Abandonment and accumulation: embryonic futures in the United States and Ecuador

When frozen embryos are publically debated in the United States, they are most often positioned as having two possible future trajectories: (1) as individual humans and (2) as contributors to stem cell research. Long-term embryo accumulation threatens both of these futures. An accumulated embryo is stuck in a clinic, held back from having an individual future or from contributing to science. There are other kinds of futures, though. For some patients in the United States and Ecuador, where I conducted ethnographic research, future reckoning involves a vision of responsibility toward embryos embedded within a specific family. For these patients, frozen embryo donation to another family or to science constitutes abandonment. The future at stake is not that of an individual embryo's life, but a group's future who would abandon one of its own. These patients would rather destroy embryos than freeze them for a future away from their relations. [Ecuador, United States, in     

The Effect of Geography and Citizen Behavior on Motor Vehicle Deaths in the United States

Death due to motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) remains a leading cause of death in the US and alcohol plays a prominent role in a large proportion of these fatalities nationwide. Rates for these incidents vary widely among states and over time. Here, we explore the extent to which driving volume, alcohol consumption, legislation, political ideology, and geographical factors influence MVC deaths across states and time. We specify structural equation models for extracting associations between the factors and outcomes for MVC deaths and compute correlation functions of states’ relative geographic and political positions to elucidate the relative contribution of these factors. We find evidence that state-level variation in MVC deaths is associated with time-varying driving volume, alcohol consumption, and legislation. These relationships are modulated by state spatial proximity, whereby neighboring states are found to share similar MVC death rates over the thirty-year observation period. These results support the hypothesis that neighboring states exhibit similar risk and protective characteristics, despite differences in political ideology.     

The Last Sixty Years: Toward a Social History of Americanist Archeology in the United States

This paper provides an overview of the development of Americanist archeology in the United States.
Since the 1920s, there have been two, and sometimes more, interpretive communities among Americanist archeologists in the United States.
These reflect and are related to the development of U.S. society. One articulates the concerns of national capital and its allies; the other, the interests of
international capital and its allies. They are grounded in different theoretical traditions. The discourses produced by their proponents resonate with
particular world views that reflect different relations to power.     

Subjects of Speculation: Emergent Life Sciences and Market Logics in the United States and India

This article traces systems of exchange concerning the life sciences and capital and how they configure subjectivity in the United States and India. This is done through case studies concerning the emergence of personalized medicine in the two locales. In the U.S. case, I argue for the configuration of the subjects of personalized medicine as sovereign consumers; in the Indian case, I argue for their configuration as experimental subjects. I situate these arguments in the context of epistemologies of genomics and the consolidation of systems of speculative capitalism.     

The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States

The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States. Betsy Hunter Bradley. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999.348 pp.     

The castor-oil plant in the United States

About 125,000,000 pounds of castor oil are annually used in the United States in the manufacture of paints and varnishes, fatty acids, sulphonated oils, soap and other important products, 95% of which is imported either as seed or expressed oil. Attempts are now being made to revive a former American industry in the growing of domestic crops.     

The evolution-creation controversy in the United States

The evolution-creation controversy in the United States has waxed and waned over the last hundred years. The history of this controversy is traced in general terms from the early Fundamentalist Movement at the close of the nineteenth century to the present time. Of special note are summaries of the more well-known court cases including the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial of the mid-1920s and the more recent Epperson vs. Arkansas decision of 1968.     

The endless hESC controversy in the United States: history, context, and prospects

Human embryonic stem cell research has faced a long, tough political battle in the United States. The article explores the history of this controversy and the motives behind it, leading up to the August 23, 2010 district court injunction temporarily stopping all U.S. federal funding for research with human ESCs.