A Postgenomic Body: Histories, Genealogy, Politics.

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• History of Science
• Genomics and Postgenomics

Background:

• Current views of epigenetics and microbiomics offer transformative perspectives on the body.
• Plasticity as a form of life is a pervasive ethical consideration, present in traditions predating modern biomedicine, such as humoralism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a genealogy of the postgenomic body.
• To challenge universalizing narratives by examining the unequal distribution of plasticity.
• To analyze postgenomics as a distinct thought-style and its implications for plasticity.

Main Methods:

• Genealogical method to trace the history of plasticity.
• Analysis of epigenetics and microbiomics.
• Examination of humoralism and other pre-biomedical traditions.

Main Results:

• Plasticity is not a new concept but has historical roots and ethical dimensions.
• The distribution of plasticity is unequal across gender and ethnic groups.
• Postgenomics represents a shift from genomics, offering a new understanding of plasticity.

Conclusions:

• Postgenomic plasticity is an 'alter-modernistic' concept, distinct from modernistic control or postmodernist potentiality.
• It blurs boundaries between openness and determination, individual and community.
• Understanding plasticity requires a pluralistic historical and ethical framework.