The boundless body: Cultural perspectives on xenotransplantation

Abstract

Today's technology is able to intervene in biological processes in a highly concrete way. Technology thus shapes and reshapes our world in a very special way, not just biologically but also culturally. This raises questions relevant to the cultural sciences. In this article I discuss biotechnology and cultural transformation by considering xenotransplantation. The focus is on patients who have received animal cells, and on their attempts to make it possible to handle both medical interventions and society's ideas about these technologies. This requires a shift from discourse analysis to a more action‐oriented analysis: to capture how people live the discourse. In this context, I view people's bodies as meeting places for different figures of thought and practices. My initial assumption is that this requires a demystification of the body, that is, interpretations proceeding from diversity and flexibility rather than fixed categories.