title: Local microbiologies of tuberculosis: insights from the Republic of Georgia.
abstract: The perspective of local microbiologies brings attributes of microbes squarely into the anthropological purview, underscoring dialectics of biology and culture in which infectious diseases--and knowledge and practices about them--are produced. In this article I provide an anthropological perspective of expert discourses about tuberculosis at a tuberculosis reference laboratory in Tbilisi, Georgia. A latent-active dichotomy prevails in contemporary global health responses to tuberculosis. Based on ethnographic research about everyday laboratory-based diagnostic work, I question the stability of this dichotomy and unsettle biological and cultural reductionism. In so doing, I highlight the theoretical and methodological contributions that anthropological engagements with science, technology, and medicine bring to studies of global health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA. erin.koch@uky.edu
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koch
mesh_terms: D019468:Disease Management; D005846:Georgia (Republic) / Q000453:epidemiology; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*