Genetic Nature Culture: Anthropology and Science beyond the Two-Culture Divide

331 Pages·2003·1.12 MB·English

by  Alan Goodman (Editor)

Genetic Nature/Culture

Genetic Nature/Culture
Anthropology and Science beyond the
Two-Culture Divide
EDITED BY
Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heath,
and M. Susan Lindee
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2003 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Genetic nature/culture : anthropology and science beyond the two-culture divide / edited
by Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heath, and M. Susan Lindee.
7 p. cm.
Papers presented at a Wenner-Gren Foundation international symposium, held June 11–19,
1999, in Teresópolis, Brazil.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–520–23792–7 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0–520–23793–5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human population genetics—Congresses. 2. Human genetics—Research—
Congresses. 3. Human genetics—Moral and ethical aspects—Congresses. 4.
Anthropological ethics—Congresses. I. Goodman, Alan H. II. Heath, Deborah, 1952– III.
Lindee, M. Susan.
GN289 .G455 2003
599.93’5—dc21 2002152222
Manufactured in the United States of America
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (TCF). It meets
the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
contents
list of illustrations / vii
foreword
Sydel Silverman / ix
preface and acknowledgments / xv
introduction.
Anthropology in an Age of Genetics: Practice, Discourse,
and Critique
M. Susan Lindee, Alan Goodman, and Deborah Heath / 1
part i. nature/culture
Section A. Human Populations/Genetic Resources
1. Indigenous Peoples, Changing Social and Political Landscapes,
and Human Genetics in Amazonia
Ricardo Ventura Santos / 23
2. Provenance and the Pedigree: Victor McKusick’s Fieldwork
with the Old Order Amish
M. Susan Lindee / 41
3. Flexible Eugenics: Technologies of the Self in the Age of Genetics
Karen-Sue Taussig, Rayna Rapp, and Deborah Heath / 58
4. The Commodification of Virtual Reality: The Icelandic Health
Sector Database
Hilary Rose / 77
Section B. Animal Species/Genetic Resources
5. Kinship, Genes, and Cloning: Life after Dolly
Sarah Franklin / 95
vi contents
6. For the Love of a Good Dog: Webs of Action in the World
of Dog Genetics
Donna Haraway / 111
7. 98% Chimpanzee and 35% Daffodil: The Human Genome
in Evolutionary and Cultural Context
Jonathan Marks / 132
part ii. culture/nature
Section A. Political and Cultural Identity
8. From Pure Genes to GMOs: Transnationalized Gene Landscapes
in the Biodiversity and Transgenic Food Networks
Chaia Heller and Arturo Escobar / 155
9. Future Imaginaries: Genome Scientists as Sociocultural Entrepreneurs
Joan H. Fujimura / 176
10. Reflections and Prospects for Anthropological Genetics in
South Africa
Himla Soodyall / 200
Section B. Race and Human Variation
11. The Genetics of African Americans: Implications for Disease
Gene Mapping and Identity
Rick Kittles and Charmaine Royal / 219
12. Human Races in the Context of Recent Human Evolution:
A Molecular Genetic Perspective
Alan R. Templeton / 234
13. Buried Alive: The Concept of Race in Science
Troy Duster / 258
14. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Promise and Problems of
Ancient DNA for Anthropology
Frederika A. Kaestle / 278
list of contributors / 297
index / 299
illustrations
FIGURES
2.1. The “Amish Madonna” / 47
2.2. A polydactylous dwarf / 52
7.1. Molecular homology / 142
7.2. Some diagnostic differences between human chromosomes / 144
7.3. Ape, fish, human comparison / 147
12.1. Models of recent human evolution / 240
12.2. Portrayals of human genetic distances / 243
12.3. Genetic distance and isolation by geographic distance / 245
TABLES
13.1. Selected high incidence of genetic disorders / 268
13.2. Ethnicities or groups primarily affected by disorders (U.S.) / 268
13.3. Ethnic or group variation with incidence of cystic fibrosis / 270
14.1. Anthropological applications of ancient DNA techniques / 280
vii

foreword
Sydel Silverman
In the last decade of the twentieth century, anthropology, like many other
disciplines, was deeply affected by the revolution in genetic science. Both as
a set of methodological tools and as an object of study in its own right, genet-
ics assumed an increasingly important place in anthropological research and
practice, presenting new opportunities and new challenges. At the same
time, public discourse around genetics intensified, touching on long-held
concerns of anthropologists; yet the anthropological voice was not often
heard, even when it was sorely needed. This confluence of developments led
to the idea for a conference on anthropology and the new genetics. It came
to fruition as a Wenner-Gren Foundation’s international symposium,
“Anthropology in the Age of Genetics: Practice, Discourse, Critique,” which
took place in June 1999, in Teresópolis, Brazil. This volume is a product of
that conference.
I had become aware of the reverberations of the new genetics in anthro-
pology primarily from reading the nearly one thousand grant proposals sub-
mitted to Wenner-Gren each year. This perspective afforded a significant—
albeit only partial—window on the discipline. From this window I could see
enormous potential for research in all areas of anthropology but also some
danger signs. For each of the subfields, the developments in genetics opened
up new problems for study and new approaches to old problems, but they
also brought new difficulties.
The anthropological study of living nonhuman primates was profoundly
affected by the advent of new genetic methods. For some time in this field,
the predominant goal had been to identify the evolutionary significance of
behaviors and social patterns. A key question, of course, was whether genes
actually did get replicated in accordance with the predictions; but until
recently, this question could be addressed only by inference. The invention
ix