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Fifteenth Century Problems for the Twenty-First Century Gift: Human Tissue Transactions in Ethnically Diverse Societies

Simpson, Bob

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Abstract

The language of the ‘gift’ continues to be drawn upon in attempts to encourage altruistic organ and tissue donation. My aim here is to consider the anxieties that come into focus when this rhetoric is deployed in the context of ethnic minorities and, moreover, their donation practices are situated within universalistic discourses of charity and the gift. The article considers ideas of the body, debt, obligation, relationality, and solidarity, and how these fit within the overarching projects of society, modernity, and democracy when the market figures as an ever more prominent feature of such projects. Drawing on a variety of examples, the piece reflects on the movement of tissue across ethnically and culturally marked corporeal boundaries and highlights the tensions that arise from refusal as well as acceptance of such transactions.

Citation

Simpson, B. (2014). Fifteenth Century Problems for the Twenty-First Century Gift: Human Tissue Transactions in Ethnically Diverse Societies. Anthropological Forum, 24(4), 338-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2014.947356

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 28, 2014
Online Publication Date Sep 25, 2014
Publication Date Oct 1, 2014
Deposit Date Apr 28, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Anthropological Forum
Print ISSN 0066-4677
Electronic ISSN 1469-2902
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 4
Pages 338-350
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2014.947356
Keywords Altruism, Donation, Ethnic minorities, The gift, Titmuss.

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