18 RüdigerKunow
Such an attention to the multifarious ways in which models and
arguments imported from biology as structure and knowledge are
presentinculturalconversationsandpracticescandomorethantakethe
representational critique of American Cultural Studies to another, vast
and largely untapped field of investigation; it actually returns us to the
thorny ur-question of the Humanities, namely how a given culture
imagines"thehuman,"whatplace,whatvalueisaccordedhumanlifein
cultural concepts and practices. Addressing these questions marks the
point at which the epistemological obligations of a materialist cultural
critique—describing a given cultural constellation—branch out into
ethicalobligations,theobligationtopreservebothplaceandpurposefor
less-than-perfectinthepublicarenaofmoderndemocracies.
As repeatedly announced, the field in which these questions are
explored will be the cultures of the United States of America, past and
present. This is so not least because of the author's own professional
background but also and more importantly because of the diagnostic
value of this venue. After all, the United States as the most advanced
capitalist country of the Global North and the world's leader in
biotechnology and genetic research is the site where the relations
between culture and the biosphere have taken on a particularly
pronounced, even conflictual form (Clarke et al., "Epilogue" 380-404;
Rajan2-9;M.Cooper,LifeasSurplus4-14).
Biocultures:AnInterdisciplinarySynthesis?
Almostalltheworkreferencedinthepreviousresearchoverviewhas
had to contend with the proliferation of biology-related images and
discourses and their entry into practically all areas of life, even those
thatseem to have nothing to do with life processes. Given that, it is not
surprising that the idea of dealing with such a vast and complicated
matter in an inter- or transdisciplinary way should have found many
supporters. "Biocultures" is the name for such a project. It contains the
promise to transact the biology and culture nexus by appealing to the
resourcesofboththeHumanitiesandtheSciences.
I think it is fair to say that biocultures is at this point still more a
research program than a clearly defined body of exploration and
investigation. Aside from Paula Treichler's landmark study on the
cultural repercussions of the HIV-AIDS crisis,How to Have Theory in