Population Genetics and Belonging (eBook)

A Cultural Analysis of Genetic Ancestry

Venla Oikkonen (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1st ed. 2018
VII, 240 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-62881-3 (ISBN)

Infos

This book explores how human population genetics has emerged as a means of imagining and enacting belonging in contemporary society. Venla Oikkonen approaches population genetics as an evolving set of technological, material, narrative and affective practices, arguing that these practices are engaged in multiple forms of belonging that are often mutually contradictory. Considering scientific, popular and fictional texts, with several carefully selected case studies spanning three decades, the author traces shifts in the affective, material and gendered preconditions of population genetic visions of belonging. Topics encompass the debate about Mitochondrial Eve, ancient human DNA, temporality and nostalgia, commercial genetic ancestry tests, and tensions between continental and national genetic inheritance. The book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of science and technology studies, cultural studies, sociology, and gender studies.

Venla Oikkonen is Research Fellow at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland. Her research explores cultural aspects of genetics, evolutionary theory, and vaccine controversies. She is the author of Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction in Evolutionary Narratives, and received the 2015 Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments 5
Contents 7
1: Studying Population Genetics and Belonging 8
Situating the Book 10
On Population Genetics 15
On Culture 17
On Belonging 20
Materials 22
Structure of the Book 24
References 26
2: Mitochondrial Eve and the Affective Politics of Scientific Technologies 29
Population Genetics and Molecular Evolution 32
The 1987 Mitochondrial Paper and Its Reception 36
The Proto-Feminist Eve 41
Eve’s Fall 44
The Original Couple 47
Eve and Adam as Affective Objects 52
The Threat of Maternal Rebellion 56
From Global Unity to Tribal Specificity 60
Emerging Trajectories of Belonging 66
References 71
3: Imagining Origins Through Ancient Human DNA 78
The Emergence of the Study of Ancient Human DNA 83
From mtDNA to Nuclear DNA 88
Narrating American Roots 92
The Kennewick Controversy 97
Kennewick Man’s DNA 103
Cheddar Man as a Historical Object 107
Competing Forms of Genetic Belonging 110
The Affective Rhetoric of Class and Masculinity 114
Origins Inside Us 118
Affective Trajectories 121
References 126
4: Evolutionary Nostalgia and the Temporality of Belonging 136
Temporality of Genes 139
Queering Time 144
Evolutionary History as Collective Memory 147
Evolutionary Nostalgia and the Prosthetic Dynamic of Longing 151
Longing for the Future in the Past 153
Unfolding Temporalities, Intersecting Differences 158
The Obamas, and the Making of Unity Through Genetic Trajectories 165
The Many Sides of Evolutionary Temporality 171
References 175
5: Genetic Communities and the Boundaries of Belonging 177
Population and Community 181
Commercial Genetic Ancestry Tests 186
Gendered Communities 188
Temporal Distance, and the Making and Unmaking of Communal Boundaries 195
Continental Genes, Transcontinental Migrations 199
Constructing Finnish Genetic Inheritance 203
Ambiguous Communities 208
Populations, Communities, and the Politics of Difference 213
References 219
6: Reflections on Methodology and Biotechnological Change 225
The Making of Belonging Through Evolutionary Temporality 228
Tracing Biotechnological Change 231
Index 235

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.9.2017
• Zusatzinfo: VII, 240 p.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• Schlagworte: Cheddar Man evolution • Collective memory • Cultural Studies • evolutionary origins • Finnish genetic inheritance • Gender Studies • genetic temporality • genomics • Kennewick Man evolution • Mitochondrial Eve • Parasite Eve • Popular science • Queer Studies • Technoscience • temporality • Y-chromosome Adam
• ISBN-10: 3-319-62881-X / 331962881X
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-62881-3 / 9783319628813