TheMaterialismofBiologicalEncounters 83
of more rigid and systematic forms of population control, first directed
atminoritariancollectivestobelaterexpandedintomorecomplexforms
ofbiosecuritiesanda"governmentofspecies"(Ahujax),asthechapter
onthe"WaronTerror"willshow.
BiologicalTransitacrosstheAmericanHemisphere
The case studies related in the previous section may not be
particularly well-known (with the possible exception of "Typhoid
Mary") but they are useful, historically and conceptually, because they
refer to a moment when "the tentacles of [U.S. empire's] intervention"
(Ahujavii)penetratedintootherareasoftheglobeandbegantoexpose
its population to biological encounters of a highly undesirable kind. At
this historical juncture, when encounters with ethnic and cultural others
suddenly multiplied, biology and mobility were simultaneously shaping
factors. This authorizes us to forge a conceptual link between biotic
mobility and the spaces of the emerging American empire. Concerning
these, David Harvey has convincingly argued that spaces are not
"passive recipient[s] of a teleological process that starts from the center
andflowsoutwardstofilluptheentireglobe,"norarethey"neutralwith
respecttoclassstruggle"andothersocialandculturaldivisions(32,36).
Spaces are produced by and then filled with political decisions and
economic meanings, but also, as the next set of case studies will show,
filled with biological meanings and it remains to be seen how these
meaningsinteract,especiallywhenembodiedhumanmobilityintervenes
inexistingspatialarrangements.
Trackingthetransitofbiologicallifeformsacrossspace,inourcase,
the vast spaces of the American empire, is not a merely tabulatory
exercise which would produce a list of terrible events within an
"apocalyptichistory"(Bernsteinqtd.inAlbertini465),asitwouldbefor
epidemiologists or medical historians. In the perspective opened by
cultural critique, such tracking would need to engage biological life not
as presence so much than as arelation, a dialectical relation one to be
sure, between local factors and translocal mobility practices. The
requisitetermsbywhichIseektocapturethisrelationare"ecology"(for
thelocalist componentoutlined above)and"infection"(forthe mobility
of biological matter).Infectionis a term which captures the dialectical
conjunctionIamspeakingofbyhavingbothadynamiccomponent,the