With newfound relevance in the context of Covid-19, we focus on the coughing body, building on an in-depth qualitative study of three UK lung infection clinics treating people with cystic fibrosis. Conceptually we take our cue from Norbert Elias and the way something as physiologically fundamental as coughing becomes the focus of etiquette and technique, touching also on themes central to Mary Douglas’ anthropology of pollution. This is explored through four themes. First, we show how coughing becomes a matter of biopolitical citizenship expressed through etiquettes that also displace pollution anxieties to surroundings. Second, coughing is a question of being assisted to cough through the mediation of professional skills, interventions and devices. Third, coughing is seen to be central to the sonographic soundscape of the healthcare environment whereby people learn to recognise (and sometimes misrecognise) each other through the ‘sound’ of the cough. Finally, coughing properly can be seen to have both a ‘time and a place’ including the retreat of the cough from public space into risky confined spaces. Our conclusion speculates on the way these insights shed light on aspects of life that, until the Covid-19 pandemic, lay largely hidden.

中文翻译：

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咳嗽的身体：礼仪、技术、超声检查和空间

在 Covid-19 的背景下新发现的相关性，我们专注于咳嗽的身体，建立在对三个治疗囊性纤维化患者的英国肺部感染诊所的深入定性研究的基础上。从概念上讲，我们从诺伯特·埃利亚斯（Norbert Elias）那里得到启示，以及像咳嗽这样的生理基础成为礼仪和技术的焦点，也触及了玛丽·道格拉斯污染人类学的核心主题。这是通过四个主题进行探索的。首先，我们展示了咳嗽如何成为通过礼仪表达的生命政治公民问题，这些礼仪也取代了对周围环境的污染焦虑。其次，咳嗽是通过专业技能、干预措施和设备的中介辅助咳嗽的问题。第三，咳嗽被认为是医疗保健环境声像图的核心，人们通过咳嗽的“声音”学会识别（有时是错误识别）彼此。最后，正确咳嗽可以被视为既有“时间也有地点”，包括将咳嗽从公共空间转移到危险的密闭空间。我们的结论推测这些见解如何揭示生活的各个方面，在 Covid-19 大流行之前，这些方面在很大程度上是隐藏的。