Tuberculosis, political engagements, and biosocialities in Bolivia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22199/issn.0718-1043-2019-0007

Keywords:

biocitizenship, Aymara, tuberculosis, Bolivia, medical encounters

Abstract

High tuberculosis (TB) prevalence in Bolivia has been a major concern for the national health service as well as for the international health bureaucracy. Based on an ethnography of medical encounters conducted in Bolivia between 2009 and 2013, in this article I discuss the emergence of biosocial spaces in clinical contexts, focusing on those mediated by biomedical authority and technology where TB diagnosed patients engage in treatment. By looking at the intersections between medical discourses and associative practices linked to the scientific and biotechnological fields, I analyze the therapeutic experience of a highly pathologized population, such as the aymara indigenous peoples who suffer from TB, to suggest that healing becomes a process that questions current citizenship frameworks and sociality models. Furthermore, I propose that the biomedical developments of TB treatment show how a natural ““objective”” infectious disease is integrated into the national mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion by framing this illness within the social constructions of race and ethnicity.

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Author Biography

  • Paula Francisca Saravia, Pontificia Universidad Católica.

    Centro de Estudios Interculturales e Indígenas, Postdoctoral Fellow.

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Published

2019-07-23

Issue

Section

Dossier Biociudadanía

How to Cite

Saravia, P. F. (2019). Tuberculosis, political engagements, and biosocialities in Bolivia. Estudios atacameños, 62, 297-310. https://doi.org/10.22199/issn.0718-1043-2019-0007