Premium
Trees and seas of information: Alien kinship and the biopolitics of gene transfer in marine biology and biotechnology
Author(s) -
Helmreich Stefan
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.2003.30.3.340
Subject(s) - biopower , kinship , politics , alien , tree of life (biology) , biology , gene transfer , sociology , anthropology , gene , political science , genetics , law , phylogenetics , citizenship
Examining discussions of "lateral gene transfer" in marine biology and biotechnology, I maintain that "natural" bonds between genealogy and classification in biology may be dissolving. I argue that marine microbial biology is good to think about with the rise of new kinships and biopolitics organized less around practices of "sex" than politics of "transfer." I draw on fieldwork among academic and industry marine biologists to explore implications of rhizomatic, informatic, watery articulations of "bare life." [biopolitics, kinship, gene transfer, anthropology of science, maritime anthropology, biotechnology]