), who took an early lead enhancement would be rejected because it
in recognizing the fundamental changes en- threatens human essence, and hence, human
gendered by the Human Genome Project, re- sanctity. An opposing view is held by transhu-
mains one of the few anthropologists willing manists such as Bostrom (2003), whose goal
to do the more difficult work of fieldwork it is to promulgate the improvement of hu-
in complex technical settings to learn how man life through technology. Transhuman-
specific techniques of identifying, amplify- ists believe that human nature is a work in
ing, and selling the resulting information progress, changing in relation to varying so-
and methods led to groundbreaking ways cial and temporal conditions (Bostrom 2003).
of manipulating genetic sequences. His in- In this view, attachment to personal identity or
depth interviews with biotechnology scien- something called human essence is not a pri-
tists and managers illuminate the ways such ority. Genetic engineering through this lens
processes enable the use and reordering of is seen as an opportunity for new experiences
information about life to transform biol- and human growth. Although he cautioned
ogy and society. There are numerous ethical against certain kinds of modifications (for ex-
and social concerns about genetic alterations. ample, manipulating traits such as aggression
Defining and regulating ethically permissi- to a point that makes future generations too
ble interventions—including what counts as passive), Bostrom dismisses concerns about
normal—have proven to be difficult. Scully germ-line engineering’s permanent effects on
& Rehman-Sutter (2001) wrote that “po- future generations by offering the possibility
sitioning the interface between permissible that changes can themselves be changed in the
and nonpermissible interventions at the same future.
place as the boundaries between therapy and As yet, there are few in-depth analyses or
enhancement, and between normal and ab- ethnographies of genetic interventions, par-
normal embodiment uses biology to justify a ticularly regarding enhancements. Because
710 Hogle
AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
many genetic enhancements have not yet choose traits such as hair or eye color, body
been made functional and are not generally build, or sex.
available, investigators cannot yet study indi- One such controversial technique is
PGD:
viduals or families and their decisions around preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). preimplantation
such interventions, but there is a need to un- For cases where there is a high potential for se- genetic diagnosis
derstand the assemblages of capital, scien- rious genetic conditions, unaffected embryos
tific theories, and assumptions about nature can be selected for implantation. In a much-
and culture being built into emerging en- welcome antedote to the judgements about re-
hancement genetic techniques. In the emerg- productive genetics “from above,” Franklin &
ing area of behavioral genetics, for example, Roberts’ (2005) ethnography of couples un-
traits such as intelligence and behaviors are dergoing PGD took a close look at the legal,
being targeted for intervention, but there are ethical, social, and family contexts in which
complex, higher-order relationships with pro- couples had to make difficult decisions about
teins, chemical signaling processes, and envi- whether to risk proceeding with a pregnancy
ronmental effects. The need is urgent because that might result in a child who dies prema-
in addition to creating selective advantages for turely or selecting embryos to implant, know-
individuals, the underlying ideology of per- ing full well the ethical and moral implications
sonalized medicine that drives efforts to in- of their choice. Fukuyama (1992) worries that
tervene in individual genomes will transform parents will choose features on the basis of
the way medicine is conceived and delivered. thinness fads or other “politically correct” fea-
For example, nutrigenomics and pharmaco- tures (p. 93). However, contrary to such popu-
genetics are sets of technologies that seek to lar PGD representations as creating “designer
custom-design drugs and nutrients that re- babies” for trivial or self-interested reasons,
spond specifically to individuals’ particular ge- Franklin & Roberts depicted couples who
netic combinations. Rather than considering were highly sensitive to the related ethical is-
the health needs of a population, there is a sues regarding not only their own choices, but
growing interest in developing diagnostic and also the way those choices affected broader so-
therapeutic interventions and services meant cial and policy arenas. In this sense, the cou-
to contain risk at the individual level. Such ser- ples, along with legislators, physicians, coun-
vices will be expensive, ignore social and po- selors, and others, participated in innovating
litical causes of disease and disorder, and are new ethical and social pathways.
often bound to biological constructs of race Tissue engineering (TE), stem cells, and
and definitions of risk. In the process, defini- anti-aging techniques, collectively referred
tions of health, normality, and deficiency will to as regenerative medicine, are among the
be reformulated. most significant transformative technologies.
A segment of the sizable literature on re- As Franklin (2005) puts it, “What is evident. . .
productive medicine has focused on techni- are emergent models of human life in which
cal assists to reproduction (which will not be who we are, and what we are made up of,
covered in this review), but is turning atten- can be extracted and utilized in ways that are
tion to trait selection that can occur during as- not only about the reuse of existing parts, but
sisted reproduction procedures. This may in- their redefinition” (p. 63). Stem cells are early-
volve altering or selecting for certain traits in development cells that can mature into al-
an embryo and the selective embryo implan- most all tissues given the right circumstances
tation or genetic screening and selective abor- (growth factors, wound healing processes, and
tion to select traits (Buchanan et al. 2000). Of- chemical signaling, which can all be produced
ten perjoratively called “cosmetic genetics,” in the body or staged in the lab), making
selection may be done to eliminate embryos them powerful therapeutic tools for repair
with genes for life-threatening disorders or to and replacement. In a strict sense, stem cell

AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
technologies are not true enhancement tech- Importantly, tissue engineering and stem
nologies any more than are other therapies cell science are productive and enhancing in
that improve health. But in one of the only another sense. That is, by establishing infras-
TE: tissue
engineering ethnographic explorations of stem cell sci- tructures, linking research and market struc-
ence, Franklin makes the point that stem tures with innovating business models in con-
cells, as both technologically assisted and nat- junction with health care policy strategies,
urally pluripotent, are potential enhancers of scientists and managers stabilize these emerg-
human life that are themselves already ening fields in ways that will enable further
hanced. Removed from their bodily habitats, development of enhancement technologies
the cells have been altered from either em- (Hogle 2004b).
bryonic or adult states to survive under for-
eign conditions and perform specified tasks.
It is their capacity for self-transmutation that CONCLUSIONS
promises a source of never-ending, flexible Corporeal sufficiency as perceived in norma-

augmentations. Most relevant for the study of tive legal, political, medical, and cultural nar-
enhancement technologies is the way engi- ratives becomes a reference point for con-
neered cells and tissues constitute a different sidering what is necessary or desirable for
sort of exchange economy, where supply is a properly functioning body. But notions of
theoretically readily available yet restricted by sufficiency change as expectations of what it
politics and new market forms and the value takes to sustain life changes in various politi-
comes from the fact that it is human material, cal, economic, and social contexts and across
something previously thought not to be trade- time periods. The ability to create alternate
able as a commodity (Franklin 2001, Waldby body forms and functions already exists, and
2002). many novel ways of enhancing human capabil-
The ability to generate whole, complex ities are emerging that will have broad effects
tissues requires fabrication techniques that on individuals and social life. Descriptions of
may involve combinations with synthetic ma- the variety of enhancement technologies and
terials in ways that go far beyond enhance- their ethical and social implications are most
ment techniques found in prosthetics design substantial in bioethics literature and popular
or genetic techniques alone (Hogle 2003). TE media accounts to date. Many of the ongo-
combines knowledge from developmental bi- ing investigations of subjectivity and identity,
ology, biomaterials science, and chemical en- knowledge production, and the relation of
gineering. In this way, TE goes beyond re- technologies and the body, however, have laid
producing function (as in organ transplants the groundwork for important future work on
or artificial parts) to understanding and re- emerging enhancement technologies and the
designing fundamental life processes, using body.
directed self-assembly and other engineering Creating and sustaining enhancement re-
techniques. With this knowledge, it is pos- quires work. Scientific and managerial prac-
sible to design human biological materials to tices and techniques, cultural assumptions
desired specifications. In fact, tissue engineers about normality and deficiency, consump-
are working on artificial tissues that are poten- tion behaviors, commodification and ex-
tially stronger, more resilient, and more func- change processes, regulatory forms of power,
tional in terms of cell signaling and protein and institutional contexts interact to create
interactions. Although most were just trying new forms of agency and sociality. In ad-
to find workable biological substitutes, many dition to considering enhancement within
of the researchers I interviewed felt it was an cost-benefit or entitlement-based frameworks
inherent part of their responsibility to create as bioethicists often do or studying poten-
something better than human. tial forms of exploitation, risk, social justice,
712 Hogle
AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15
and other concerns as many social researchers cial conditions and processes that shape
do, anthropologists should consider the so- enhancement technologies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge the support of The Greenwall Foundation and the National Sci-
ence Foundation (SES 96575) for portions of this review, in particular the research on tissue
engineering and stem cell research.
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Contents ARI 12 August 2005 20:29
Annual Review of
Anthropology
Volume 34, 2005
Contents
Frontispiece
Sally Falk Moore p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p xvi
Prefatory Chapter
Comparisons: Possible and Impossible

Sally Falk Moore p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 1
Archaeology
Archaeology, Ecological History, and Conservation

Frances M. Hayashida p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p43
Archaeology of the Body
Rosemary A. Joyce p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 139
Looting and the World’s Archaeological Heritage: The Inadequate
Response
Neil Brodie and Colin Renfrew p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 343
Through Wary Eyes: Indigenous Perspectives on Archaeology
Joe Watkins p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 429
The Archaeology of Black Americans in Recent Times
Mark P. Leone, Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, and Jennifer J. Babiarz p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 575
Biological Anthropology
Early Modern Humans

Erik Trinkaus p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 207
Metabolic Adaptation in Indigenous Siberian Populations
William R. Leonard, J. Josh Snodgrass, and Mark V. Sorensen p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 451
The Ecologies of Human Immune Function
Thomas W. McDade p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 495
vii
Linguistics and Communicative Practices
New Directions in Pidgin and Creole Studies

Marlyse Baptista p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p33
Pierre Bourdieu and the Practices of Language
William F. Hanks p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p67
Areal Linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia
N.J. Enfield p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 181
Communicability, Racial Discourse, and Disease
Charles L. Briggs p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 269
Will Indigenous Languages Survive?
Michael Walsh p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 293

Linguistic, Cultural, and Biological Diversity
Luisa Maffi p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 599
International Anthropology and Regional Studies
Caste and Politics: Identity Over System

Dipankar Gupta p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 409
Indigenous Movements in Australia
Francesca Merlan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 473
Indigenous Movements in Latin America, 1992–2004: Controversies,
Ironies, New Directions
Jean E. Jackson and Kay B. Warren p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 549
Sociocultural Anthropology
The Cultural Politics of Body Size

Helen Gremillion p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p13
Too Much for Too Few: Problems of Indigenous Land Rights in Latin
America
Anthony Stocks p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p85
Intellectuals and Nationalism: Anthropological Engagements
Dominic Boyer and Claudio Lomnitz p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 105
The Effect of Market Economies on the Well-Being of Indigenous
Peoples and on Their Use of Renewable Natural Resources
Ricardo Godoy, Victoria Reyes-Garcı́a, Elizabeth Byron, William R. Leonard,
and Vincent Vadez p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 121
viii Contents
An Excess of Description: Ethnography, Race, and Visual Technologies

Deborah Poole p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 159
Race and Ethnicity in Public Health Research: Models to Explain
Health Disparities
William W. Dressler, Kathryn S. Oths, and Clarence C. Gravlee p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 231
Recent Ethnographic Research on North American Indigenous
Peoples
Pauline Turner Strong p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 253
The Anthropology of the Beginnings and Ends of Life
Sharon R. Kaufman and Lynn M. Morgan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 317
Immigrant Racialization and the New Savage Slot: Race, Migration,
and Immigration in the New Europe

Paul A. Silverstein p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 363
Autochthony: Local or Global? New Modes in the Struggle over
Citizenship and Belonging in Africa and Europe

Bambi Ceuppens and Peter Geschiere p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 385
Caste and Politics: Identity Over System
Dipankar Gupta p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 409
The Evolution of Human Physical Attractiveness
Steven W. Gangestad and Glenn J. Scheyd p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 523
Mapping Indigenous Lands
Mac Chapin, Zachary Lamb, and Bill Threlkeld p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 619
Human Rights, Biomedical Science, and Infectious Diseases Among
South American Indigenous Groups
A. Magdalena Hurtado, Carol A. Lambourne, Paul James, Kim Hill,
Karen Cheman, and Keely Baca p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 639
Interrogating Racism: Toward an Antiracist Anthropology
Leith Mullings p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 667
Enhancement Technologies and the Body
Linda F. Hogle p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 695
Social and Cultural Policies Toward Indigenous Peoples: Perspectives
from Latin America
Guillermo de la Peña p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 717
Surfacing the Body Interior
Janelle S. Taylor p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 741
Contents ix
Theme 1: Race and Racism
Race and Ethnicity in Public Health Research: Models to Explain

Health Disparities
William W. Dressler, Kathryn S. Oths, and Clarence C. Gravlee p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 231
Communicability, Racial Discourse, and Disease
Charles L. Briggs p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 269
Immigrant Racialization and the New Savage Slot: Race, Migration,
and Immigration in the New Europe
Paul A. Silverstein p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 363
The Archaeology of Black Americans in Recent Times
Mark P. Leone, Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, and Jennifer J. Babiarz p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 575
Interrogating Racism: Toward an Antiracist Anthropology

Leith Mullings p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 667
Theme 2: Indigenous Peoples
The Effect of Market Economies on the Well-Being of Indigenous

Peoples and on Their Use of Renewable Natural Resources
Ricardo Godoy, Victoria Reyes-Garcı́a, Elizabeth Byron, William R. Leonard,
and Vincent Vadez p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 121
Recent Ethnographic Research on North American Indigenous
Peoples
Pauline Turner Strong p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 253
Will Indigenous Languages Survive?
Michael Walsh p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 293
Autochthony: Local or Global? New Modes in the Struggle over
Citizenship and Belonging in Africa and Europe
Bambi Ceuppens and Peter Geschiere p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 385
Through Wary Eyes: Indigenous Perspectives on Archaeology
Joe Watkins p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 429
Metabolic Adaptation in Indigenous Siberian Populations
William R. Leonard, J. Josh Snodgrass, and Mark V. Sorensen p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 451
Indigenous Movements in Australia
Francesca Merlan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 473
Indigenous Movements in Latin America, 1992–2004: Controversies,
Ironies, New Directions
Jean E. Jackson and Kay B. Warren p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 549
x Contents
Linguistic, Cultural, and Biological Diversity

Luisa Maffi p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 599
Human Rights, Biomedical Science, and Infectious Diseases Among
South American Indigenous Groups
A. Magdalena Hurtado, Carol A. Lambourne, Paul James, Kim Hill,
Karen Cheman, and Keely Baca p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 639
Social and Cultural Policies Toward Indigenous Peoples: Perspectives
from Latin America
Guillermo de la Peña p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 717
Indexes
Subject Index p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 757

Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 26–34 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 771
Cumulative Index of Chapter Titles, Volumes 26–34 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 774
Errata
An online log of corrections to Annual Review of Anthropology chapters

may be found at http://anthro.annualreviews.org/errata.shtml
Contents xi

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AR254-AN34-33 ARI 25 August 2005 15:15

Department of Medical History and Bioethics and Department of Anthropology,

Annu. Rev. Anthropol. Key Words

herent body of literature; rather, works from

prisingly few exist to date on technological

that may have enhanced capabilities. This re-

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 697

The norm becomes the way we ought to be.

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 699

techniques commonplace. Anabolic steroids one has a desire to eliminate a characteristic

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 701

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 703

Haiken (1997) demonstrated the relation

technical expertise in reconstructive surgery

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 705

lar characteristics may simply be seen as old male body).

that cosmetic surgery is usually seen as more

created. als, primarily for learning purposes and en-

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 707

personal accomplishments. desired characteristics of corporate and world

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 709

can be changed as biology-as-information is moral evaluation, privileges the single stand-

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 711

promises a source of never-ending, ﬂexible Corporeal sufﬁciency as perceived in norma-

the gendered body. Camera Obscura 28:207–39

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 713

NJ: Princeton Univ. Press

Kalb C. 1999. Our quest to be perfect. Newsweek Aug. 9:52–60

Martin E. 2000. Mind-body problems. Am. Ethnol. 27(3):569–90

www.annualreviews.org • Enhancement Technologies 715

Volume 34, 2005

Sally Falk Moore p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p xvi

Comparisons: Possible and Impossible

Archaeology, Ecological History, and Conservation

Early Modern Humans

Linguistics and Communicative Practices

New Directions in Pidgin and Creole Studies

Michael Walsh p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 293

International Anthropology and Regional Studies

Caste and Politics: Identity Over System

The Cultural Politics of Body Size

An Excess of Description: Ethnography, Race, and Visual Technologies

and Immigration in the New Europe

Citizenship and Belonging in Africa and Europe

Theme 1: Race and Racism

Race and Ethnicity in Public Health Research: Models to Explain

Interrogating Racism: Toward an Antiracist Anthropology

Theme 2: Indigenous Peoples

The Effect of Market Economies on the Well-Being of Indigenous

Linguistic, Cultural, and Biological Diversity

Subject Index p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 757

Cumulative Index of Chapter Titles, Volumes 26–34 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 774

An online log of corrections to Annual Review of Anthropology chapters

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