Embodied Inequalities of the Anthropocene - Introduction

Dr Jean Segata, Prof Ceres Víctora, Prof Paola Sesia, Dr Laura Montesi, Dr Jennie Gamlin & Prof Sahra Gibbon
This is the introductory article to the special issue ‘Embodied Inequalities of the Anthropocene’, published by Medicine Anthropology Theory in 2021. The authors question the very concept of Anthropocene as it has initially been conceived in the scientific milieu, and argue that more than a geological-biological event, the Anthropocene is a social and political experience. Therefore, its analysis demands a conjoint critical study of ecological catastrophes, extreme events, citizenship, health, socio-environmental risks, and economic ‘development’.
‘Habitus’ (2013–ongoing), by Robyn Woolston. Published with permission from the artist. See the artist’s website: https://www.robynwoolston.com.
Jean Segata is a social anthropologist who specialises in multispecies health, epidemics, and biosecurity interventions. He has extensive experience conducting fieldwork and developing research collaborations across Latin America, primarily in Brazil. He currently serves as an Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil), where he directs the Centre for Animal, Environmental and Technologies Studies (NEAAT), as well as the Rede Covid-19 Humanidades MCTI. He is also a CNPq Researcher (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, 309710/2021-9).
Ceres Víctora is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology and the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She also leads the Center for Research in Anthropology of the Body and Health (NUPACS) at the same university. With research and teaching experience in Medical Anthropology, her focus is on health inequalities, social suffering, violence, emotions, and disasters in Brazil.
Paola M. Sesia is a medical anthropologist and public health professor at CIESAS, Mexico. Her current research interests include maternal and reproductive health, professional and traditional midwifery, obstetric violence, access to abortion and abortion care, and health and health policy among Indigenous Peoples in Mexico. She approaches her work from a perspective of reproductive and human rights, as well as from a social justice and structural vulnerabilities perspective, with a focus on social inequalities.
Laura Montesi is a CONACyT researcher based at CIESAS, Mexico. She is a medical anthropologist with fieldwork experience in indigenous rural Mexico, and her work focuses on chronic conditions, particularly diabetes mellitus and related comorbidities. She interweaves culturally grounded lived experiences with the workings of larger structural forces. Her research interests include the intersections of health, social inequalities, and violence, as well as food and culture, and language rights.
Jennie Gamlin is Associate Professor and Senior Wellcome Trust Fellow at the UCL Institute for Global Health. She is also Co-director of the Centre for Gender, Health and Social Justice. Her research focuses on the coloniality of gender and health in Indigenous Wixárika communities. Jennie’s theoretical work revolves around decolonisation, Indigenous ontologies of health and being, critical ethnography, and historicising patriarchy and violence. She has co-edited the book ‘Critical Medical Anthropology, perspectives in and from Latin America’ (UCL Press 2020) and the book series ‘Embodying inequalities, perspectives from Latin America’.
Sahra Gibbon is a Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Anthropology Department at UCL. She has conducted research in the UK, Cuba, and Brazil examining the intersections between health, gender, citizenship, activism, and identity. Her current research focuses on examining the social context of biosocial research in birth cohorts and embodied inequalities, particularly as they relate to questions of toxicity, pollution, and Anthropocene health. She is a co-editor for the UCL Press series ‘Embodying Inequalities: Perspectives from Medical Anthropology’.

Learning points

  • Even though the proposal of recognising the Anthropocene as a geological era has been voted down by a committee of experts, the terminology has proved itself fruitful for the political ecological debate. What kind of evidence and/or arguments have been put forward by scientists of different areas who are pro and against the definition?
  • The article claims that vulnerable groups tend to be more exposed to health and environmental risks than more privileged ones. How can we refine that idea?