A Postgenomic Body

Histories, Genealogy, Politics

Bibliographic Data

ID4866462
AuthorsMassimo Meloni (0000-0003-2570-3872, Deakin University, corresponding author), Maurizio Meloni
Year2018
Volume24
Issue3
Pages3-38
Publication date2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBody & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1357-034X • E-ISSN: 1460-3632
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1357034x18785445
PMID30166935
OpenAlexW2870073486
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited92

This article sets the stage for a genealogy of the postgenomic body. It starts with the current transformative views of epigenetics and microbiomics to offer a more pluralistic history in which the ethical problem of how to live with a permeable body - that is plasticity as a form of life - is pervasive in traditions pre-dating and coexisting with modern biomedicine (particularly humoralism in its several ramifications). To challenge universalizing narratives, I draw on genealogical method to illuminate the unequal distribution of plasticity across gender and ethnic groups. Finally, after analysing postgenomics as a different thought-style to genomics, I outline some of its implications for notions of plasticity. I argue that postgenomic plasticity is neither a modernistic plasticity of instrumental control of the body nor a postmodernist celebration of endless potentialities. It is instead closer to an alter-modernistic view that disrupts clear boundaries between openness and determination, individual and community

Epistemology · Philosophy · Psychology · Race, Genetics, and Society

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