Abstract
- A tick-borne illness is spreading throughout the eastern United States, causing victims to develop a spontaneous allergic reaction to eating red meat. This condition’s etiology intersects with notable recent cases of porcine xenotransplantation: the insertion of organs from genetically altered pigs into human hosts. The same antagonist is present in these scenarios: the sugar alpha-gal, which naturally occurs in most mammals but not humans. This article draws from medical humanities scholarship, literature studies, and Bruno Latour’s depiction of modernity as an engine that generates contradictory hybrids to locate cultural engagements with alpha-gal within a framework of Gothic capitalism. Market forces induce the bodies of pigs and humans to be cyclically conflated and differentiated to develop bespoke medical and edible products—both forms of sustenance—in response to a consumer logic that renders biological matter as a commodity. The overlapping biotechnical governance of food and medical systems thereby provides therapeutic and monetary benefits while being haunted by a historical lineage of dehumanization. Further studies that examine Gothic capitalism in similar products and practices can reveal how they respond to particular market-driven incentives and operate through rhetorical framing.