Human - Bacteria
The history of Bacteria as we know it:
*It is important to note that Bacteria were the first life form on Earth and they are both the colonisers of Earth and the parent species of all modern species including HumansHuman and Microbial interactions have been framed in a negative light throughout the history of their relationship. Indeed, microorganism, pathogens and harmful bacteria are the causative agents in many infectious diseases in humans and domestic animals and plants.
Therefore, from the perspective of Humans, Bacteria are to be controlled, regulated and subjugated.
Merriam-Webster definition of Subjugate:
(1) bring under control and goverance as a subject: CONQUER
(2) to make submissive
Indeed, after the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, a hygienic vision of the world was formed and a "War" on Germs was declared. This mobilized a heightened vigilance and promoted "cleanliness" as a signifier of social order and moral rectitude.
This "Germ Theory" solidified in the midst of a wave of immigration and "the fear of the diseases that the new immigrants might bring with them." (Sangodeyi, 27) The dichotomy between clean and dirty resulted in the distrust and scepticism about the character of the incoming populations.
Thus, the relationship between humans and bacteria has shaped the politics of othering. But it has also been defined by it.
The Politics of Life and Death
Biopolitics, or the politics of Life, is the "regime of discipline and control of bodies" (Braidotti, 129). The question of which species are allowed to survive and which to die? is are the centre of the biopolitical issue.
The control of the bacterial population is thus a biopolitical issue.
A Counter-Narrative of the Bacteria - Human Relationship
The negative interactions between Humans and Bacteria have undermined the beneficial and non-harmful relationship that Humans have with Bacteria on a daily basis.With the advancement of projects such as, The Human Microbiome Project, the relationship between Bacteria and our body can be reevaluated. The Human self becomes a multiple and ecosystem.
The biopolitical issue can thus be reframed:
"One's view on death depends on one's assumptions about life. In a vitalist materialist view, life is cosmic energy, simulaneously empty chaos and absolute seed or movement. It is impersonal and inhuman in the monstrous, animal sense of radical alterity: zoë in all its powers." ~ Braidotti, The Posthuman, p 131
Life does not belong to humans. Life is shared by multiple others both separate from the Human body and within the human body.
Michael Pollan writes in "Some of My Best Friends are Germs" that there has been a paradigm shift when thinking of oneself since the discovery of the Human Microbiome. Humans have been humbled to find out that only 10% of what constitutes their body is actually human and that 100 trillion bacteria are living and dying on our skin, tongue and deep in our intestines.
Following this movement, the Economist published an issue with the cover displaying a version of DaVinci's Vitruvian Man as a human-microbe chimaera.
On the one hand, this movement has promoted the reframing of the negative connotation of microbes and bacteria and allowed for the cooperative mode of living to be highlighted. There has been a value placed on biodiversity both in the earth's environment and within the human ecosystem.
It has forged a new network of microbial allies.
On the other hand, the imagery of the Vitruvian man is still problematic, as it bases this new ideology of partnership and of multiplicity on a Humanist foundation which promotes the centrality of the human being.
It is clear that it is a step in the right direction which brings to light the different visions of life in the reevaluation of Bacterial narrative.
“Life would not long remain possible in the absence of microbes.” ~Louis Pasteur
This page has paths:
- The Corn-Human Relational and Temporal Visualization Charlotte Freydefont
- Alternative Temporalities Charlotte Freydefont
