NotNormativelyHuman 233
term gerontology, have been and still are crucial for the formation of
normativities of the human body in later life, or what Stephen Katz,
followingMartinKohli,hascalled"lifecourseregimes"(Katz,Cultural
Aging189). This is why Lawrence Cohen speaks of gerontology as a
field tied to the state: "Gerontology comes down from above.. ." (98).
Such a diagnosis holds true especially for the United States but also for
othercapitalistcountriesoftheGlobalNorth.
Once we proceed from the assumption that in gerontology somatic
temporality is frequently governmentalized, it is no longer a surprise to
also detect the presence of the calculus of instrumental reason in this
framework. Thus, when in gerontology (and also in other biomedical
sciences)"age"hascometobedefinedasfailingtoconformtothenew
standards for a "normal," "healthy," active, and thus productive adult
body, this identification has an often implicit price tag to it: "In such
models the body's role in later life appears as a passive and static effect
of factors of health, risk, and longevity, rather than as a material,
temporal, experiential, and cultural force of its own apart from such
factors"(KatzandGish41).
Katz and Gish's insistence on the passive role ascribed to elders in
gerontological research can be understood as addressing not only
physical features (e.g., the stereotype of the elderly as lethargic) but
also, in cultural terms, forms, and practices. For this latter aspect, Iris
Marion Young's concept of "passively unified groups" ("Gender" 724)
may be helpful. In a materialist, Sartrean framework, Young has
developed a concept of multi-personal identity, based not on actively
pursued joint objectives (as a social movement or political party would
have) but instead on the overall effects of the actions of others on
selected groups of people. She calls this passive form of identity
"seriality" ("Gender" 723-29). A serial collective is one "whose
efficientandeconomiccontrols,...ananatomo-politicsofthehumanbody.The
second, formed somewhat later, focused on the species body, the body imbued
withthemechanicsoflifeandservingasthebasisofthebiologicalprocesses..
. the level of health, life expectancy and longevity... their supervision was
affected through an entire series of interventionsand regulatory controls: a
biopoliticsofthepopulation. The disciplines of the body and the regulations of
thepopulationconstitutedthetwopolesaroundwhichtheorganizationofpower
overlifewasdeployed"(HistoryofSexuality139;italicsoriginal).