FUTURE KINSHIP AND THE STUDY OF CULTURE

Throughout the 20th century, body and machine have provided distinctiv e parallel metaphors for the concept of culture. But now these metapho rs are merging as human lives are increasingly engineered through tech nonatural processes. In one imagined future, biotechnology will give u s the means to determine our own genealogy and the potential to play a role in the 'culturing' of the future, as the natural and unpredictab le transmission of human characteristics is transformed into a predict able process arising from the manipulation of the gene pool. New procr eative possibilities-fertilization in vitro, gamete donation, maternal surrogacy etc-challenge us to reconstrue notions of identity and kins hip; the article speculates on the implications of this for possible c ultural futures.