Posthuman geographies? Biotechnology, nature and the demise of the autonomous human subject

Abstract

Some theorists claim that we have constructed a posthuman/postnatural world, where the corporeal and ontological boundaries between human and non-human nature have been eroded. Novel biotechnologies such as xenotransplantation and cross-species gene transfer are claimed to shake our belief in an autonomous human subject, as they question the naturalized division between human–animal–plant life forms, and draw awareness to the genetic and structural similarities between them. Optimistic posthumanist thinkers argue that the breaching of this boundary between the sacred (human nature) and profane (non-human nature) should propel us into a posthuman future characterized by a new ethical appreciation of our non-human ‘cousins’. Conversely, in national focus groups, certain members of the New Zealand public reacted by expressing disgust and abhorrence towards hybridity; others responded more pragmatically and began to interrogate the boundaries between human and non-human nature. Many of these reactions paralleled those of posthumanist theorists such as N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, Paul Virilio and Francis Fukuyama, yet were expressed through the more dichotomous language of every life. Specifically, I explore the construction of boundaries between human and non-human nature, ‘posthuman pollution’, what it means to be human, and spiritual/religious perspectives on posthumanism.