Alex Head Bücher

The term ‘ricochet’ is a means to discuss unintended consequences, rapidly delivered information and viral outbreaks, but it is also used to describe the way in which sound echoes or reverberates against objects in space. The book centres around two forms of biological organic mutation and the more recent field of epigenetics. Culture, it is argued, alters not only our minds, but also the very bodies in which we live. It is important to note that the work of cultural epigenetics developed here argues for the determination of human biology by culture and not the other way around. That cultural expressions can be shown to replicate in cyclical patterns over time does not mean that they are inevitable. Intertwining these fields of investigation the author draws on the work of Hannah Arendt, Ibram Xolani Kendi, Judith Butler and others to develop a philosophy of change grounded in comparative cultural anthropology.

Imagine the infinitesimal size of an atom compared to your human body, then scale up to planets, galaxies, and the solar system. The weight of your body exists between these vastly different scales. This work is not about thermodynamics, negative feedback, or refrigerators, nor does it focus on geology, black holes, or migration. However, these systems provide insights into the complex topic of deviancy. What is deviancy, and what forms does it take historically? I propose that deviancy occupies a ‘morphological arena’ between state changes in thermodynamic, social, and cultural systems. It can be understood as a transformation from one stable state to another, as well as in relation to stability, representing that which deviates from the norm. If ‘attachment breeds suffering,’ as Buddhists suggest, we may view the xenophobic anxiety surrounding ‘alien cultural practices’ as linked to the alienability of contemporary culture. Logically, if I can belong anywhere, I belong nowhere. Through themes of displacement, suspicion, and survival, fear appears irrevocably tied to social deviancy. This work seeks to make the concept of deviancy more ambiguous and to position it as an analytical tool in its own right.