Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures -- About the contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: a genealogy of medical materialities -- Part I Flesh and fluids -- 2 Of flesh and mesh: time, materiality, and health in surgical recovery -- 3 From attitudes to materialities: understanding bowel control for colorectal cancer patients in London -- 4 The life course of labia: female genital cutting in Somaliland -- 5 On 'being the problem': the ontological choreography of the infertile male -- Part II Infrastructures of care -- 6 Blood, lungs, and passports -- 7 'Time for tea': tea practices and care in a British hospice -- 8 'Regenerative medicine event': cells, soybeans, and a repurposing of ritual in Japan -- 9 The form that flattens -- Part III Health publics -- 10 On becoming a vegetable: life, nature, and healing for a hylozoic cult -- 11 Making the body local: the suburban shitizen -- 12 Of smoke and unguents: health affordances of sacred materiality -- 13 How photographs 'empower' bodies to act differently -- Part IV Responses -- Response: medical materialities, (post)genomics, and the biosocial -- Response: medical materialities, collections, and artefacts -- Index

List of Illustrations -- Notes on Contributors Foreword: Failure and Fragility: Towards a Material Culture of the End of the World as We Knew It -- Dimitris Dalakoglu 1. Introduction: An Anthropological of Failure -- 2. Miracle Materials: Material Disillusions in the Design Industry Camilla Sundwall (University College London, UK) -- 3. Deity Clothing as (In)Efficacy in a Hindu Devotional Group Urmila Mohan (University College London, UK) -- 4. Whitening Anxiety: Bottled Identity in the Emirates Aaron Lee Parkhurst (University College London, UK) -- 5. The Pleasure of Failure in Taiwan Gareth Breen (London School of Economics, UK) -- 6. Axes of Incoherence: Engagement and Failure Between Two Material Regimes of Christianity (Timothy Carroll, University College London, UK) -- 7. Destruction of Locality: The Role of Heritage in Crisis Syria Julie Shackelford (University College London, UK) -- 8. Mapping Failure: Unpacking the Digital Silence David Jeevendrampillai (University College London, UK) -- 9. Failed Assemblages: Materiality, Silence and Liberal Responses to 9/11 (Pwyll ap Stifin, University College London, UK) -- 10. When Ethnography Goes Wrong: A Study of Physical Failure and Shor Sociality (Charlotte Loris-Rodionoff, University College London, UK) -- 11. Holy Water and Testing Transparent Knowledge in the Ethiopian Orthodox Therapeutics (Sasha Antohin, University College London, UK) -- 12. Response: Reflections on the Notion of Material Failure in Anthropology (Dimitris Dalakoglou, University of Sussex, UK) -- 13: Response: Reflections on the Theoretical and Methodological Implications of a Failed Anthropology (Fiona McDonald, University College London, UK) -- Bibliography -- Index.

"What happens when objects behave unexpectedly or fail to do what they 'should'? Who defines failure? Is failure always bad? Rather than viewing concepts such as failure, incoherence or incompetence as antithetical to social life, this innovative new book examines the unexpected and surprising ways in which failure can lead to positive and creative results. Combining both theoretical and ethnographic approaches to failure, The Material Culture of Failure explores how failure manifests itself and operates in a variety of contexts. The editors present ten ethnographic encounters of failure - from areas as diverse as design, textiles, religion, beauty, and physical failure - covering Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Gulf. Identifying common themes such as interpersonal, national and religious articulations of power and identity, the book shows some of the underlying assumptions that are revealed when materials fail, designs crumble, or things develop unexpectedly. The first anthropological study dedicated to theorizing failure, this innovative collection offers fresh insights based on the latest scholarship. Destined to stimulate a new area of research, the book makes a vital contribution to material culture studies and related social science theory."--

Planned and unplanned migrations, diverse social practices, and emerging disease vectors transform how health and wellbeing are understood and negotiated. Simultaneously, familiar illnesses—both communicable and non-communicable—continue to affect individual health and household, community, and state economies. Together, these forces shape medical knowledge and how it is understood, how it comes to be valued, and when and how it is adopted and applied. Perceptions of physical and psychological wellbeing differ substantially across and within societies. Although cultures often merge and change, human diversity assures that different lifestyles and beliefs will persist so that systems of value remain autonomous and distinct. In this sense, culture can be understood as not only habits and beliefs about perceived wellbeing, but also political, economic, legal, ethical, and moral practices and values.