Mutable environments and permeable human bodies★

Abstract

Geologists have declared an epochal transition to the Anthropocene, formally recognizing humans as the driving force of destructive global change; a distinction can no longer be made between human history and natural history. Certain commentators argue that Capitalocene better characterizes the situation, given that the effects of planetary decimation and global warming are not equally distributed among humans. A second conceptual change has recently taken place in which genomes are recognized as reactive to environmental stimuli both external and internal to the human body. In the post‐genomic era, genes neither initiate life nor drive human development. The science of the bourgeoning field of behavioural epigenetics is introduced, followed by illustrative examples of environmentally caused epigenetic changes that impact negatively on health. Epigeneticists routinely delimit their attention to detecting measurable changes at the molecular level. It is argued that anthropological contributions that incorporate subjective accounts of embodiment involving past and present events are crucial in order to better situate and account for biological differences and health outcomes historically, ecologically, and politically. Discussion of the microbiome provides a cautionary reminder that microbes are the ultimate driving force of health and illness. In conclusion, the Earth Optimism movement is briefly introduced, as is the concept of resilience, but alone these positive moves will not curb unremitting global warming.

The Global Psyche: Experiments in the Ethics and Politics of Mental Life

“…Margaret Lock's article demands that we recognize the most dramatic stakes of the psyche's epistemic and institutional contexts. Humanity itself—and the selfhood enshrined in the psyche's material homes of brain and body—is increasingly undone by anthropogenic effects ricocheting back onto the most vulnerable from poisoned environments (Lock 2018). Lock's in‐depth look at the rapidly changing field of environmental epigenetics in the context of the Anthropocene situates epigenetics as both a “gateway for a paradigm shift in molecular biology” and tool of politics and accountability that can render environmental destruction and its effects on human life visible.…”

The Anthropology of Plastics: An Agenda for Local Studies of a Global Matter of Concern

“…Recent years have seen an increasing recognition among medical anthropologists of the relationships between human and environmental health. In particular, they have drawn attention to the damaging effects of anthropogenic and anthropocenic environmental changes on human health and well‐being and the uneven distribution of these effects across populations (e.g., Baer and Singer ; Gamlin ; Janes and Corbett ; Lock ; Oliver‐Smith ; Singer , , ; Whitmarsh ). Despite the impact of plastics on health and the environment, however, there is a remarkable lack of anthropological research on plastics.…”

How to do things with epigenetics: An investigation into the use of metaphors to promote alternative approaches to health and social science, and their implications for interdisciplinary collaboration

“…Lock has now summarised her thoughts on epigenetics and anthropology in a chapter on epigenetics for a handbook on genomics, health and society (Lock, 2018a). We shall therefore mainly focus on this chapter, which appeared in Part 4 of the handbook entitled 'Crossing boundaries', as well as some earlier work, such as Lock (2013) in which she sets out to chart new directions for (medical and social) anthropology, and two recent articles on situated biologies (Niewöhner & Lock, 2018), and on permeable bodies (Lock, 2018b).…”