01-19-2006, 04:27 PM
Rothman, Barbara Katz. Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. 272 pages.
In the first of these sections, Rothman examines the attempt to look at our evolutionary history in the Human Genome Diversity Project. By collecting DNA samples from 25 individuals in each of several hundred groups of indigenous peoples around the world, the project strives to tell us how we became who we are. Such an attempt provides a perfect example of how assumptions about genetics can lead to misperceptions in how we see the rest of the world: such a project is by its nature based on a presumption of difference and is therefore certain to show a difference. The project does not on any level take into account the fact that human beings are also social beings who develop into who they are, both as individuals and societies. Further, the project treats "human population diversity as if it were species diversity." We are all one species, and implying otherwise is racist. The author sees such attempts to view humanity purely in genetic terms as the first steps toward a world where race is a system of power and oppression, and genetic thinking is used to support that oppression. Indeed, this has already happened several times in the past, and the author points to the publication of The Bell Curve, in which the authors assert that African-Americans have a lower IQ, as a recent example.
In the first of these sections, Rothman examines the attempt to look at our evolutionary history in the Human Genome Diversity Project. By collecting DNA samples from 25 individuals in each of several hundred groups of indigenous peoples around the world, the project strives to tell us how we became who we are. Such an attempt provides a perfect example of how assumptions about genetics can lead to misperceptions in how we see the rest of the world: such a project is by its nature based on a presumption of difference and is therefore certain to show a difference. The project does not on any level take into account the fact that human beings are also social beings who develop into who they are, both as individuals and societies. Further, the project treats "human population diversity as if it were species diversity." We are all one species, and implying otherwise is racist. The author sees such attempts to view humanity purely in genetic terms as the first steps toward a world where race is a system of power and oppression, and genetic thinking is used to support that oppression. Indeed, this has already happened several times in the past, and the author points to the publication of The Bell Curve, in which the authors assert that African-Americans have a lower IQ, as a recent example.