La thèse proposée en regard des avancees technologiques récentes ayant trait au corps, d'explorer le statut du sujet lorsque celui-ci est place dans des situations ou la rationalité et l'individualité, mots-clés d'une représentation moderne de la subjectivité, ne peuvent définir le sujet en raison du rôle que les biotechnologies jouent en ces situations. L'analyse du contenu d'un corpus tire de l'anthropologie médicale touchant aux biotechnologies liées, d'un côte, à la reproduction et à la naissance, et, de l'autre, à la maladie, est développée. La conclusion montre que la subjectivité moderne, qui s'est transformée en une représentation contemporaine, est principalement caractérisée par une dissociation accrue entre corps et esprit qui s'exprime comme un acte d'objectivation du corps. L'objectivation du corps mise en lumière permet d'envisager le sujet contemporain comme découlant des possibilités d'automodification que la biotechnologie lui ouvre. Les perspectives éthique et politique que ce nouveau positionnement du sujet sont élaborées en terme de quête de l'homme intermédiaire et de préoccupation pour la durée (sustainability).

In Africa, the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, rapidly expanding industrial and extractive economies, uncontrolled economic growth, environmental and lifestyle changes, and the rising age of populations with better access to medicine have occasioned rising rates of cancer. Rwanda’s national cancer program has been hailed as a unique example of how to build clinical oncology into a public healthcare infrastructure. Using ethnographic data, interviews, and historical archives, I address three sets of questions: 1. What historical, economic, social, and political factors have shaped the development of the country’s cancer program? 2. How do local clinicians and patients experience cancer as a treatable chronic disease? And how is that experience affected by the development of a national oncology infrastructure and new biomedical technologies? 3. As an instance of the transnational private-public partnerships characteristic of global health interventions in postcolonial Africa, what successes, limitations, and challenges does this cancer program present for envisioning oncology programs elsewhere in the global south? What are the ethical, political, and epistemological stakes involved in different models of cancer care? This project contributes to a new chapter in medical anthropology, one focused on rising rates of cancer in contemporary Africa. I argue that Rwanda’s cancer project is an exercise in the construction of a new sense of sovereignty, rendered through the politics of life as onco-nationhood; that it is an effort to create a postcolonial polity whose citizen body is gifted care of a international caliber provided by a paternal state. In a critical moment of post-traumatic social reconstruction, national biomedicine is becoming the entity through which government seeks to fuse sovereign statehood and nationhood in the cause of a healthy Rwandan future. Theorizing this relationship holds at least one key to developing an anthropology of cancer in contemporary Africa. / Anthropology

Infertility is a common problem in the US, affecting approximately 1 in 8 couples of childbearing age, or over 7 million women nationwide. But while infertility affects women from across the socio-economic spectrum, it is by no means egalitarian in its distribution, nor uniform in its lived experience. Rather, evidence shows significant disparities by race, income, and educational status, in terms of overall prevalence of infertility, drivers and underlying causes of infertility, access to infertility services, and success rates after receiving infertility treatments. This dissertation seeks to examine some of the specific mechanisms and pathways by which these disparities arise and persist. First, I report findings from a document review of online reproductive health materials, concluding that information about the risks of infertility is differently available and targeted to different sectors of the population. This can lead to disadvantaged women having less information about strategies to prevent infertility, as well as being less likely to have symptoms of an infertility-causing condition diagnosed and treated in a timely way. The second paper builds upon and extends these hypotheses, investigating through key informant interviews how such targeted provision of infertility information comes to affect lived patient experiences of infertility. Finally, the third paper examines disparities in the way patients find and receive social support during an infertility journey. It undertakes a “cyber-ethnography” of an online infertility patient forum, examining how the forum’s discourse produces dominant and counter narratives of infertility, and enforces categories of belonging that impact how support is offered to users of the site. / Health Policy

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the occurrence, determinants and consequences of obesity among the Inuit people in the central Canadian Arctic, based on the Keewatin Health Assessment Study (KHAS), conducted during 1990/91 in 8 Inuit communities in the Northwest Territories (n=434 adults aged 18yr+). Data from three other surveys are included for comparison: (1) the 1190 Manitoba Heart Health Survey among 2200 predominantly Caucasian residents of the province of Manitoba; (2) the 1986-87 Northern Indian Chronic Disease Study among 704 Cree-Ojibwa Indians from Northern Ontario and Manitoba; and (3) the 1990-91 Chukotka Chronic Disease Survey among 362 Chuckchi and Inuit in coastal Chukotka in the Russian Far North. Judged by both body mass index and two skinfold thicknesses, obesity among the Inuit in the Keewatin region is as prevalent as it is in the general North American population. This is a new development over the past two or three decades, the result of rapidly changing physical activity, diet and other lifestyles. Obesity is more prevalent among women, among whom there is also a higher prevalence of central fat patterning. Age, education and non-smoking status (females only) are consistently identified as independent predictors of various obesity indices on multivariate analysis. While better educated men are more likely to be obese, the relationship is reversed in women, possibly due to the different sex roles and their associated stress levels in a rapidly acculturating and modernizing society. When different categories of obesity indices are compared, there is a consistent pattern of an increasing trend in blood pressure and one or more of the lipids but no significant change in glucose or insulin level. This observation distinguishes the Inuit and Chukchi from Caucasians and Amerindians. Even where a relationship exists, as with triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol, the magnitude of response is also lower among the Inuit. The differential effect of obesity on glucose, blood pressure and lipids in Inuit compared to non-Inuit suggests a type of selective insulin resistance, the underlying mechanism of obesity and several chronic diseases. The Inuit metabolism reflects their almost exclusive diet of fat and proteins. Apart from its public health importance, the study of Inuit obesity can shed some light into issues related to the peopling of the Americas: are the Inuit "exempt" from the "New World syndrome", and can the "thrifty genotype" explain the differential occurrence of diabetes among Arctic and Subarctic hunter-gatherers? It provides an opportunity to elucidate fundamental questions relating to the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in disease causation and distribution.

The focus of this dissertation is to assess the efficacy of current, manual craniofacial reproductive techniques using a series of controlled cases. Blind craniofacial reproductions were made by the same practitioner on 35 skulls of male and female Euroamericans ranging in age from 50--61. Photographs of the final facial reproductions were then compared to a photo gallery containing pictures of over 5000 individuals. Included in the comparison photo gallery were the in vivo photographs of the 35 research subjects. The comparison was made using the same facial recognition software that is used by international law enforcement agencies. Of the 35 test cases, 23 were considered by the software to be a match / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation provides the first in-depth bioarchaeological analysis of human skeletal remains from the Late Postclassic regional Maya capital of Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico. This study tests the hypothesis that the bioarchaeological evidence is consistent with Colonial accounts of frequent warfare and social strife at Mayapan. Frequencies of ante-, peri- and postmortem trauma were calculated for element portions, whole bones and individuals. To determine if particular subgroups were targeted, data were collected on age, sex and dental metrics and nonmetrics. Moderate frequencies of healed postcranial fractures were found, with most concentrated in the hands and feet. A high frequency of healed cranial trauma was found, mostly affecting frontal bones of males. Several head wounds appear to bear the imprint of the weapon responsible and thus were likely due to violence. Two cases of perimortem depressed cranial fractures were identified in the alley beside round structure Q-152. Identification of perimortem penetrating injuries of the thorax confirmed several suspected cases of violent death based on anomalous burials, in particular the mass graves associated with structures Q-162 and Q-79. The latter case presents a flint arrowhead embedded in a right scapula. Cut marks and chop marks were found in a number of bones from various parts of the skeleton and mainly represent postmortem manipulation. The mandible is a commonly modified element, which corresponds with Landa's assertion that mandibles were taken from victims of war as trophies. In addition, a calvaria exhibiting numerous cutmarks and two holes with polished edges, one at the apex and one in the base, suggests vertical placement on a pole for display. Overall, the bioarchaeological evidence is consistent with Colonial accounts of frequent warfare and social strife at Mayapan. This study demonstrates the utility of the contextual analysis of human remains, even fragmentary ones, to advancing our knowledge of ancient violence / acase@tulane.edu

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco with the University of California, Santa Barbara, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-04, Section: A, page: 1333. Adviser: Sharon Kaufman.

<p>Holt Cemetery is a historic potter's field in New Orleans that has been in active use for several centuries. One of the few below-ground cemeteries in New Orleans, it is one of the most culturally fascinating burial places in the city. In spite of being frequently visited by families (evidenced by the unique votive material left on grave plots) and the final resting place of several historic figures, Holt is threatened by a lack of conservation so extreme that the ground surface is littered with human remains and the cemetery is left unprotected against grave robbing. Many locals have expressed concern that occult rituals take place within Holt, promoting the theft of human bones, while others have expressed concern that the skeletal material is stolen to be sold. Attempts to map and document the cemetery were originally undertaken by archaeologists working in the area who intended to create a searchable database with an interactive GIS map. Additionally, the nonprofit group Save Our Cemeteries, which works to restore New Orleans' cemeteries and educate the public about their importance, has taken part in conservation work. As of today all the projects and preservation efforts involving the cemetery have ceased. This thesis documents and analyzes the skeletal material within the cemetery alongside the votive material and attempts to explain why Holt is allowed to exist in its current state of disrepair while still remaining a place of vivid expressive culture. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-04, Section: A, page: 1532. Adviser: Vicanne Adams.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco with the University of California, Berkeley, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-06, Section: A, page: 2336. Adviser: Charles L. Briggs.