Overview
- First volume addressing the Biosemiotics of food or medicine, and how the two are related
- Combines insights from science, science studies, social science, and the humanities on the relevant topics of food and medicine
- Offers in-depth scholarship and diverse applications, valuable to Semioticians, sociologists, cultural theorists, philosophers of medicine and scholars investigating the interdisciplinary questions stemming from food and medicine
Part of the book series: Biosemiotics (BSEM, volume 22)
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Food
Keywords
About this book
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.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Yogi Hendlin is assistant professor in the Erasmus School of Philosophy and Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative at Erasmus University Rotterdam, research associate in the Environmental Health Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics.”
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Food and Medicine
Book Subtitle: A Biosemiotic Perspective
Editors: Yogi Hale Hendlin, Jonathan Hope
Series Title: Biosemiotics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67115-0
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-67114-3Published: 20 May 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-67117-4Published: 21 May 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-67115-0Published: 19 May 2021
Series ISSN: 1875-4651
Series E-ISSN: 1875-466X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VII, 196
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations, 7 illustrations in colour
Topics: Food Science, Semiotics, Environmental Health, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary, Science, multidisciplinary