Beyond the Natural Body

An Archaeology of Sex Hormones

Nelly Oudshoorn

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
20 October 1994

History of ideas; Sociology & anthropology; Human reproduction, growth & development; Medical anthropology

Beyond the Natural Body presents an episode in the history of life sciences that is essential to our current understanding of sex and the body, and the relations between gender and science. Since the early decades of this century, the notion of the hormonally-constructed body has become

the dominant mode of conceptualising bodies, particularly female bodies, to such an extent that we now assume that it is a natural phenomenon. This book challenges the idea that there is such a thing as a natural' body and demonstrates that it is the process by which scientific claims achieve universal status that constructs such discourses as natural facts. Beyond the Natural Body tells the fascinating story of scientists' search for the many tons of ovaries, testes and urine that were required in experiments to develop the hormonal

body concept. It traces the origins of sex hormones and follows their development through mass-production as drugs to their eventual transformation into the contraceptive pill. Nelly Oudshoorn argues that the power to control sex and the body is not restricted to the domain of texts and ideologies. In addition, she discusses the chasm that exists between the scientific cross-cultural differences among women, putting the case for localised and user-specific applications of

science and technology.

By: Nelly Oudshoorn
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780415091909
ISBN 10: 041509190X
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 20 October 1994
Audience: College/higher education , General/trade , Primary , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1 The Making of Sex Hormones 2 The Marketing of Sex Hormones 3 The Transformation of Sex Hormones into the Pill 4 The Power of Structures that Already Exist Notes, Bibliography

Nelly Oudshoorn is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam.

Reviews for Beyond the Natural Body: An Archaeology of Sex Hormones

Oudshoorn ... fits a crucial piece into the puzzle of the related histories of reproductive medicine and the cultural construction of gender ... thorough research ... Excellent illustrations and notes. -M. L. Meldrum, UCLA This is the book we have been waiting for! We' are cultural critics who always suspected the uncertainties and negotiations behind scientific definitions of sex. We' are also feminists looking for a clear guide to the transformations of that abstract scientific power into the material forces of technology and medicine. Oudshoorn's book is that clear guide for historians, scientists, and all who wonder where our world of cyborg medicine originated. -Diana Long, Women's Studies Program, University of Southern Maine ... Nelly Oudshoorn presents a fascinating social history of early twentieth-century sex hormone research... provides a careful, detailed account of the cultural-material means of knowledge production that led to the making of the hormonal body, and its construction as female. - American Anthropologist Nelly Oudshoorn...provides a fascinating archaeology of the development of sex hormones and the reconceptualizing of the body as hormonal.