Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots by Robbie Davis-Floyd; Joseph Dumit Review by: Janelle S.

Taylor Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Dec., 1999), pp. 509-510 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/649563 . Accessed: 26/12/2012 09:05
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BOOKREVIEWS

509 Although some authorsin this collection have tried to cast their contributions as highly differentfrom currentwork in medical anthropology, collectionis verymuch the in the stream-crossing boundaries between medical anthropologyand social and cultural studies of biotechnology and bioscience, exploringpractice,and disaggregating diversity in bioscience and medical settings. The collection would have benefited froma strongeditorialhandto tameexcesses of jargon and unfocused theorizing. Nevertheless,readerswill find most essays worthy of thoughtful consideration and should appreciatein particular theoretithe cal insightsandethnographic additionsto the corpusof studieson biomedicine.

"work objects" and "negotiatedorder,"to capture the practice and interactions of a highly complex multidisciplinary team, from social workers to all of the possible medicalsubspecialtiesengaged in fetal biology. She identifies the demise of territorialism of anearliereraandthroughthe wordsof her informants,conveys a sense of dynamismin thisworldof subspecialtymedicine. In her chapteron female patientsin an infertility clinic, Charis Cussins coins the (p. phrase"ontologicalchoreography" 192) to addresshow women treatedfor infertility are actively engaged in their "objectification"(p. 178). She takes an interestingposition, arguingthat agency is not necessarily lost throughtheuse of technology,whichshe illustrateswith well-analyzedinterview excerpts, covering patient interpretationsof successful and failed in vito fertilizationcycles. Dick Willems's highly focused essay on asthmadrugsidentifiesthe social life, culturalpower, and even biopower of pharmaceuticals:drugs"definediseases"and"reorganizethebodyby creatingnew identitiesfor it"(p. 118). The ethnographicslices in Vicky Singelton's studyof practicein a cytopathologylab in the UK convey the ambivalenceandindedecisions;the stabilterminacyof laboratory ity of instabilityis nicely analyzed through contrastingcomments of technologists, pathologists, and other physicians. Similarly, IsabelleBaszanger'sstudyof the emergence of a new medicalfield in Paris,"themedicine of pain,"comparestwo paincentersandprovides a social analysisof multidisciplinarity, and hierarchy, differenceleadingto different sciences of pain management-reminiscent of parallelworkby NorthAmericananthroBowker, and Star's pologists. Timmermans, essay on a nursinginterventionsclassification scheme providesan intriguinginterpretation of the modeling of "living organizationalmemory,""making visible"embodied knowledge, revealingwhatis "invisible"(p. 223).

Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots. Robbie Davis-Floyd and JosephDumit, eds. New York and London: Routledge,1998.x +358 pp.
JANELLES. TAYLOR

Departmentof Anthropology Universityof Oregon This collection of 16 original essays addressesthe rangeof ways in which technologies havecome to be involved in conception, The pregnancy,childbirth,andchildrearing. volume brings together the work of wellknown and less-establishedscholarsand includes autobiographical fictionalpieces and as well as essays based upon ethnographic research.It is a valuable additionto the vibrantliterature has sprungup aroundthe that intersectionof medical anthropology,feminist studies, and science and technology studies.Thematically,the book is organized around "chronologyof thecyborgbaby's the techno-organiclife cycle," with chapterson topics including infertility treatments,prenatal diagnosis, management of infants' pain,andchildren'scomputergames. Theoretically, the volume is unified by the authors'engagementwith the image of the

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510 cyborg, as famously set forth by Donna Haraway.The theoreticalassumptionsand commitmentsentailedin the image of the irreduciblyhybridcyborgmeshsomewhatuneasily, however,with thequitedifferentones emergingout of feministwritings,whichapand peal to the "natural" the "female"in order to critique(male) medicineand technology. Individual contributorsnavigate this tensionin differentways, suchthattheresulting volume is less a grandresolutionthana mappingof the extremely varied and interesting terrainwherethese two streamsmeet. Some essays sufferfrom an excess of jargon (including newly coined terms such as cyborgification),but overall the collection is highly readable.CyborgBabies is eminently suitablefor use in graduateandundergraduate teachingand will be indispensablereading for scholars in the many fields upon whichit touches.

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY

who appreciatethe common humanityrevealed in health-seekingactivitiesof human beings across cultures. Their emphases, and however,differ.Loustaunau Sobo focus on themulticultural contextof health,illness, and medical practice within the United States, whereas Romanucci-Ross, Moerman,andTancredi'svolume combinescritical analyses of Western medical ideology with studies illustratingthe resourcefulness of non-Western approaches to promoting healthandhealing. In TheCulturalContextof Health,Illness, and Medicine, MarthaLoustaunau,a sociologist, and Elisa Sobo, an anthropologist, combine their respective disciplinary towarda broader "sociocultural strengths apto proach" healthandillness (p.4). Theycontend that appreciationfor culturaldiversity and the unity of human sufferingis needed for aneffective medicalsystemin theUnited States,and theirtext underscoresthe importanceof examininghealth,illness, andmedicontext.LoustauThe Cultural Context of Health, Illness, cine withina multicultural nauandSobo's intentis to link sociocultural and Medicine. Martha0. Loustaunauand Elisa J. Sobo. Westport, CT: Bergin & systemsto healthandwell-beingandto highlightthe role of those linksin providing"just Garvey,1997. viii + 221 pp. andhumanehealthcare"in the UnitedStates The Anthropology of Medicine: From (p. 7). Culture to Method. 3rd ed. Lola RoThe text is organizedinto seven chapters manucci-Ross, Daniel E. Moerman, and thatbuild on this approach.Chapter1 conLaurenceR. Tancredi, eds. Westport,CT: siders how individualvalues and behaviors affecthealth,illness, anddisease.It describes Bergin & Garvey, 1997. xiv + 400 pp. clinical encountersdominatedby ethnocenATHENA MCLEAN contrismandidentifiestheneed forcultural Departmentof Sociology, Anthropology, siderationsin medical practice. Chapter2 and Social Work conditions(family, considershow structural CentralMichigan University ethnicity,social class, andgender)shapeoutTwo recentvolumes-The CulturalCon- comes, care seeking, access, and delivery. text of Health, Illness, and Medicine,a new Chapter3 examines health and illness over text by MarthaLoustaunauand Elisa Sobo, the life course and culturally diverse life andTheAnthropology 4, ofMedicine,a 3rdedi- stages.In Chapter the authorsexploreculin tion of an edited work by Lola Romanucci- turalvariations the way health,illness, and Ross, Daniel Moerman,and LawrenceTan- treatmentare conceptualized,and they discredi-examine the culturalbases of health, cuss the approaches of different kinds of illness, and Western scientific medicine. healersandpotential complementarity among Both volumes arewrittenby social scientists theirsystems. Chapter5 historicallylocates

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