Warwick Anderson has written an admirably readable book that weaves together bio-prospecting, cannibalism, colonialism, and globalization and remarkably manages to put the complexity of human relationships at the very center of the story.
The Collectors of Lost Souls recounts the transformation of kuru from a psychosomatic disorder caused by sorcery and studied by anthropologists into a degenerative neurological disease caused by infectious prions and studied by microbiologists and biochemists. This transformation largely comes into focus through the community of medical field workers, scientists, and Fore informants who ultimately formed a network of kuru research that extended from the New Guinea highlands to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA. The coproduction of kuru and this global research network is fleshed out through the very personal intrigues and foibles of the main protagonists of the historical drama: district medical officers, anthropologists, and adventurist biomedical researchers, of whom Carleton Gajdusek takes center stage.
