Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the potential for innovative uses of biological anthropology to elucidate paths of migration, relatedness, and identity in Liberia. It considers the fraught relations of biology in a field of identity by exploring a non-reductionistic approach regarding medical humanities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will examine the potential for innovative uses of biological anthropology to help elucidate paths of migration, relatedness, and identity in Liberia. In preparation for future multidisciplinary fieldwork in Liberia, which will use all four fields of anthropology to investigate flows of material culture, memory, and genetics between Mississippi and Mississippi in Africa, this paper will discuss how DNA sampling (using minimally invasive cheek swabbing) can contribute to research on early settlement, marital practices, and group membership in Sinoe County. It will also consider the fraught relations of biology in a field of identity by exploring a non-reductionistic approach resonant with the growing multidisciplinary field of medical humanities. For many Liberians today, the identity of settlers and their descendants often focuses on forms of fashion, speech, and other practices. In the past, it was often associated with descent, adoption, and education. There is a gap in the academic literature on biological relatedness in Americo-Liberian communities and social constructions of identity. This paper will explore this gap while examining the potential of biological anthropology for making ethically sound, non-reductionistic contributions to multidisciplinary research concerning the broader African Diaspora. It complements other papers in this panel through a contrastive focus on biological relatedness and its meanings in local constructions of Americo-Liberian identity and belonging. Asserting the primacy of neither culture nor nature, it explores how new uses of biological anthropology can add useful dimensions to such multidisciplinary research.