De las estructuras hacia la ética y la moral

Te encontré por primera vez hace 32 años, cuando me ofrecieron el puesto de førseamanuensis (profesora adjunta) en el Departamento de Antropología. No estaba segura de aceptar, porque mi trabajo en Edinburgo parecía ser bastante seguro. No conocía a nadie aquí, pero cuando Eduardo (Archetti) me llamó para hablarme de la oferta, me insistió mucho en que viniera para conocer a todos antes de tomar una decisión. Así lo hice y fui tratada con la más sorprendente hospitalidad y el mayor despliegue de compromiso antropológico

Tumor-specific HMG-CoA reductase expression in primary premenopausal breast cancer predicts response to tamoxifen

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: We previously reported an association between tumor-specific 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutharyl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoAR) expression and a good prognosis in breast cancer. Here, the predictive value of HMG-CoAR expression in relation to tamoxifen response was examined. METHODS: HMG-CoAR protein and RNA expression was analyzed in a cell line model of tamoxifen resistance using western blotting and PCR. HMG-CoAR mRNA expression was examined in 155 tamoxifen-treated breast tumors obtained from a previously published gene expression study (Cohort I). HMG-CoAR protein expression was examined in 422 stage II premenopausal breast cancer patients, who had previously participated in a randomized control trial comparing 2 years of tamoxifen with no systemic adjuvant treatment (Cohort II). Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards modeling were used to estimate the risk of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and the effect of HMG-CoAR expression on tamoxifen response. RESULTS: HMG-CoAR protein and RNA expression were decreased in tamoxifen-resistant MCF7-LCC9 cells compared with their tamoxifen-sensitive parental cell line. HMG-CoAR mRNA expression was decreased in tumors that recurred following tamoxifen treatment (P < 0.001) and was an independent predictor of RFS in Cohort I (hazard ratio = 0.63, P = 0.009). In Cohort II, adjuvant tamoxifen increased RFS in HMG-CoAR-positive tumors (P = 0.008). Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that HMG-CoAR was an independent predictor of improved RFS in Cohort II (hazard ratio = 0.67, P = 0.010), and subset analysis revealed that this was maintained in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive patients (hazard ratio = 0.65, P = 0.029). Multivariate interaction analysis demonstrated a difference in tamoxifen efficacy relative to HMG-CoAR expression (P = 0.05). Analysis of tamoxifen response revealed that patients with ER-positive/HMG-CoAR tumors had a significant response to tamoxifen (P = 0.010) as well as patients with ER-positive or HMG-CoAR-positive tumors (P = 0.035). Stratification according to ER and HMG-CoAR status demonstrated that ER-positive/HMG-CoAR-positive tumors had an improved RFS compared with ER-positive/HMG-CoAR-negative tumors in the treatment arm (P = 0.033); this effect was lost in the control arm (P = 0.138), however, suggesting that HMG-CoAR predicts tamoxifen response. CONCLUSIONS: HMG-CoAR expression is a predictor of response to tamoxifen in both ER-positive and ER-negative disease. Premenopausal patients with tumors that express ER or HMG-CoAR respond to adjuvant tamoxifen

(Re)visitando a la madre (des)naturalizada : búsquedas y encuentros entre personas adoptadas en Chile y sus madres de origen

Este artículo es resultado de los proyectos FONDECYT N°3170338 "Adopciones en Chile: la construcción de narrativas sobre los orígenes y la identidad", REDI170133 "Investigación Interdisciplinaria sobre Políticas Reproductivas y Parentales", Programa Coope-ración Internacional (PCI), ambos financiados por la Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT) de Chile; y del Proyecto I+D CSO2015-64551-C3-1-R "Del control de la natalidad a la ansiedad demográfica: comunicación, secreto y anonimato en las tecnologías reproductivas del siglo XXI", MINECO/FEDER.En este artículo se presentan algunos resultados de una investigación cualitativa que explora y analiza las narrativas de un grupo de personas adultas que fueron adoptadas en Chile, que han buscado sus orígenes y que han establecido contacto con sus madres de origen. En sus narrativas, las personas entrevistadas adhieren, tensionan y/o desafían los principios y discursos que conforman las políticas y prácticas adoptivas hegemónicas, resignificando de formas diversas su experiencia de adopción en el proceso de (re)construcción de sus identidades y de reorganización de sus relaciones de parentesco. Se discuten las tensiones y ambivalencias que se juegan en los procesos de búsquedas de orígenes y los desafíos asociados.This paper presents some results of a qualitative research that explores and analyzes the narratives of a group of adults who were adopted in Chile, and who have searched for their origins and made contact with their birth mothers. In their narratives, the people interviewed adhere to, strain, and/or challenge the principles and discourses that make up hegemonic adoption policies and practices, resignifying their experience of adoption in various ways, as they (re)build their identities and reorganize their kinship relationships. It discusses the tensions and ambivalences that play out in the search for origins and the challenges associated with it

Alteridad, etnicidad y racismo en la búsqueda de orígenes de personas adoptadas. El caso de España

En España, la búsqueda de orígenes de las personas adoptadas, motivada por la necesidad de comunicar la historia previa a los/las menores provenientes principalmente de China, Rusia, Etiopía y Vietnam, transita entre lo biológico y lo cultural. Las adopciones internacionales introducen en el contexto de la adopción un replanteamiento de las nociones origen e identidad e incorporan las de etnicidad y raza. En este artículo, mediante el análisis crítico de discurso de un trabajo etnográfico, se subraya la importancia de repensar qué se está entendiendo por “orígenes”, tanto institucional como académicamente, y cuáles son las consecuencias —tanto teóricas como metodológicas y prácticas— de esta conceptualización en la construcción de otredad y diferencia en las personas adoptadas, en función de su procedenciaIn Spain, the search for the origins of adopted people, driven by the need to communicate the prior history of minors coming mainly from China, Russia, Ethiopia and Vietnam, moves between the biological and the cultural. International adoptions introduce a rethinking of the notions of origin and identity and incorporate those of ethnicity and race into the context of adoption. In this article, through the critical discourse analysis of an ethnographic paper, we highlight the importance of rethinking what is being understood as “origins”, both institutionally as well as academically, and what are the consequences —both theoretically as well as methodologically and practically— of this conceptualization in the construction of otherness and difference in adopted people, based on their provenance.El presente artículo se inscribe en el Proyecto I+D+i, “Menores migrantes en el arco mediterráneo: movilidad, sistemas de acogida e integración” (DER2017-89623-R), financiado por el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad del Gobierno de España

Laughing when you shouldn't Being "good" among the Batek of Peninsular Malaysia

Batek people describe their many laughter taboos with utmost seriousness, and in ethical terms of good and bad. Despite this, people often get it wrong—sometimes laughing all the more when the taboos forbid it. Because laughter can be ambiguous and impossible to control, being wrong can be accepted without the need for discussion or reflection. People thus act autonomously while holding deeply shared ethical orientations. Here, ethics can be both culturally predefined and shaped by individuals, as when it comes to laughter people draw on individual and shared concerns in an ad hoc, flexible manner. Laughter's tangled contradictions thus demonstrate that people's understandings of being “good” are mutually implicated with their understandings of what it means to be a person in relation to others

Chewong modes of thought

This is an ethnographic study of the Chewong, a small group of aboriginal people who live in the tropical rain forest of peninsular Malaysia. They are shifting cultivators, hunters and gatherers. After an introductory chapter in which language, history, ecology, economy, demography, and kinship are briefly examined, the main body of the thesis is presented in three parts. In Part Two, "Relationships", I suggest that a lack of hierarchy on the political level is only one manifestation of a fundamental egalitarian value system permeating Chewong beliefs and practices. Not only are no humans imbued with a higher status than any other, but also the numerous superhuman beings who inhabit the Chewong universe are not regarded as superior to human beings, nor to one another. In Part Three, "Consciousness and Relativity", the discussion focuses upon Chewong conceptionsof what it means to be human. This includes an evaluation of their concepts of soul, its relationship to the body, and other aspects of the individual. These concepts are then contrasted with Chewong ideas about the rest of nature as well as the superhuman beings. The suggested conclusion is that although there is an envisaged unity of nature (including human beings) and supernature, consciousness is nevertheless species-bound. Part Four, "Rules and Classification" first examines the implications of the numerous rules which govern Chewong behaviour. These are seen to constitue their moral universe and to form a theory of causality. The issue of symbolic classification is then addressed. Taking those rules which refer to animals, an attempt is made to determine explicit or implicit principles which might account for the allocation of specific animals to specific rules. The data are also subjected to a Principal Components Analysis. No underlying principles were found. In view of this it is concluded that membership of a class is due only to contingent circumstances.</p