Salivary identities: The matter of affect

摘要

Abstract This article is drawn from empirical research being conducted with jewellery designer makers. It takes an event of salivating over a gemstone to explore how we can bring together the biology and neurology of the body with cultural and sociological analysis. A focus on salivation provides an opportunity to consider how this very ordinary mouthwatering sensation brings to the fore the mutual entailment of matter and discourse. Focusing on this case of salivation, the article takes the concepts of intra-action and agential cut to provide alternate analyses of the data. This raises questions of how knowledge is framed, through which kinds of instruments and, in consequence, what is the adequacy of the knowledge produced. Threading through this is a concern with how knowledge is authorised.