Nuclear Borderlands Essay
The Nuclear Borderlands Abstract
Masco’s The Nuclear Borderlands offers an anthropological perspective on the psychosocial effects of the atomic bomb, the most influential techno-scientific project of the twentieth century. New forms of social consciousness, ideas of international order, mutant ecologies, and schemes of the psychosocial imaginary were created, transforming everyday life within a fresh articulation of the global and the local. Masco investigates the consequences of nuclear weapons by closely examining the different parties involved – the Los Alamos weapons scientists, the neighboring Pueblo and “nuevomexicano” communities, antinuclear protestors, the contaminated environment itself, and the U.S. government. In analyzing their different perspectives, Masco highlights the underlying ironies, in what he calls the “nuclear uncanny” – how a weapon of mass destruction can also be considered a beautiful techno-aesthetic work of art, how Los Alamos is both a radioactive polluter but also one of the only means of steady employment for the surrounding communities, how an obsessive focus on the imaginary threat of a nuclear apocalypse fueled …show more content…
a national fetish for a toxic atomic arms race. In discussing the limited access of nuclear knowledge, and drawing parallels to U.S. colonization of its own people, Masco is able to bring up questions about how the U.S. view its own citizens. Ultimately, Masco applies the analysis forwardly to U.S. national security policies in the post-cold war period and on to its logic in regard to the twenty-first century war on terror.
Research Questions 1. How did the Manhattan Project affect both the local communities and the national public sphere and its policies? 2. How do the developments at Los Alamos provoke broader, national sociocultural experiences – including individual concepts of time, space, nature, race, and self-identity? 3. What are the ironies, contradictions, double natures, hidden truths, and “uncanny” that lie underneath conventional conceptions of nuclear weapons? 4. How has U.S. national security policies evolved in relation to the nuclear bomb, and how might the nuclear bomb affect U.S. national security policy going forward, especially in regard to the current and ongoing War on Terror?
Methodology
In terms of traditional fieldwork, Masco spent three years in northern New Mexico in the post-cold war period. He engaged willing individuals in the affected area about the long-term legacies of the Manhattan Project. He analyzed not only the mutations in the socioeconomics, identities, and culture of the local people, but also new and old laws and policies affected by the bomb, and changes in the physical environment itself. He documented both antinuclear protests of the general public and the Pilgrimage of Peace of the locals. He was able to gain diverse opinions of the Manhattan Project from many groups, including the Los Alamos scientists, the pueblo Indians, and “neuvomexicanos.”
In terms of research, Masco accessed archival and institutional resources at the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives, Los Alamos Study Group, and other cultural centers, science museums, and university offices.
With these resources, he was able to analyze diagrams and charts delineating nuclear strategies, technical maps of the affected regions, photographs of bomb testing, and descriptions from the scientists themselves. He also gave the historical and political background of the events and cultural transformed he discussed, in order to keep the reader aware of the larger context. In regards to subjects in which evidence was harder to collect, such as with nuclear hyper security, Masco used media coverage of nuclear espionage scandals and policies regarding nuclear
secrets.
In terms of referencing other works, Masco often quotes other works on nuclear weapons to supplement his own research. In addition, he starts off every chapter, and the first sentences of many paragraphs with these quotes (and sometimes quotes obtained from his fieldwork). These italicized quotes really allow the reader to feel, in the various different aspects, the bodily experience of the nuclear bomb, and really allow the reader to grasp and sensualize the nuclear uncanny.
Masco’s The Nuclear Borderlands offers an anthropological perspective on the psychosocial effects of the atomic bomb, the most influential techno-scientific project of the twentieth century. New forms of social consciousness, ideas of international order, mutant ecologies, and schemes of the psychosocial imaginary were created, transforming everyday life within a fresh articulation of the global and the local. Masco investigates the consequences of nuclear weapons by closely examining the different parties involved – the Los Alamos weapons scientists, the neighboring Pueblo and “nuevomexicano” communities, antinuclear protestors, the contaminated environment itself, and the U.S. government. In analyzing their different perspectives, Masco highlights the underlying ironies, in what he calls the “nuclear uncanny” – how a weapon of mass destruction can also be considered a beautiful techno-aesthetic work of art, how Los Alamos is both a radioactive polluter but also one of the only means of steady employment for the surrounding communities, how an obsessive focus on the imaginary threat of a nuclear apocalypse fueled …show more content…
a national fetish for a toxic atomic arms race. In discussing the limited access of nuclear knowledge, and drawing parallels to U.S. colonization of its own people, Masco is able to bring up questions about how the U.S. view its own citizens. Ultimately, Masco applies the analysis forwardly to U.S. national security policies in the post-cold war period and on to its logic in regard to the twenty-first century war on terror.
Research Questions 1. How did the Manhattan Project affect both the local communities and the national public sphere and its policies? 2. How do the developments at Los Alamos provoke broader, national sociocultural experiences – including individual concepts of time, space, nature, race, and self-identity? 3. What are the ironies, contradictions, double natures, hidden truths, and “uncanny” that lie underneath conventional conceptions of nuclear weapons? 4. How has U.S. national security policies evolved in relation to the nuclear bomb, and how might the nuclear bomb affect U.S. national security policy going forward, especially in regard to the current and ongoing War on Terror?
Methodology
In terms of traditional fieldwork, Masco spent three years in northern New Mexico in the post-cold war period. He engaged willing individuals in the affected area about the long-term legacies of the Manhattan Project. He analyzed not only the mutations in the socioeconomics, identities, and culture of the local people, but also new and old laws and policies affected by the bomb, and changes in the physical environment itself. He documented both antinuclear protests of the general public and the Pilgrimage of Peace of the locals. He was able to gain diverse opinions of the Manhattan Project from many groups, including the Los Alamos scientists, the pueblo Indians, and “neuvomexicanos.”
In terms of research, Masco accessed archival and institutional resources at the Los Alamos Historical Society Archives, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives, Los Alamos Study Group, and other cultural centers, science museums, and university offices.
With these resources, he was able to analyze diagrams and charts delineating nuclear strategies, technical maps of the affected regions, photographs of bomb testing, and descriptions from the scientists themselves. He also gave the historical and political background of the events and cultural transformed he discussed, in order to keep the reader aware of the larger context. In regards to subjects in which evidence was harder to collect, such as with nuclear hyper security, Masco used media coverage of nuclear espionage scandals and policies regarding nuclear
secrets.
In terms of referencing other works, Masco often quotes other works on nuclear weapons to supplement his own research. In addition, he starts off every chapter, and the first sentences of many paragraphs with these quotes (and sometimes quotes obtained from his fieldwork). These italicized quotes really allow the reader to feel, in the various different aspects, the bodily experience of the nuclear bomb, and really allow the reader to grasp and sensualize the nuclear uncanny.