תאריך:
ב', 28/12/202012:30-14:00
אנחנו שמחים להזמין אותכן לסמינר המחלקה לסוציולוגיה ואנתרופולוגיה באוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים. והפעם: ד״ר ליה טרגין-לזר, מאוניברסיטת קיימברידג' והטכניון, שתדבר על:
Unborn Souls and Speaking Bodies:
Emerging Technologies and their Orthodox Choreographies
יום שני, 28.12.20, בין השעות 12:30-14:00 בזום
קישור לזום - http://tinyurl.com/huji-socio8
מייל ליצירת קשר - leataragin@gmail.com
תקציר:
Whereas religion is commonly positioned in opposition to ‘modern’ science, new and emerging reproductive technologies entail an ontological choreography (Thompson 2005) which is inextricable from ideas of the sacred and the profane. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the expanding use of advanced technologies within reproductive biomedicine has ignited age-old tensions between science and religion, which are now part and parcel of individual reproductive decision-making instead of abstract philosophical and theological objects of inquiry. Drawing on anthropology of ethics, medical anthropology and feminist theory, in this lecture I examine how scientific knowledge and technologies are negotiated among ethnic and faith minorities - influencing their reproductive decisions and raising new ethical dilemmas. I ask: What types of ethical challenges and sensitivities do these reproductive technologies pose for ethnic and religious minorities? How does religion figure in practices as varied as egg and sperm donation, in vitro fertilization, infertility, pregnancy loss, contraception, and embryo cryopreservation? How are gender and race reified through these technologies? And how do these practices reconfigure state-minority relations?
Using ethnographic research collected among Orthodox Jews in Israel to address these questions, I analyze the Orthodox choreographies of Haredi Jews - the dynamics by which technical, scientific, gender, legal, political, financial, and theological sensitivities are coordinated to make an ethical life. These choreographies expose a particular reproductive logic that pays attention to a myriad of voices, such as unborn souls and speaking bodies - in conjunction with modern statistics and technology. In doing so, I demonstrate the multiple ways access to technology affects religious belief and observances. Exposing this creative and selective use of reproductive technology serves as a critical lens to undermine some of the basic assumptions that drive biomedicine today. As life sciences and technology continue to alter the world we live in, this study fuses ethnographic data with cutting edge theories in medical anthropology, anthropology of ethics and feminist technoscience to offer fresh ethical frameworks to influence these technological developments.
Dr Lea Taragin-Zeller is a social and medical anthropologist, with research interests situated at the intersection of reproduction, religion and health. She is a Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute and an affiliated scholar at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc), University of Cambridge. She is also affiliated with the Technion Institute of Technology, where she is leading a new research project on healthcare among religious and ethnic minorities in Israel. Lea has published her work in leading international journals, such as American Anthropologist and Medical Anthropology, and serves as a section editor in Cambridge’s journal of Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online.
Using ethnographic research collected among Orthodox Jews in Israel to address these questions, I analyze the Orthodox choreographies of Haredi Jews - the dynamics by which technical, scientific, gender, legal, political, financial, and theological sensitivities are coordinated to make an ethical life. These choreographies expose a particular reproductive logic that pays attention to a myriad of voices, such as unborn souls and speaking bodies - in conjunction with modern statistics and technology. In doing so, I demonstrate the multiple ways access to technology affects religious belief and observances. Exposing this creative and selective use of reproductive technology serves as a critical lens to undermine some of the basic assumptions that drive biomedicine today. As life sciences and technology continue to alter the world we live in, this study fuses ethnographic data with cutting edge theories in medical anthropology, anthropology of ethics and feminist technoscience to offer fresh ethical frameworks to influence these technological developments.
Dr Lea Taragin-Zeller is a social and medical anthropologist, with research interests situated at the intersection of reproduction, religion and health. She is a Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute and an affiliated scholar at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc), University of Cambridge. She is also affiliated with the Technion Institute of Technology, where she is leading a new research project on healthcare among religious and ethnic minorities in Israel. Lea has published her work in leading international journals, such as American Anthropologist and Medical Anthropology, and serves as a section editor in Cambridge’s journal of Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online.