Hormonized bodies from endocrinology to agroindustry: ethnography of the molecular creation of human and plant physiologies

• Grant number: 24/06863-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Joana Cabral de Oliveira
• Grantee: Tui Xavier Isnard
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07886-8 - Arts and semantics of creation and memory, AP.TEM

Abstract

This doctoral project aims to understand the transversal processes of hormoneization between humans and soy through a multispecies ethnography. Soybeans figure,in this research, as a node that allows the ethnographic course between the relationship of affectation that the plant experiences through the application of hormonal stimulants in monoculture, such as affectation that it produces in humans who interact with its phytohormones. The therapy of Hormone replacement (HRT) is indicated in endocrinological clinics for cisgender women in the process of menopause, part of these hormonal compounds have soy as a materialcousin. Phytoestrogens have been gaining space in endocrinological discourses and in pharmaceutical markets. Therefore, this research aims to understand the traffic between hormone-affected soybean monocultures (Stimulate compound) andsoy that becomes central to HRT, considering both human and plant bodies as chimeras constituted by hormonal interventions. Thus, a multispecies andmulti-sited structure will allow transit between three ethnographic fields, namely: monoculturesoybean farm, endocrinological clinic and Stimulate compound production laboratory. It will be through an immersion in the relationship established between hormones, humans and plants that I intend to contribute to a discussion about the production of nature, through observation of how hormones act on the composition of the body, time, effectiveness and sex. This research aims to think about the construction of natural sex as aparadox that reaches a discussion about the forms of intra-action between nature, culture andtoxicity, sex, gender and technologies.