The Social Production of the Dead Human Body in the Practice of Teaching Anatomy Through Cadaveric Dissection

Jennifer Burr and Nigel Russell-Sewell
Additional contact information
Jennifer Burr: University of Sheffield
Nigel Russell-Sewell: Newcastle University

Sociological Research Online, 2024, vol. 29, issue 2, 370-385

Abstract: The aim of this study is to explore how the dead human body is socially produced through the practices of those involved in teaching anatomy through cadaveric dissection. The perspectives of anatomists learning to teach offer a novel perspective on the existing literature. The study draws on data from interviews with students and teaching staff involved in practical cadaveric dissection during a UK postgraduate anatomy education programme. Interviews addressed participants’ experiences, reflections, and emotional responses during practical dissection of donor bodies. Findings address five areas: anticipation and the ‘imagined body’, ontology and the latent human, detachment, dissociation, and reconciliation, preparation and intentionality, and gratitude and immortalisation. The findings suggest that during the course of practical dissection sessions, anatomists learn to normalise the transgressive activity of human dissection via processes of reconciliation. The transgressive elements are resolved through the agency of the person once living and through a configuration of the anatomist and the donor body in a network of scientific knowledge, pedagogic practice and personal influence.

Keywords: cadaveric dissection; detached concern; donor body; pedagogy; qualitative interviews; reconciliation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804231156121 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:29:y:2024:i:2:p:370-385

DOI: 10.1177/13607804231156121

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().