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Accepted Paper:

The archaeology of personhood: genes, names and identities  
Gísli Pálsson (University of Iceland)

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the implications of genomic studies for anthropology. Partly framed within the context of my own research in Nunavut (Canada) and Greenland on human migration and history, my discussion emphasizes the similarities and differences of modern gene talk about the constitution of the individual with the vertical transfer of substance and what I refer to as Inuit epigenetics--local notions of naming, subjectivity, and relatedness.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the implications of genomic studies for anthropology. Anthropology has often been thoroughly divided on the issue of genomic research, a division largely founded on the theoretical opposition of nature and culture. I argue that with the conflation of these domains in the wake of the new genetics and the recent Human Genome Project, a fresh network of associations has been emerging among both anthropologists studying the human genome and their laboratories and institutions. These developments, I suggest, invite interesting and pressing questions about, in particular, the refashioning of anthropology, the representation of local notions of belonging and the constitution of personhood, the separation of experts and lay persons, and the quest for new frameworks for the collaboration of anthropologists and their subjects. Partly framed within the context of my own research in Nunavut (Canada) and Greenland on human migration and history, my discussion emphasizes the similarities and differences of modern gene talk about the constitution of the individual with the vertical transfer of substance and what I refer to as Inuit epigenetics--local notions of naming, subjectivity, and relatedness.

Panel P10
Emergent novelty and the evolutionary dynamics of organic and cultural life-forms
  Session 1