Conceptualizing histories of multispecies entanglements: Ancient pathogen genomics and the case ofBorrelia recurrentis

Venla Oikkonen

doi:10.1177/1469605321993942

Abstract

This article explores the conceptual and cultural implications of using pathogen ancient DNA (aDNA) collected in archaeological contexts to understand the past. More specifically, it examines ancient pathogen genomics as a way of conceptualizing multispecies entanglements. The analysis focuses on the 2018 sequencing of Borrelia recurrentis bacteria retrieved from a medieval graveyard in Oslo, Norway. B. recurrentis is associated with louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF), known to have killed several million people in Europe during the past millennium, and it is still encountered in parts of East Africa. The article demonstrates that while aDNA research often foregrounds multispecies entanglements, its epistemic tools cannot easily address the ontological blurriness of pathogens and their embeddedness in vibrant material processes. The article draws on feminist posthumanities work on microbes and materiality to highlight conceptual openings that a theorization of ancient pathogens could engender.

Highlights

This article investigates the ways in which ancient pathogen genomics is shaping the cultural understanding of historical processes of change
I focus here on the first two, as the ways in which feminist posthumanities scholars view material processes and interspecies dynamics as productive of historical change are useful for understanding what is at stake conceptually when history is approached through pathogen ancient DNA (aDNA)
While ancient pathogen genomics opens up ways of making visible the circulation and impact of past pathogens, approaches theorizing vibrant and entangled materiality, including those arising from feminist posthumanities, help us conceptualize the constitutive entanglements of pathogens and other entities as historical phenomena from which futures unfold

Summary

Introduction

This article investigates the ways in which ancient pathogen genomics is shaping the cultural understanding of historical processes of change. Using the case as a starting point, the article explores the conceptual implications of using pathogen aDNA to approach more-than-human processes of historical change.

Results

Conclusion