A questão principal que a presente tese procura investigar é se os corações artificiais produzem instabilidades ontológicas em termos do que é humano e não-humano. A atenção dada às práticas experimentais laboratoriais, clínicas e cirúrgicas permite iluminar os arranjos heterogêneos por meio dos quais tais dispositivos médicos emergem. Nas três etapas de pesquisa testes in vitro, testes in vivo e avaliação em humanos foi possível observar uma modulação entre a boa participação e um envolvimento não produtivo que deve ser evitado para o sucesso das intervenções. As relações instituídas nas práticas médico-científicas evidenciam a participação como um dado fundamental para a produção das tecnologias cardíacas, assim como a imaginação que diz respeito não apenas à idealização, mas também aos processos criativos emergidos na concretização/realização de procedimentos laboratoriais e clínicos, sendo, portanto, corporificada. O primeiro capítulo trata dos testes in vitro e tem como foco a problematização do eixo natureza e cultura. O segundo capítulo parte dos testes in vivo para problematizar as relações entre animais humanos e não-humanos. E por fim, o terceiro capítulo tem como foco a avaliação em humanos, problematizando as fronteiras entre a vida e a morte. Trata-se de uma divisão temática esquemática, embora a permuta ontológica entre natureza e cultura, humanos e não-humanos e vida e morte percorra todo o trabalho. Diante do alto índice de mortes associadas à insuficiência cardíaca, os corações artificiais são projetados como alternativas ou soluções auxiliares ao transplante de órgãos para pacientes que se tornam refratários aos tratamentos medicamentosos. Além de produzirem novos corpos e corporalidades, os corações artificiais trazem novos dilemas e recursos para a gestão da vida, podendo operar como uma pedagogia e preparação para a morte, na medida em que a suspende/prorroga, porém mantendo-a próxima. / The main question that the present thesis seeks to investigate is whether artificial hearts produce ontological instabilities in terms of what is human and non-human. The attention given to experimental laboratory, clinical and surgical practices allows to illuminate the heterogeneous arrangements through which such medical devices emerge. In the three stages of the research in vitro tests, in vivo tests and evaluation in humans it was possible to observe a modulation between good participation and an unproductive involvement that should be avoided for the success of the interventions. The relationships established in the medical-scientific practices show participation as a fundamental fact for the production of cardiac technologies, as well as the imagination - which concerns not only to idealization, but also to creative processes emerge in the accomplishment of laboratory and clinical procedures, being, therefore, embodied. The first chapter deals with in vitro tests and focuses on the problematization of nature and culture. The second chapter address the in vivo tests to problematize the relations between human and non-human animals. Lastly, the third chapter focuses on human clinical assessment, problematizing the boundaries between life and death. It is a schematic thematic division, although the ontological exchange between nature and culture, human and nonhuman, and life and death runs through the work. In face of high death rate associated with heart failure, artificial hearts are designed as alternatives or auxiliary solution to organ transplantation for patients who become refractory to drug treatments. In addition to producing new bodies and embodiments, artificial hearts bring new dilemmas and resources for the management of life, and can operate as a pedagogy and preparation for death, inasmuch as the devices suspend/extend the death, keeping it close.

This thesis is concerned with plants, chronic illness and medicine in Oku, Northwest Region, Cameroon. I focus on patient strategies to obtain effective medical outcomes, and on how such outcomes may be obtained through seeking traditional medicine in Oku. I argue that biomedical notions of efficacy do not appropriately represent the central and diverse roles that plants play in traditional medicine nor do they correctly represent how people in Oku evaluate the efficacy of plant-based traditional medicine. I argue instead that efficacy must be understood in terms of the emic concept of power. This power is understood to be located in the Oku landscape, which is still uniquely forested and said to embody powerful ancestral spirits. With plants as the primary tangible material of power, and traditional doctors in Oku as those who claim exclusive rights to manipulate and disperse such power, I discuss traditional medicine in Oku as a system wherein power from the natural landscape is drawn upon to challenge harmful powers feared to derive from the social arena. Using the pragmatic and phenomenological approaches, I show how patients evaluate the efficacy of a medical treatment based on their bodily experiences, and how their actions, as revealed in their therapeutic trajectories, reveal their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a given diagnosis and/or therapy. I discuss how enduring illness generates and exacerbates bodily, treatment-outcome, social, and psychological uncertainties. In this context, effective outcomes can be understood as those which address and limit these uncertainties and anxieties while offering ways to imagine hopeful prognoses. This thesis then outlines the major sources of uncertainty, people’s responses to such uncertainties, and what people might achieve in terms of limiting uncertainties by seeking traditional medicine in Oku.

Lamaholot is a population found on Flores and in the Solor Archipelago of Eastern Indonesia. The population is village-based and divided into patrilineal descent groups. Marriage is coupled with bridewealth and follows a pattern of asymmetric marriage alliance between descent groups. This thesis shows that a small group of Lamaholot in the administrative regency of East Flores shares certain traditions with a neighbouring population called Ata Tana ‘Ai. Ata Tana ‘Ai are a sub-group of the Sikka population in the administrative regency of Sikka. Descent group among Ata Tana ‘Ai are matrilineal and households were traditionally based in scattered gardens. Marriage is not coupled with bridewealth and instances of asymmetric marriage alliance between descent groups are here a consequence rather than a cause of marriage. The current fieldsite seems to have been part of the ceremonial system of Ata Tana ‘Ai and also to have shared a tradition of dispersed settlement in the gardens. The descent groups might initially have been matrilineal, but in the recent past there was also a habit of dividing children between the parental descent groups. Recent traditions of dividing children can be found throughout central-east Flores, but seemingly not to same extent as at the fieldsite. The payment of elephant’s tusks was a central feature in the acquisition of group members at the fieldsite and could be paid by both men and women. These payments were not necessarily tied to marriage and did not serve as bridewealth. In the last century outer social factors, such as the Catholic mission and the creation of the Dutch colonial state, have resulted in that many of the traditional practices at the fieldsite have been replaced with traditions from Lamaholot elsewhere. The residence pattern is now village-based, but gardens retain a central social and ritual position. The role of the elephant’s tusks has taken different expressions throughout this period of social change, and alongside the changing role of tusks, the traditional social and material authority of women at the fieldsite has declined, whereas that of men has increased. This thesis examines the current and the traditional practices in and around the fieldsite, and focuses on local definitions of descent group, kinship, and inheritance, looking at both biological and social perspectives.

This thesis is on the Turkish-speaking community, comprising Turkish-Cypriots, Turks from Turkey, and Kurds from Turkey, and ethnic community football in London, which has been conceptualised as a transnational social field. It is intended as a contribution in the debates on the growing importance of issues of diasporic communities, their identity politics, and cultural integration in a context of ‘super-diversity’. There are three major analytical themes. The first is transnational diaspora politics, which is redefined to comprise any relationship of power or interest by mobilising diasporic connections. I argue that the Turkish-speaking community uses ethnic football as a means for communal mobilisation around and representation of their ethnic identity in the public space of London, a city of unique political-economic and symbolic significance for the Cyprus Conflict which helped create the Turkish and Greek Cypriot football leagues in London. I show that the Turkish-speaking community has ever since used football to create and maintain a bridge between London and all the different locations of the community including Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, and beyond. The second major theme is collective identities and how they are (re)produced, represented, and manifested in the diaspora. I argue that the nature of the field of ethnic football as a familiar, open, and welcoming space conveniently positioned between the Turkish-speaking private sphere and the British/Londoner public space has been a major factor accounting for the effectiveness of various identity projects to be pursued within this field. Lastly, after presenting the historical link between modern competitive sports and masculinity, I claim that the one defining aspect of all the ethnic identities reproduced within the field is their masculine character. The last analytical theme is the cultural integration of immigrant communities. Without adopting a normative definition of cultural integration, I have considered the implications of involvement in ethnic community football in terms of belonging, social inclusion, marginalisation, and the psychological development and well-being of the individuals involved. The presented and analysed discussion rejects any automatic causal link between involvement in sports and integration or that involvement in mono-ethnic sporting organisations and segregation. Having reviewed a few exemplary organisations, which used football for integration purposes, and the nature of the ethnic community leagues, I have also argued in this thesis that the field of ethnic community football, again due to its specific nature, structure, and position between the private and public spaces, offers a great potential to be engaged by local and national governments in the service of integration policies.