Unproductive Participation and Protection Against Germs: Technical-Ritualistic Practices in Heart Surgery

Abstract

Abstract There is a debate in the social sciences about the character of the effectiveness of techniques and performances in the surgical field. The literature is divided into different postures, which highlight the ritualistic aspects of techniques and procedures (Katz, 1981; Rawlings, 1989; Hirschauer, 1991) or emphasize their pragmatic efficacy and the purely antiseptic character of sterilization procedures (Collins, 1994). During ethnographic research conducted in the field of cardiac technology production, I observed that these spheres are, in fact, intertwined. Additionally, I believe that it is necessary to consider that the formation of the surgical field (a procedure that will be explored in the following article), as well as the employment of other hygienic procedures are not simply rituals to keep microorganisms away, but are also part of the conditioning of the “surgeon's body”. Surgeries are risky procedures that require the development of techniques in order to avoid contamination with both microscopic agents and unproductive involvement. The threat of unwanted involvement implies the development of skills that allow for “good participation”. In my ethnographic research, in contrast to the surgeries performed on humans in the operating rooms, the procedures performed on animals show that the process of “depersonalization” (that is, the subject's erasure through the construction of the surgical field) in experimental surgery has the effect of naturalizing non-human animals, instituting them as substitutes for humans. This requires a delicate game of approximation and distancing on the part of the surgeon and the medical team. In general, my aim here is to describe and analyze the technical-ritualistic aspects that are part of cardiac interventions and which underlie the establishment of the surgical field, seeking to dilute the dichotomy established in the social sciences between a technical-functional pole and a ritual-symbolic one.