29781

Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals

Márcio da Cunha Vilar

Comments

What are pharmaceuticals and how do they turn into what they become? Why and how do some substances and/or biochemical compounds become authorized pharmaceuticals (or relevant parts of them) to be used in the specific ways that licensed prescribers explain while others do not? How do pharmaceuticals relate to society broadly speaking, and to different living conditions, moralities and worldviews, including particular perceptions about what is healthy and what is sick or ill, and what care means? What do pharmaceuticals mean for, which role do they play in people’s lives, and what do people do out of them? In this seminar, participants are going to know how anthropologists have been approaching these and further related questions, and what they have found out and come up with so far. By reading, presenting and discussing from classic to more recent ground-breaking anthropological literature, participants are going to have an overall perspective about central issues concerning, among others, bio- and immunopolitics, biocapital and biovalue, the pharmaceuticalization of life, scientific controversies, drug regulation and the production of medical evidence. In addition, participants are also going to have the opportunity of watching and discussing in classroom appropriate short documentary films. Finally, the seminar will also opportunely provide time slots for the discussion of research projects of participants who write or plan to write their master thesis about topics related to pharmaceuticals. By the end of the seminar, participants will have at their disposal an inventory of concepts to critically think about the multiple impacts (i.e. not only therapeutic but also sociocultural, legal and political-economic ones) and the significance of pharmaceuticals on people’s lives and vice versa anthropologically. That includes learning to think about the ways through which people produce and deal with pharmaceuticals in light of delineable notions of personhood that (re)emerge and circulate under specific historical circumstances. Introductory reading Hardon, Anita and Sanabria, Emilia. (2017). Fluid Drugs: Revisiting the Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals. Annual Review of Anthropology 46: 117-132 http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102116-041539 close

Additional appointments

Tue, 2025-04-15 12:00 - 14:00