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Anthropology, organ transplantation and the immune system: Resituating commodity and gift exchange

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  • Kierans, Ciara

Abstract

This article reflects on contributions from medical anthropology to our understanding of the bio-social and bio-political implications of renal transplantation. Taking up the idea of transplantation as a ‘complex’, a vast assemblage of people, places, practices and procedures which intersect medical, social and cultural domains, I point to a reliance in the anthropological literature on overly pre-determined conceptual frameworks, organised around a distinct polarisation between organ giving and receiving, where one side (supply) takes analytical, and indeed moral, precedence over the other (receipt). These frameworks tend to fail us when it comes to thinking about the wider social, cultural and political implications of transplant technologies. In an attempt to offer a less polarised view, I draw attention to the material and symbolic role of the immune system in transplantation and the ways in which it simultaneously shapes opportunities for procurement and the lived realities of recipiency. This helps us see the many complex ways in which suffering and inequality are constituted all along the variegated chains of supply and demand that are internal to, and made possible by, transplantation practices themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Kierans, Ciara, 2011. "Anthropology, organ transplantation and the immune system: Resituating commodity and gift exchange," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(10), pages 1469-1476.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:10:p:1469-1476
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.09.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Crowley-Matoka, Megan, 2005. "Desperately seeking "normal": the promise and perils of living with kidney transplantation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 821-831, August.
    2. Davis-Floyd, Robbie E., 1994. "The technocratic body: American childbirth as cultural expression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1125-1140, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Long, Yan, 2022. "Selling under stigma: The relational gender dynamics of becoming biolaborers in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).

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