Race and nutrition in the New World: Colonial shadows in the age of epigenetics (2019)
Baedke, Jan (Author)
Delgado, Abigail Nieves (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 76
Pages: 101175
This paper addresses historical dimensions of epigenetic studies on human populations. We show that postgenomic research on health disparities in Latin America reintroduces old colonial views about the relations between race, environment, and social status. This especially refers to the idea – common in colonial humoralism and epigenetics – that different types of bodies are in balance and closely linked with particular local environments and lifestyles. These social differences become embodied as physiological and health differences. By comparing Spanish chronicles of the New World with recent epidemiological narratives on Mexican populations in social epigenetics (especially on obesity), we identify four characteristics that both share in distinguishing races, such as indigenous or mestizos from Spaniards or non-Mexicans: (i) Race is not intrinsic to bodies but emerges as a particular homeostatic body-environment relation; (ii) the stability of one's race is warranted through the stability of one's local environment and lifestyle, especially nutrition; (iii) every race faces specific life challenges in a local environment to maintain its health; and (iv) every race shows a unique social status that is closely linked to its biological status (e.g., disease susceptibility). Based on these similarities, we argue that currently in Latin America the field of epigenetics appears on the scene with a worrisome colonial shadow. It reintroduces long forgotten exclusionary and stereotypic perspectives on indigenous and mestizos, and biologizes as well as racializes social-cultural differences among human groups.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Roberto Cippitani;
Valentina Colcelli;
(2021)
Bio-legal Issues in the Establishment of a Historical Collection of Human Tissues: The case of the Umbria Biobank Project
(/isis/citation/CBB661475901/)
Book
Jan Baedke;
(2018)
Above the Gene, Beyond Biology: Toward a Philosophy of Epigenetics
(/isis/citation/CBB511514088/)
Book
Hallam Stevens;
Sarah S. Richardson;
(2015)
Postgenomics: Perspectives on Biology after the Genome
(/isis/citation/CBB862623870/)
Book
Loren R. Graham;
(2016)
Lysenko's Ghost: Epigenetics and Russia
(/isis/citation/CBB240396828/)
Book
Susan Merrill Squier;
(2017)
Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawings as Metaphor
(/isis/citation/CBB524640115/)
Article
Clarence C. Gravlee;
(2009)
How Race Becomes Biology: Embodiment of Social Inequality
(/isis/citation/CBB440520535/)
Article
Michael J. Montoya;
(2007)
Bioethnic Conscription: Genes, Race, and Mexicana/o Ethnicity in Diabetes Research
(/isis/citation/CBB148486682/)
Book
Michel Morange;
(2020)
The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB035364586/)
Article
Pietro Giuffrida;
Francesca Faillaci;
Lucia Sideli;
(2016)
Epigenesis as Key Concept for Understanding Functional and Disfunctional Reactions of Human Beings to Their Environment
(/isis/citation/CBB066183793/)
Book
Perlman, Robert L;
(2013)
Evolution and Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001421084/)
Book
Rebecca Earle;
(2012)
The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492–1700
(/isis/citation/CBB533266370/)
Book
Cassata, Francesco;
O'Loughlin, Erin;
(2010)
Building the New Man: Eugenics, Racial Science and Genetics in Twentieth-Century Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB001033309/)
Book
Qureshi, Sadiah;
(2011)
Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB001221218/)
Book
Tamar Sharon;
(2014)
Human Nature in an Age of Biotechnology: The Case for Mediated Posthumanism
(/isis/citation/CBB792640964/)
Article
Michel Morange;
(2017)
Human Germline Editing: A Historical Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB176490993/)
Book
Mark Coeckelbergh;
(2013)
Human Being @ Risk: Enhancement, Technology, and the Evaluation of Vulnerability Transformations
(/isis/citation/CBB944837263/)
Book
Dorlin, Elsa;
(2006)
La matrice de la race: Généalogie sexuelle et coloniale de la nation française
(/isis/citation/CBB000954538/)
Article
Hayden, Cori;
(2007)
Taking as Giving: Bioscience, Exchange, and the Politics of Benefit-Sharing
(/isis/citation/CBB000773319/)
Article
Knigh, Christine;
(2011)
“Most People Are Simply Not Designed to Eat Pasta”: Evolutionary Explanations for Obesity in the Low-Carbohydrate Diet Movement
(/isis/citation/CBB001250091/)
Book
Bernardino Fantini;
Fabrizio Rufo;
(2017)
Il codice della vita. Una storia della genetica tra scienza e bioetica
(/isis/citation/CBB297801530/)
Be the first to comment!