{"title":"Conceptualizing histories of multispecies entanglements: Ancient pathogen genomics and the case of Borrelia recurrentis","authors":"Venla Oikkonen","doi":"10.1177/1469605321993942","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the conceptual and cultural implications of using pathogen ancient DNA (aDNA) collected in archaeological contexts to understand the past. More specifically, it examines ancient pathogen genomics as a way of conceptualizing multispecies entanglements. The analysis focuses on the 2018 sequencing of Borrelia recurrentis bacteria retrieved from a medieval graveyard in Oslo, Norway. B. recurrentis is associated with louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF), known to have killed several million people in Europe during the past millennium, and it is still encountered in parts of East Africa. The article demonstrates that while aDNA research often foregrounds multispecies entanglements, its epistemic tools cannot easily address the ontological blurriness of pathogens and their embeddedness in vibrant material processes. The article draws on feminist posthumanities work on microbes and materiality to highlight conceptual openings that a theorization of ancient pathogens could engender.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2021-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605321993942","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Social Archaeology","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321993942","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article explores the conceptual and cultural implications of using pathogen ancient DNA (aDNA) collected in archaeological contexts to understand the past. More specifically, it examines ancient pathogen genomics as a way of conceptualizing multispecies entanglements. The analysis focuses on the 2018 sequencing of Borrelia recurrentis bacteria retrieved from a medieval graveyard in Oslo, Norway. B. recurrentis is associated with louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF), known to have killed several million people in Europe during the past millennium, and it is still encountered in parts of East Africa. The article demonstrates that while aDNA research often foregrounds multispecies entanglements, its epistemic tools cannot easily address the ontological blurriness of pathogens and their embeddedness in vibrant material processes. The article draws on feminist posthumanities work on microbes and materiality to highlight conceptual openings that a theorization of ancient pathogens could engender.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Social Archaeology is a fully peer reviewed international journal that promotes interdisciplinary research focused on social approaches in archaeology, opening up new debates and areas of exploration. It engages with and contributes to theoretical developments from other related disciplines such as feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism, social geography, literary theory, politics, anthropology, cognitive studies and behavioural science. It is explicitly global in outlook with temporal parameters from prehistory to recent periods. As well as promoting innovative social interpretations of the past, it also encourages an exploration of contemporary politics and heritage issues.