ABSTRACT
Medical anthropologists have recently pushed their research beyond the conventional topics of disease and healing to explore this brave new world of technological innovations. Common to the medical anthropology of biotechnologies is a concern for the social relations and economic interests that shape the development of new instruments and procedures in medicine. These investigations allow us to see that biotechnologies do not emerge from neutral scientific research, but are powerfully influenced by the sources of funds that support them and by the professional priorities and cultural assumptions of the experts engaged in research and development. Medical anthropologists often also demonstrate how a technology that appears novel is, in fact, built on a long history of cultural formulations related to life stages, identities, and illnesses.
