Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-07T17:24:07.684Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Flattening and Unpacking Human Genetic Variation in Mexico, Postwar to Present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2017

Víctor Hugo Anaya-Muñoz ,
Vivette García-Deister  and
Edna Suárez-Díaz
Víctor Hugo Anaya-Muñoz
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México E-mail: victor_anaya@enesmorelia.unam.mx
Vivette García-Deister
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México E-mail: victor_anaya@enesmorelia.unam.mx
Edna Suárez-Díaz
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México E-mail: victor_anaya@enesmorelia.unam.mx
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Argument

This paper analyzes the research strategies of three different cases in the study of human genetics in Mexico – the work of Rubén Lisker in the 1960s, INMEGEN's mapping of Mexican genomic diversity between 2004 and 2009, and the analysis of Native American variation by Andrés Moreno and his colleagues in contemporary research. We make a distinction between an approach that incorporates multiple disciplinary resources into sampling design and interpretation (unpacking), from one that privileges pragmatic considerations over more robust multidisciplinary analysis (flattening). These choices have consequences for social, demographic, and biomedical practices, and also for accounts of genetic variation in human populations. While the former strategy unpacks fine-grained genetic variation – favoring precision and realism, the latter tends to flatten individual differences and historical depth in lieu of generalization.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 89 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agostini, Claudia. 2013. “Material Culture, Public Health and the Technologies of Hygiene in Modern Mexico, 1890s-1940s.” In Technology and Culture in Twentieth-Century Mexico, edited by Tinajero, Araceli and Freeman, J. Brian, 25–42. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, David H., Novembre, John, and Lange, Kenneth. 2009. “Fast Model-Based Estimation of Ancestry in Unrelated Individuals.” Genome Research 19 (9):1655–1664.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bangham, Jenny. 2014. “Blood Groups and Human Groups: Collecting and Calibrating Genetic Data after World War Two.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 47, Part A (September): 74–86.Google Scholar
Bangham, Jenny, and de Chadarevian, Soraya. 2014. “Human Heredity after 1945: Moving Populations Centre Stage.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 47 (September):45–49 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birn, Anne-Emanuelle. 2006. Marriage of Convenience: Rockefeller International Health and Revolutionary Mexico. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birn, Anne-Emanuelle, and López, Raúl Necochea. 2011. “Footprints on the Future: Looking Forward to the History of Health and Medicine in Latin America in the Twenty-First Century.” Hispanic American Historical Review 91 (3):503–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bliss, Catherine. 2011. “Racial Taxonomy in Genomics.” Social Science & Medicine 73 (7):1019–1027.Google Scholar
Chiang, Howard Hsueh-Hao. 2009. “The Laboratory Technology of Discrete Molecular Separation: The Historical Development of Gel Electrophoresis and the Material Epistemology of Biomolecular Science, 1945–1970.” Journal of the History of Biology 42 (3):495–527.Google Scholar
Cordova, Maria S., Lisker, Rubén, and Loria, Alvar. 1967. “Studies on Several Genetic Hematological Traits of the Mexican Population. XII. Distribution of Blood Group Antigens in Twelve Indian Tribes.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 26 (1):55–65.Google Scholar
Cueto, Marcos. 2007. Cold War, Deadly Fevers: Malaria Eradication in Mexico, 1955–1975. Washington DC and Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.Google Scholar
Cullather, Nick. 2010. The Hungry World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
De Chadarevian, Soraya de, and Kamminga, Harmke. 1998. Molecularizing Biology and Medicine: New Practices and Alliances, 1920s to 1970s. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
de Souza, Vanderlei Sebastião, and Ventura Santos, Ricardo. 2014. “The Emergence of Human Population Genetics and Narratives about the Formation of the Brazilian Nation (1950–1960).” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 47:97–107.Google Scholar
Duster, Troy. 2003a. Backdoor to Eugenics. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Duster, Troy. 2003b. “Buried Alive: The Concept of Race in Science.” In Genetic Nature/ Culture: Anthropology and Science beyond the Two-Culture Divide, edited by Goodman, Allan H., Heath, Deborah, and Lindee, Susan M., 258–277. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo. 1994. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fortun, Mike. 2008. Promising Genomics: Iceland and deCODE Genetics in a World of Speculation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fullwiley, Duana. 2008. “The Biologistical Construction of Race: ‘Admixture’ Technology and the New Genetic Medicine.” Social Studies of Science 38 (5):695–735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
García-Deister, Vivette, y López-Beltrán, Carlos. 2015. “País de Gordos/País de Muertos: obesity, death, and nation in biomedical and forensic genetics in Mexico.” Social Studies of Science 45 (6): 797–815.Google Scholar
García-Murcia, Miguel Ángel. 2013. “Profesionalización de La Antropología Física En El México Posrevolucionario.” Ph.D. diss., México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Gil-Riaño, Sebastián. 2014. “Historicizing Anti-Racism: UNESCO's Campaigns Against Race Prejudice in the 1950s.” Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Guerrero McManus, Fabrizzio. 2009. “Del Genoma Mexicano, La Dislexia Genética Y Otros Males Postmodernos.” http://www.cronica.com.mx/notas/2009/440764.html (last accessed January 4, 2017).Google Scholar
Hagen, Joel B. 2010. “Waiting for Sequences: Morris Goodman, Immunodiffusion Experiments, and the Origins of Molecular Anthropology.” Journal of the History of Biology 43 (4):697–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedgecoe, Adam, and Martin, Paul. 2003. “The Drugs Don't Work: Expectations and the Shaping of Pharmacogenetics.” Social Studies of Science 33 (3):327–364.Google Scholar
Jimenez-Sanchez, Gerardo, Childs, Barton, and Valle, David. 2001. “Human Disease Genes.” Nature 409 (6822):853–855.Google Scholar
Kalow, Werner. 1990. “Pharmacogenetics: Past and Future.” Life Sciences 47 (16):1385–1397.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Jean-Claude., and Junien, Claudine. 2000. “Genomics and Medicine: An Anticipation. From Boolean Mendelian Genetics to Multifactorial Molecular Medicine.” Comptes Rendus de l'Académie Des Sciences. Série III, Sciences de La Vie 323 (12):1167–74.Google Scholar
Kay, Lily E. 1993. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levins, Richard. 1966. “The Strategy of Building in Population Biology.” American Scientist 54 (4):421–431.Google Scholar
Lindee, Susan, and Ventura Santos, Ricardo. 2012. “The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks: An Introduction to Supplement 5.” Current Anthropology 53 (S5):S3–S16.Google Scholar
Lipphardt, Veronika. 2012. “Isolates and Crosses in Human Population Genetics; or, A Contextualization of German Race Science.” Current Anthropology 53 (S5):S69–S82.Google Scholar
Lisker, Rubén, Loria, Alvar, Gonzales-Llaven, José, and Guillermo, Ruiz-Reyes. 1962. “Note préliminaire sur la fréquence des hémoglobulines anormales et de la déficience en glucose-6-phosphatedéshydrogénase dans la population Mexicaine.” Revue Francaise d’Études Cliniques et Biologiques 1 (7): 76–78.Google Scholar
Lisker, Rubén, Loria, Alvar, et al. 1965. “Estudio Sobre Las Características Genéticas Hematológicas en la Costa Chica de Oaxaca y Guerrero.” Salud Pública de México Epoca V 7 (1): 45–50.Google Scholar
Lisker, Rubén, Córdova, María S., and Zárate, Q. B. P. Graciela. 1969. “Studies on Several Genetic Hematological Traits of the Mexican Population, XVI: Hemoglobin, S and Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in the East Coast.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 30 (3):349–354.Google Scholar
Lisker, Rubén, Loria, Alvar, and Cordova, M. Soledad. 1965. “Studies on Several Genetic Hematological Traits of the Mexican Population, VIII: Hemoglobin S, Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and Other Characteristics in a Malarial Region.” American Journal of Human Genetics 17 (2):179–187.Google Scholar
Lisker, Rubén, Zarate, Graciela, and Loria, Alvar. 1966. “Studies on Several Genetic Hematologic Traits of the Mexicans, IX: Abnormal Hemoglobins and Erythrocytic Glucose- &-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Several Indian Tribes.” Blood 27 (6):824–830.Google Scholar
López Beltrán, Carlos, ed. 2013. Genes (&) Mestizos: Genómica Y Raza En La Biomedicina Mexicana. UNAM/Ficticia.Google Scholar
López Beltrán, Carlos, Deister, Vivette García, and Sandoval, Mariana Rios. 2014. “Negotiating the Mexican Mestizo; on the Possibility of a National Genomics.” In Mestizo Genomics: Race Mixture, Nation and Science in Latin America, edited by Wade, Peter, Beltran, Carlos Lopez, Eduardo, Restrepo, and Santos, Ricardo Ventura, 85–107. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
López-Beltrán, Carlos, and García-Deister, Vivette. 2013. “Scientific Approaches to the Mexican Mestizo.” História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos 20 (2):391–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maio, Marcos Chor. 2007. “Un programme contre le racisme au lendemain de la seconde Guerre mondiale In Actes Du Colloque International, Coordinated by Jens Boel, 187–196. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Marks, Jonathan. 1996. “The Legacy of Serological Studies in American Physical Anthropology.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 345–362.Google Scholar
Mazumdar, Pauline. 2002. Species and Specificity: An Interpretation of the History of Immunology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, Urs A. 1990. “Molecular Genetics and the Future of Pharmacogenetics.” Pharmaceutical Therapies 46:349–355.Google Scholar
Moreno, Andrés, and Sandoval, Karla. 2013. “Diversidad Genómica En México: Pasado Indígena Y Mestizaje.” Cuicuilco 58: 249–275.Google Scholar
Moreno-Estrada, Andrés, Gignoux, Christopher R., Fernandez-Lopez, Juan Carlos, Martin Sikora, Fouad Zakharia, Contreras, Adriana V., Acuna-Alonzo, Victor, et al. 2014. “The Genetics of Mexico Recapitulates Native American Substructure and Affects Biomedical Traits.” Science 344 (6189):1280–1285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreno-Estrada, Andrés, Gravel, Simon, Zakharia, Fouad, McCauley, Jacob L., Byrnes, Jake K., Gignoux, Christopher R., Ortiz-Tello, Patricia A., et al. 2013. “Reconstructing the Population Genetic History of the Caribbean.” PLoS Genet 9 (11):e1003925.Google Scholar
Motulsky, Arno G. 1957. “Drug Reactions, Enzymes, and Biochemical Genetics.” Journal of the American Medical Association 165 (7):835–837.Google Scholar
Mourant, Arthur Ernest. 1954. The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Nebert, Daniel W. 1997. “Pharmacogenetics: 65 Candles on the Cake.” Pharmacogenetics and Genomics 7 (6):435–440.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Hector, De Rodríguez, Elisa, Loria, Alvar, and Lisker, Ruben. 1963. “Studies on Several Genetic Hematological Traits of the Mexican Population.” Human Biology 35:350–360.Google Scholar
Saade, Marta. 2011. “México Mestizo: De La Incomodidad a La Certidumbre. Ciencia Y Política Pública Posrevolucionarias.” In Genes & Mestizos. Genómica y Raza En La Biomedicina Mexicana, edited by Beltran, Carlos Lopez, 29–63. Mexico: UNAM/Ficticia.Google Scholar
Silva-Zolezzi, Irma, Hidalgo-Miranda, Alfredo, Estrada-Gil, Jesús, Carlos, Juan, Fernandez-Lopez, Laura, Uribe-Figueroa, Andrea, et al. 2009. “Analysis of Genomic Diversity in Mexican Mestizo Populations to Develop Genomic Medicine in Mexico.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (21):8611–8616.Google Scholar
Stepan, Nancy. 1991. The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Alexandra Minna. 2003. “Mestizophilia, Biotypology, and Eugenics in Post-Revolutionary Mexico: Towards a History of Science and the State, 1920-1960.” In Race and Nation in Modern Latin America, edited by Appelbaum, Nancy P., Macpherson, Anne S., and Rosemblatt, Karin Alejandra, 1–22. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Alexandra Minna. 2009. “Eugenics and Racial Classification in Modern Mexican America.” In Race and Classification: The Case of Mexican America, edited by Katzew, Ilona and Deans-Smith, Susan, 151–173. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Strasser, Bruno J. 2002. “Linus Pauling's ‘Molecular Diseases’: Between History and Memory.” American Journal of Medical Genetics 115 (2):83–93.Google Scholar
Strasser, Bruno J. 2010. “Laboratories, Museums, and the Comparative Perspective: Alan A. Boyden's Quest for Objectivity in Serological Taxonomy, 1924–1962.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 40 (2):149–182.Google Scholar
Suárez-Díaz, Edna. 2014a. “The Long and Winding Road of Molecular Data in Phylogenetic Analysis.” Journal of the History of Biology 47 (3):443–478.Google Scholar
Suárez-Díaz, Edna. 2014b. “Indigenous Populations in Mexico: Medical Anthropology in the Work of Ruben Lisker in the 1960s.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 47 Pt A (September):108–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez-Díaz, Edna, and Barahona, Ana. 2013. “Postwar and Post-Revolution: Medical Genetics and Social Anthropology in Mexico.” In Human Heredity in the Twentieth Century, edited by Müller-Ville, Staffan, Ramsden, Edmund, and Gausemeier, Bernd, 101–112. London: Pickering and Chatto.Google Scholar
Suárez-Díaz, Edna, and Anaya-Muñoz, Víctor Hugo. 2008. “History, Objectivity, and the Construction of Molecular Phylogenies.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (4):451–468.Google Scholar
Urías Horcasitas, Beatriz. 2007. Historias Secretas Del Racismo En México (1920-1950). Mexico: Tusquets.Google Scholar
Vargas-Domínguez, Joel. 2015. “Conexiones Internacionales En Fisiología, Eugenesia Y Nutrición: Las Investigaciones Sobre El Metabolismo Otomí En El México Post Revolucionario.” Ludus Vitalis XXIII (43):83–104.Google Scholar
Ventura Santos, Ricardo. 2002. “Indigenous Peoples, Postcolonial Contexts and Genomic Research in the Late 20th Century: A View from Amazonia (1960—2000).” Critique of Anthropology 22 (1):81–104.Google Scholar
Ventura Santos, Ricardo, da Silva, Gláucia Oliveira, and Gibbon, Sahra. 2015. “Pharmacogenomics, Human Genetic Diversity and the Incorporation and Rejection of Color/Race in Brazil.” BioSocieties 10 (1):48–69.Google Scholar
Wade, Peter, Beltrán, Carlos López, Restrepo, Eduardo, and Ventura Santos, Ricardo, eds. 2014. Mestizo Genomics: Race Mixture, Nation, and Science in Latin America. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Jessica. 2015. “Colonial Crossings: Social Science, Social Knowledge, and American Power from the Nineteenth Century to the Cold War.” In Cold War Science and the Transatlantic Circulation of Knowledge, edited by Dongen, Jeroen, 184–213. Leiden/Boston:Brill.Google Scholar
Weber, Wendell W. 2001. “The Legacy of Pharmacogenetics and Potential Applications.” Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis 479 (1):1–18.Google Scholar
Williams, Amy L., Jacobs, Suzanne B. R., Moreno-Macías, Hortensia, Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia, Churchhouse, Claire, Márquez-Luna, Carla, García-Ortíz, Humberto, et al. 2013. “Sequence Variants in SLC16A11 Are a Common Risk Factor for Type 2 Diabetes in Mexico.” Nature 506 (7486):97–101.Google Scholar
Yoon, Byung-Jun. 2009. “Hidden Markov Models and Their Applications in Biological Sequence Analysis.” Current Genomics 10 (6):402–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed