Anthropotechnomorphisms and the Anthropology of Techno-Corpo-Reality

Abstract

Edward Hall's idea of human extensions and Gregory Bateson's view on the fundamental evolutionary unit as a combination of the organism and its milieu are used in treatment of human evolution as co-evolution of Man and environment, both natural and artificial. The concept of technics is used as hybrid entity, comprising somatic and extra-somatic elements, or body technics and their co-extensive non-organic artefacts, or extensions. The author introduces the concepts of anthropotechnomorphism and Techno-Corpo-Reality, serving as foci for the study of co-evolution 24 of human body and its technical milieu in anthropology thus suggesting new research perspective for ecological, evolutionary, cultural, and bioanthropology. The paper suggests a critical view on reductive character of most current theories of human evolution and somatic differentiation, which underscore geographical and biological factors by simultaneously understating the roles of corporeal and extra-corporeal technics and hybrid nature of the evolving anthropotechnomorphic entities. The problems of body boundaries and its identity over time are considered within Marshall McLuhan's mereological perspective of “innering” and “outering”. It is argued that the perception of certain human extensions or enhancements as intra- and exosomatic is inherent in the issue of somatic identity persistence. Finally, ontopluralistic metaphysics, suggested by Annemarie Mol's treatment of atherosclerosis in her “Body Multiple”, is contrasted with scientific realist version of a single nosological unit, differently constructed by radiologists, surgeons, or haematologists as various technomorphic assemblies that all pertain to a single diagnosis.