Article
ID: CBB197700782

Normalization and the Search for Variation in the Human Genome (2020)

unapi
Human population genetics Indigenous peoples; indigeneity Variation (biology) Science and race Genomics Normality Standards and standardization 21st century 20th century

This essay reflects on the tension between standardization and the search for variation in the human genome. The stabilization of the human chromosome count in the 1920s was based on the consensus that “Whites,” “Negroes,” and “Japanese,” as well as women and men, had the same number of chromosomes. Yet the idea that there might be chromosomal differences between various groups of people was never quite abandoned. When in the mid-1950s the human chromosome number was revised from 48 to 46, the new count was tested in populations around the world. The description of the “normal human karyotype” that was negotiated in the 1960s was driven by the search for a standard against which the genetic variation revealed by the flurry of testing could be measured. And although the human genome project in the 1990s promised to provide the genetic blueprint that all humans shared, it has in fact led to an increased focus on the genetic variation that distinguishes the history, identity, and health outcomes of various human populations. Following concrete examples, this essay investigates the historically contingent quests that have been driving the search for common standards and variation, and the role Pacific and Indigenous populations have played in these endeavors.This essay is part of a special issue entitled Pacific Biologies: How Humans Become Genetic, edited by Warwick Anderson and M. Susan Lindee.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB197700782/

Similar Citations

Article James W. E. Lowe; (2016)
Normal development and experimental embryology: Edmund Beecher Wilson and Amphioxus (/isis/citation/CBB114945953/)

Article Richard McMahon; (2020)
Resurecting raciology? Genetic ethnology and pre-1945 anthropological race classification (/isis/citation/CBB086533805/)

Article Michael D. Edge; Noah A. Rosenberg; (2015)
Implications of the apportionment of human genetic diversity for the apportionment of human phenotypic diversity (/isis/citation/CBB310359830/)

Book Myles W. Jackson; (2015)
The Genealogy of a Gene: Patents, HIV/AIDS, and Race (/isis/citation/CBB193037134/)

Article Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther; Roberta L. Millstein; Rasmus Nielsen; (2015)
Introduction: Genomics and philosophy of race (/isis/citation/CBB320695569/)

Article Kent, Michael; (August 2013)
The importance of being Uros: Indigenous identity politics in the genomic age (/isis/citation/CBB539143812/)

Article TallBear, Kim; (August 2013)
Genomic articulations of indigeneity (/isis/citation/CBB368828568/)

Article Guido Barbujani; (2017)
What Genetics Has to Say about Racial Categorization of Humans (/isis/citation/CBB088477154/)

Book TallBear, Kimberly; (2013)
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science (/isis/citation/CBB001421027/)

Article Garnelo, Luiza; (2011)
Aspectos socioculturais de vacinação em área indígena (/isis/citation/CBB001420515/)

Book Muehlmann, Shaylih; (2013)
Where the River Ends: Contested Indigeneity in the Mexican Colorado Delta (/isis/citation/CBB001420370/)

Article Warwick Anderson; M. Susan Lindee; (2020)
Pacific Biologies: How Humans Become Genetic (/isis/citation/CBB557669534/)

Article Reardon, Jenny; TallBear, Kim; (2013)
“Your DNA Is Our History”: Genomics, Anthropology, and the Construction of Whiteness as Property (/isis/citation/CBB001212640/)

Article Ferreira, Luciane Ouriques; (2013)
A emergência da medicina tradicional indígena no campo das políticas públicas (/isis/citation/CBB001420639/)

Article Joan H. Fujimura; Ramya M. Rajagopalan; (2020)
Race, Ethnicity, Ancestry, and Genomics in Hawai‘i: Discourses and Practices (/isis/citation/CBB252611287/)

Article Kowal, Emma; (August 2013)
Orphan DNA: Indigenous samples, ethical biovalue and postcolonial science (/isis/citation/CBB341833065/)

Article Lipphardt, Veronika; (2014)
“Geographical Distribution Patterns of Various Genes”: Genetic Studies of Human Variation after 1945 (/isis/citation/CBB001421066/)

Article Widmer, Alexandra; (2014)
Making Blood “Melanesian”: Fieldwork and Isolating Techniques in Genetic Epidemiology (1963--1976) (/isis/citation/CBB001421071/)

Thesis Radin, Joanna M.; (2012)
Life on Ice: Frozen Blood and Biological Variation in a Genomic Age, 1950--2010 (/isis/citation/CBB001560842/)

Article Reardon, Jenny; (2012)
The Democratic, Anti-Racist Genome? Technoscience at the Limits of Liberalism (/isis/citation/CBB001251158/)

Authors & Contributors
TallBear, Kimberly
Reardon, Jenny
Lowe, James W. E.
Nielsen, Rasmus
Edge, Michael D.
Kent, Michael
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Social Studies of Science
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
Mefisto: Rivista di medicina, filosofia, storia
Science as Culture
Publishers
University of Minnesota Press
MIT Press
Duke University Press
University of Pennsylvania
Concepts
Science and race
Indigenous peoples; indigeneity
Genomics
Human genetics
Variation (biology)
Race
People
Wilson, Edmund Beecher
Foucault, Michel
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
United States
Australia
Colorado River (North America)
Peru
New Guinea
Hawaii (U.S.)
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment

Creative Commons License REST API