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

Simpson, Bob

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 25, 2016
• 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.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1439636