Mestizo Genomics
Race Mixture, Nation, and Science in Latin America
Peter Wade editor Carlos López Beltrán editor Eduardo Restrepo editor Ricardo Ventura Santos editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Duke University Press
Published:4th Apr '14
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In genetics laboratories in Latin America, scientists have been mapping the genomes of local populations, seeking to locate the genetic basis of complex diseases and to trace population histories. As part of their work, geneticists often calculate the European, African, and Amerindian genetic ancestry of populations. Some researchers explicitly connect their findings to questions of national identity and racial and ethnic difference, bringing their research to bear on issues of politics and identity.
Drawing on ethnographic research in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, the contributors to Mestizo Genomics explore how the concepts of race, ethnicity, nation, and gender enter into and are affected by genomic research. In Latin America, national identities are often based on ideas about mestizaje (race mixture), rather than racial division. Since mestizaje is said to involve relations between European men and indigenous or African women, gender is a key factor in Latin American genomics and in the analyses in this book. Also important are links between contemporary genomics and recent moves toward official multiculturalism in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. One of the first studies of its kind, Mestizo Genomics sheds new light on the interrelations between "race," identity, and genomics in Latin America.
Contributors. Adriana Díaz del Castillo H., Roosbelinda Cárdenas, Vivette García Deister, Verlan Valle Gaspar Neto, Michael Kent, Carlos López Beltrán, María Fernanda Olarte Sierra, Eduardo Restrepo, Mariana Rios Sandoval, Ernesto Schwartz-Marín, Ricardo Ventura Santos, Peter Wade
“[T]he virtues of the book are many: it opens the geographical scope of studies of genomic research and productively engages with contemporary reconfigurations of race and nation. Last, but not least, it demonstrates the enormous value of collaborative transnational research for science and technology studies.” -- Edna Suárez-Díaz * Journal of Latin American Geography *
"Mestizo Genomics makes an important contribution to the study of biology and the human sciences in Latin America.... This book will be useful to any scholar interested in science, race, and nation in Latin America as well as those considering how to formulate large-scale interdisciplinary projects." -- Sarah Walsh * The Latin Americanist *
"...this collection is vibrant and exciting, throwing up (without closing down) a finessed repertoire of compelling debates that tantalize with irresistible conceptual nuggets primed for future inquiry.... This kind of heuristic analysis looks set to enhance and extend discussions of mestizaje in the twenty-first century, in the academy and beyond." -- Victoria Carroll * History *
"All in all, the clarity of the project, the skill of the researchers, and the fine editing of the book as a whole allow for a study of great breadth and significance.... Mestizo Genomics will be of great interest to science studies scholars interested in racial science, biology, and genomics. Latin Americanists will find a compelling description of the historic and recent developments in scientific theories of diversity, unity, and homogenous identity in the area, and Latin America’s variety and specific taxonomies should be instructive to scholars of U.S. and European genomics." -- Julia Rodriguez * ISIS *
"This book... clearly contributes to current international debates on race, genomics and biomedicine. This work is not only of interest to biological anthropologists and historians of science, but also to a wider audience that should include evolutionary biologists and social scientists.” -- Ana Barahona * Metascience *
ISBN: 9780822356592
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 435g
320 pages