Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science

This paper explores the Western philosophical idea of “appetites” through the lens of “addiction.” I begin with a brief ethnographic description of a woman whose subjectivity seems to emerge only in the play of her unmanageable desire for various pharmaceuticals. In other words, she is a self-descri...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Saris A. Jamie
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Sciendo 2021
Materias:	addiction appetite crisis social theory Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology GN301-674
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ae2a937468674b6f98f08f2aad8815db
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:ae2a937468674b6f98f08f2aad8815db
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ae2a937468674b6f98f08f2aad8815db2021-12-05T14:11:06ZGrowing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science1339-787710.2478/eas-2021-0023https://doaj.org/article/ae2a937468674b6f98f08f2aad8815db2021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.2478/eas-2021-0023https://doaj.org/toc/1339-7877This paper explores the Western philosophical idea of “appetites” through the lens of “addiction.” I begin with a brief ethnographic description of a woman whose subjectivity seems to emerge only in the play of her unmanageable desire for various pharmaceuticals. In other words, she is a self-described “addict.” I then look at the relationships between addicts and the undead, especially vampires and zombies, who are seemingly enslaved to their appetites. This leads me to an analysis of the centrality of what I am calling “recursive need satisfaction” in much of Western (especially Anglophone and Francophone) Social Theory that, I argue, relies on a particular understanding of “appetite” in establishing the political-economic subjectivity that lies at the heart of market-oriented state. This same understanding also pushes this formation in a specific historical direction of increasing growth and organisational and technological complexity. As a globalised Western society in the last few decades has become ever more anxious of its place in the world, its impact on various interdependent systems, and the validity of the grand récits that served as its charter, such growth and complexity have emerged as objects of anxiety, even apocalyptic fear, and the terms “addict” and “addiction” have seemed ever more useful for modelling these concerns. I end with some reflections on how we use both zombies and addicts to think through some of the same issues of unchecked and damaging consumption.Saris A. JamieSciendoarticleaddictionappetitecrisissocial theoryEthnology. Social and cultural anthropologyGN301-674ENEthnologia Actualis, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 102-133 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	addiction appetite crisis social theory Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology GN301-674
spellingShingle	addiction appetite crisis social theory Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology GN301-674 Saris A. Jamie Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science
description	This paper explores the Western philosophical idea of “appetites” through the lens of “addiction.” I begin with a brief ethnographic description of a woman whose subjectivity seems to emerge only in the play of her unmanageable desire for various pharmaceuticals. In other words, she is a self-described “addict.” I then look at the relationships between addicts and the undead, especially vampires and zombies, who are seemingly enslaved to their appetites. This leads me to an analysis of the centrality of what I am calling “recursive need satisfaction” in much of Western (especially Anglophone and Francophone) Social Theory that, I argue, relies on a particular understanding of “appetite” in establishing the political-economic subjectivity that lies at the heart of market-oriented state. This same understanding also pushes this formation in a specific historical direction of increasing growth and organisational and technological complexity. As a globalised Western society in the last few decades has become ever more anxious of its place in the world, its impact on various interdependent systems, and the validity of the grand récits that served as its charter, such growth and complexity have emerged as objects of anxiety, even apocalyptic fear, and the terms “addict” and “addiction” have seemed ever more useful for modelling these concerns. I end with some reflections on how we use both zombies and addicts to think through some of the same issues of unchecked and damaging consumption.
format	article
author	Saris A. Jamie
author_facet	Saris A. Jamie
author_sort	Saris A. Jamie
title	Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science
title_short	Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science
title_full	Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science
title_fullStr	Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science
title_full_unstemmed	Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science
title_sort	growing appetites and hungry subjects: addicts, the undead, and the long arc of theory in western social science
publisher	Sciendo
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/ae2a937468674b6f98f08f2aad8815db
work_keys_str_mv	AT sarisajamie growingappetitesandhungrysubjectsaddictstheundeadandthelongarcoftheoryinwesternsocialscience
_version_	1718371380006748160

Growing Appetites and Hungry Subjects: Addicts, the Undead, and the Long Arc of Theory in Western Social Science

Ejemplares similares