Paper short abstract:

This paper draws upon an ethnographic study of consumers of direct-to-consumer genetic testing and probes the uncertainty and potentiality of genetic information in the search for “genetic kin” and investigates how algorithms of relatedness are taken up in individual and group identity.

Paper long abstract:

Over the past several decades, rapid development of genetic technologies have ushered in new approaches to determining individual human ancestry from algorithms of genetic relatedness derived from population genetics. The precipitous decrease in the cost of high throughput genetic sequencing technologies have fueled commercial efforts to sell genetic ancestry testing services direct to consumers (DTC) via the internet. Despite the proliferation of commercially available genetic ancestry tests, little is known on how individuals consume test results and interpret their meanings. This paper builds on an ongoing study of the personal genome testing company 23andMe, Inc. based in California's Silicon Valley and examines in depth interviews with 23andMe consumers and other social actors in probing how consumers engage genetic ancestry information in identity formation and understandings of relatedness. Bundled with genetic information on disease, drug response and other traits provided by the company, this paper probes how information on genetic ancestry is taken up in conjunction with these other test results in rendering risk meaningful. This paper examines how genetic ancestry information is suggestive of new forms of relatedness and how commercial ancestry services capture and cultivate a desire for specificity and certainty in an inherently contingent landscape of probability. Examining the productive ambivalence over genetic ancestry information and selective memory in the construction of genetic kin, this paper probes how potentiality is inscribed not only onto the biological materiality of DNA in, but provides the lens in excavating the past in identity formation of individuals and groups

Paper short abstract:

In a comparative study of Austria, Finland, and Germany, we analyse the use of DNA testing for family reunification and show, that this practise emphasises biological notions of family and ancestry, causes mistrust against asylum seekers and new uncertainty with regards to the meaning of family.

Paper long abstract:

In 1991, Abby Lippman coined the term 'geneticisation' to designate the tendency that social structures and practices are more and more shaped by the explanatory models and rationalities of the new genetics. While the term has been used by many social scientists to analyse the social impact of genetics, the debate so far has predominantly focused on the medical sphere. It is our objective to extend the discussion by focusing on the emergence, institutionalisation and practice of DNA testing in the context of immigration. Today, many countries around the world have begun to use DNA testing to establish biological relatedness in family reunification cases. Family reunification refers to the right of family members living abroad to join relatives who hold long-term residence permits in a given country. In a comparative study of Austria, Finland, and Germany, we will investigate how DNA technology is used to 'verify' family relations and its impact on the concept of family.

We will argue that DNA testing for family reunification subscribes to a 'genetic inheritance ideology' (Finkler): Only biological relatives are eligible for family reunification - which excludes others, whose relation cannot be verified by DNA testing. Although applied to increase trust in foreigners' claims, the use of DNA testing comes along with a new level of mistrust and uncertainty with regard to the notion of parenthood and family. The argument is based on interviews with representatives of NGOs and immigration authorities, lawyers specialising immigration law, geneticists and those applying for family reunification.

Paper short abstract:

The “gene” thus emerges in the cases considered here both as an immutable determinant of identification imposed on the tested communities externally, and as a site of agency and resignifiability, where both scientific establishments and those undergoing tests construct their own historical narratives.

Paper long abstract:

Recent decade witnessed an increase in the number of DNA studies aiming to reconstruct Jewish history. Genomic research thus added a new dimension to the debate about the complexity of Jewish identity injecting new meanings into the 'genealogical' discourses of Judaism and Jewish culture. This paper discusses the effect that genomics may (or may not) have had on constructions of Jewishness, by examining recent responses to studies which attempted to cast light on the genetic structure of the Jewish people and on the history of Jewish Diaspora. The paper will explore the way 'Jewish genetics' is perceived and represented by different agents - scientists, groups undergoing such tests, commentators from wider Jewish communities - by focusing on those case studies when DNA research was conducted among the 'new' and 'emerging' Jewish groups, such as the Bene Israel and the Bene Ephraim of India. I will explore the 'mismatch' between the argument about genetics being not more than a new tool for reconstructing Jewish history, espoused by scientists and some lay commentators, and the perception of it being a 'litmus test' of Jewishness demonstrated by some members of Judaising communities. I will suggest that in these studies the "gene" thus emerges both as an immutable determinant of identification imposed on the tested communities externally, and as a site of agency and resignifiability, where both scientific establishments and those undergoing tests construct their own historical narratives.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the dynamics between genomics and political subjectivities in South Africa. It looks at the relationship between disciplinary histories and present categorizations; the notion of descendant community vs. population; the repositioning of South African science in a global field.

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to explore the dynamics between practices of genomics and emerging political subjectivities in post-Apartheid South Africa, a society with a long and highly contested history of race-based scientific sampling and typology.

In the wake of recent demands for the return of human remains that had been collected as part of the scientific projects of physical anthropology, anatomy and archaeology, descendant communities have frequently embraced population genomics as a means of proving their claims. While physical anthropology in these debates is being criticized as 'race science', genetics is viewed as a more neutral and beneficial discipline. However, the sampling strategies of contemporary population geneticists largely overlap with those of earlier disciplinary conventions.

In order to understand the interpretations of the meaning of race and population in these debates as well as their impact on perceptions of political subjectivity, I will look at three interrelated themes: firstly, at the relationship between disciplinary histories and contemporary categorizations; secondly, at the notion of 'descendant community' vs. population; and thirdly, at the repositioning of South African science as a global player in the much wider field of bio-mining for genomic diversity.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I explore the ways in which Thalassaemia, a condition commonly associated with European ancestry, is articulated with ‘whiteness’ in contemporary Brazil, showing how understandings about race and drafted out of a combination of historical discourses and new genetic knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological analyses of race in Brazil have historically emphasized the fluidity of its classificatory system and the emphasis on appearance and status rather than ancestry. Ethnographic studies have long noted how the category 'white' can encompass individuals who had a certain level of non-European ancestry. Public knowledge of such ancestry didn't prevent those individuals from self-classifying or being classified by others as 'white'. At the same time, particularly in some regions, having known European ancestry, especially of Northern European origin, conferred its bearer a higher prestige. Changes in discourses about race, embedded within the struggle against racism and State measures to reduce racial inequalities, also affect the ways in which 'whiteness' is crafted in contemporary Brazil, exemplified by the tendency of younger generations to self-classify as 'brown' or 'black' when compared to their parents. At the same time, genetic techniques of ascertaining ancestry, whether in the shape of media reports about expensive and restricted genomic profiling, or the expansion of cheaper technologies in the field of healthcare, such as neonatal testing for variant haemoglobins, have meant an increase in knowledge about biological ancestry. In this paper I explore the ways in which Thalassaemia, a condition commonly associated with southern European ancestry, is articulated with 'whiteness' in contemporary Brazil. Analyzing the medical literature on the condition, as well as patients' discourses, I show the ways in which understandings about race are drafted out of a combination of historical discourses and new genetic knowledge.

Paper short abstract:

This paper interprets scientific research on prostate cancer and racial disparities. It was found that current scientific explanations tend to group around a) behavioral and b) biological variables, revealing paths to understanding how racial disparities are understood and mitigated.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects on controversies surrounding genetic and difference from the point of view of the Anthropology of Science and Technology. The focus is contemporary scientific research on prostate cancer and racial disparities. The controversy is mapped through recent attempts to explain scientifically the greater incidence of prostate cancer in certain population groups, specifically "African Americans", or otherwise named descendents of sub-Saharan African populations. Papers published in the last 10 years were investigated, in order to map how the problem of racial disparities has been treated in scientific literature. It was found that explanations tended to group around two main arguments: variables responsible for this disparity are either a) mainly socio-economic and behavioral; or b) biologically/genetically based. The paper concludes by arguing that understanding this difference in how racial disparity is understood is relevant not only to anthropological knowledge, but to health and science policies in countries where such racial disparities are detected and perceived as problematic.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic research working in cancer genetic clinics in the south of Brazil this paper examines the variety of ambiguities generated by attention to ancestry and population difference in scientific research and clinical practice related to breast cancer

Paper long abstract:

Growing global interest in human genetic variation related to population differences in disease risk, incidence and mortality is diversely informing scientific and medical approaches to breast cancer. A concern to address health disparities has begun to intersect with an emphasis on identifying the 'ethnic minority spectrum' of gene variants and understanding how ancestry maybe implicated in breast cancer risk, incidence or prognosis. Drawing on ethnographic research in the southern part of Brazil working in cancer genetic clinics this paper examines how a complex of set of social, historical and scientific discourses concerning colonial histories, European immigration, population difference and diversity, as well as regional specificity, are dynamically informing the way notions of genetic ancestry and admixture as risk for (or protection from) breast cancer are being articulated and constituted. The paper highlights the different registers of potentiality and uncertainty this generates for patients, their families and communities of health/scientific practitioners caught up in the work of constituting the past as a resource in the pursuit of preventable futures within an emerging field of breast cancer genetics in Brazil.

Paper short abstract:

Our paper analyzes ongoing debates related to the uses of racial classification categories and genomic ancestry protocols in pharmacogenomic research in Brazil. Focusing on the drug warfarin, we argue that these debates have implications for conceptions of race, ethnicity and nation in the country.

Paper long abstract:

Public funding for research on the action of drugs in countries like the U.S. requires that racial classification of research subjects should be considered when defining the composition of the samples as well as in data analysis. In a controversial arena, once race is included in research designs, it is created the possibility of interpreting that whites and blacks are so distinct that pharmacogenes present in the genetic background of black people would be absent from the genetic background of white and vice versa. In Brazil, pharmacogenomic results have led to very different interpretations when compared to those obtained in U.S. This is explained as deriving from the genomic heterogeneity of the Brazilian population. The premise is that admixture prevents the direct association between color and genetic ancestry. This paper addresses the relationship between scientific practice and the naturalization of social values in biomedical research. Our data derive from ethnographic investigation conducted in INCA with a focus on the drug warfarin, which are compared with similar data derived from research carried out in the US and Europe. The criticism of Brazilian scientists regarding the uses of racial categorization includes a revision of mathematical algorithms for drug dosage widely used in clinical procedures around the world. Our analysis reveals how the incorporation of ideas of racial purity and admixture, as it relates to the efficacy of drugs, touches on issues related to the possibility of application of pharmaceutical technologies on a global scale.