Bodies may be defined by their physical differences, but they are also distinguished through their relations with others. Genealogies are a powerful means of mapping social relations that produce, distinguish and connect bodies.
Genealogies may be visualised through a variety of techniques such as diagrams, family portraits and ancestral figures. These descriptions map different ideas about what is transmitted between bodies –– from ideas about inheritance (both biological and material), marriage prohibition and property, to more recent ideas about genetics and an individual’s health or wellbeing.
Another way of connecting and distinguishing bodies is through the idea that a person carries a distinctive genealogical record in the form of their genetic make-up. Genetics fixes genealogies according to biological relatedness. The genetic parentage of a child can be established by analysing samples of DNA. It is also becoming increasingly available to those who want to find out if they are carriers of particular genes that make them susceptible to specific diseases.
Technologies such as genetic sampling are used to classify distinct kinds of bodies. They often challenge the extent to which we ‘own’ information about our own bodies, and blur boundaries between ourselves as subjects, objects and citizens.
