Resources

Material Proximities and Hotspots: Toward an Anthropology of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers

This resource outlines a research program for an anthropology of viral hemorrhagic fevers and reviews the social science literature on Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fevers and charts areas for future ethnographic attention. The paper suggests that attention to the material proximities between animals, humans, and objects, that constitute the "hotspot", opens a frontier for critical and methodological development in medical anthropology and for future collaborations in viral hemorrhagic fever management and control.

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Popular concerns about medical research projects in sub-Saharan Africa – a critical voice in debates about medical research ethics

This resource aims to move beyond the dismissal of stories about blood-stealing and trade in body parts as ‘mere’ rumour, based on erroneous belief or traditional superstition, and to instead appreciate them as modern commentaries on social relations that involve, and extend far beyond, scientific medical research.

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Ethics and the ethnography of medical research in Africa

This resource outlines two emerging approaches to medical ethics, and summarises each of seven papers selected from the conference for inclusion in this special issue on ethics and ethnography, and finally highlights two areas of lively debate at the conference itself: the appropriateness and value of ethics guidelines and review boards for medical research; and the ethical review of social science research.

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