Chimerism, Mosaicism and the Cultural Construction of Kinship

Hird, Myra J.

doi:10.1177/1363460704042165

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…9. Hird (2004), for example, argues that social ideas about kinship are built on (cultural ideas of) the biological or natural. Chimerism is an example of new biology that disrupts cultural constructions of kinship based on the (ever-shifting) ground of (old) biological facts about heredity and 'blood' relations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microchimerism in the Mother(land): Blurring the Borders of Body and Nation

Martin

2010

Body & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article traces the ubiquitous geopolitical metaphors used by researchers in the field of pregnancy-related microchimerism. In this research domain, immunologists and medical geneticists locate ‘non-self’ cells in women by marking Y chromosomes in cells derived from their sons. In the course of this research trajectory, experiments have yielded a number of surprises, beginning with the very presence of these cells in women decades after pregnancy. This finding confounded the expectations predicted by classical immunology, which posits the destruction of such ‘foreign’ entities. Once they were known to be present, fetal cells were implicated in pathological and destructive activity. In a series of reorientations in which metaphor, theory and practice are entangled with matter, the characterization of these cells has shifted from invaders to insurgent foreigners to assimilated productive immigrants. The article reflects on this rich domain of material-semiotic practice to demonstrate that the case of fetomaternal cell trafficking contributes to a growing uneasiness with dominant ontologies of bodies as bounded, defended, pure collectives of homogeneous inhabitants.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microchimerism in the Mother(land): Blurring the Borders of Body and Nation

Martin

2010

Body & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Haraway, 1991;Ingold and Palsson, 2013;Landecker, 2015). Within this milieu, chimerism has emerged as a way to understand ourselves and other life forms (Hird, 2004;Landecker, 2007;Dupre, 2010;Margulis et al, 2011;Lappé and Landecker, 2015). While Mü ller- Wille and Rheinberger (2012, p. 206) insist that the future implications for molecular biology adumbrated in a term like chimeric ''still lie beyond reckoning'' such a term points to new developments in approaching and understanding hereditary materials in bioscientific research.…”

Section: Chimerism and Horizontal Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Marked ‘h’ for human: Chimeric life and the politics of the human

Hinterberger

2017

BioSocieties

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chimeric life forms constitute mergers between two or more distinct beings. This article explores the making of interspecies mammalian chimeras in biomedical research where the availability of human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells has opened the way to radically humanize the biology of other organisms. By showing how chimeric life forms are foundational to biology, however, I loosen the compelling grip that chimeras have as liminal and monstrous. To the story of the chimera, this article replies with another story, that of the human as it is differently enacted at the levels of cells, tissues and organisms. Drawing on fieldwork conducted at a stem cell laboratory and farm animal research institute, the paper argues that meanings of the human become elusive and unknown when intertwined with chimeric life. In conclusion, the article reflects on the transforming politics of the human in biomedical research.

show abstract

“…One of the most striking aspects of recent research on the maternal-fetal relation in immunology is the role of the placenta in mediating the passage of small amounts of genetic material between the fetus and the mother, and in far more extensive ways than previously imagined. 2 This phenomenon, known as fetal-maternal micro-chimerism, describes the identifiable presence of more than one set of genes in the bloodstream or in other tissues and organs (Hird, 2004a;Martin, 2010aMartin, , 2010b. This form of chimerism occurs at the genetic level, rather than at the level of the organism as a whole, and is defined as 'micro-chimerism' because 'the presence, in the same body, of more than one genetically distinct cell population [.…”

Section: A Placental (Bio)ethics?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Placental relations

Fannin

2014

Feminist Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The placenta's role as a mediating passage between bodies has been a conceptual resource for feminist theorists and philosophers interested in developing more nuanced explanations of the maternal-fetal relation, a relation that has tended to be identified with maternal and fetal bodies rather than with the placenta between them. I draw on efforts by philosopher Luce Irigaray and her readers to theorise placental relations as a model for the negotiation of differences. In her more recent work, Irigaray figures the placenta as an enveloping space of metaphorical enclosure. The placental relation in Irigaray's work thus offers insights into the temporal structure of her theory of becoming and can inform a more 'materialist' account of pregnancy. I then consider how placental relations are conceptual resources for re-imagining relations of self-other in pregnancy, and for addressing emergent ethical concerns over the transformation of the placenta into a scientific object.

show abstract

Chimerism, Mosaicism and the Cultural Construction of Kinship

Cited by 16 publications

References 27 publications

Microchimerism in the Mother(land): Blurring the Borders of Body and Nation

Microchimerism in the Mother(land): Blurring the Borders of Body and Nation

Marked ‘h’ for human: Chimeric life and the politics of the human

Placental relations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About