|
Showing 1 - 2 of
2 matches in All Departments
This edited volume provides a biosemiotic analysis of the
ecological relationship between food and medicine. Drawing on the
origins of semiotics in medicine, this collection proposes
innovative ways of considering aliments and treatments. Considering
the ever-evolving character of our understanding of meaning-making
in biology, and considering the keen popular interest in issues
relating to food and medicines - fueled by an increasing body of
interdisciplinary knowledge - the contributions here provide
diverse insights and arguments into the larger ecology of
organisms' engagement with and transformation through taking in
matter. Bodies interpret molecules, enzymes, and alkaloids they
intentionally and unintentionally come in contact with according to
their pre-existing receptors. But their receptors are also changed
by the experience. Once the body has identified a particular
substance, it responds by initiating semiotic sequences and
negotiations that fulfill vital functions for the organism at
macro-, meso-, and micro-scales. Human abilities to distill and
extract the living world into highly refined foods and medicines,
however, have created substances far more potent than their
counterparts in our historical evolution. Many of these substances
also lack certain accompanying proteins, enzymes, and alkaloids
that otherwise aid digestion or protect against side-effects in
active extracted chemicals. Human biology has yet to catch up with
human inventions such as supernormal foods and medicines that may
flood receptors, overwhelming the body's normal satiation
mechanisms. This volume discusses how biosemioticians can come to
terms with these networks of meaning, providing a valuable and
provocative compendium for semioticians, medical researchers and
practitioners, sociologists, cultural theorists, bioethicists and
scholars investigating the interdisciplinary questions stemming
from food and medicine.
This edited volume provides a biosemiotic analysis of the
ecological relationship between food and medicine. Drawing on the
origins of semiotics in medicine, this collection proposes
innovative ways of considering aliments and treatments. Considering
the ever-evolving character of our understanding of meaning-making
in biology, and considering the keen popular interest in issues
relating to food and medicines - fueled by an increasing body of
interdisciplinary knowledge - the contributions here provide
diverse insights and arguments into the larger ecology of
organisms' engagement with and transformation through taking in
matter. Bodies interpret molecules, enzymes, and alkaloids they
intentionally and unintentionally come in contact with according to
their pre-existing receptors. But their receptors are also changed
by the experience. Once the body has identified a particular
substance, it responds by initiating semiotic sequences and
negotiations that fulfill vital functions for the organism at
macro-, meso-, and micro-scales. Human abilities to distill and
extract the living world into highly refined foods and medicines,
however, have created substances far more potent than their
counterparts in our historical evolution. Many of these substances
also lack certain accompanying proteins, enzymes, and alkaloids
that otherwise aid digestion or protect against side-effects in
active extracted chemicals. Human biology has yet to catch up with
human inventions such as supernormal foods and medicines that may
flood receptors, overwhelming the body's normal satiation
mechanisms. This volume discusses how biosemioticians can come to
terms with these networks of meaning, providing a valuable and
provocative compendium for semioticians, medical researchers and
practitioners, sociologists, cultural theorists, bioethicists and
scholars investigating the interdisciplinary questions stemming
from food and medicine.
|
|