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.