Dissertation Information for Patricia GallowayNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected Title: Mortal knowledge: Anatomizing the person
Abstract: This is a study of the practice of human dissection in medical education, positioned in the context of contemporary American attitudes toward death and the dead. The study surveys briefly the history of death studies in the social sciences, the treatment of death in the biological sciences, and the study of human dissection in sociological studies of medical professionalization. It describes how the formal educational process, which can be framed as a professional status passage, instantiates the standard Cartesian dualism of biomedical discourse, which tends to suppress any mention of death. Interview data and participant observation shows, however, that apart from the official process, an informal relationship develops between student and cadaver as the identities of both are modified through parallel ontological rites of passage. This relationship, termed acquaintance , subverts the conventional dualist view of the person and promotes an awareness of human selfhood even in a dead body. It is suggested that this awareness may contribute to the understanding of observed medical ambivalence about organ transplantation practices. |
MPACT Scores for Patricia GallowayA = 2 Advisors and Advisees Graph |