Public funding for research on the action of drugs in countries like the United States requires that racial classification of research subjects should be considered when defining the composition of the samples as well as in data analysis, sometimes resulting in interpretations that Whites and Blacks differ in their pharmacogenetic profiles. In Brazil, pharmacogenomic results have led to very different interpretations when compared with those obtained in the United States. This is explained as deriving from the genomic heterogeneity of the Brazilian population. This article argues that in the evolving field of pharmacogenomics research in Brazil there is simultaneously both an incorporation and rejection of the US informed race-genes paradigm. We suggest that this must be understood in relation to continuities with national and transnational history of genetic research in Brazil, a differently situated politics of Brazilian public health and the ongoing valorization of miscegenation or race mixture by Brazilian geneticists as a resource for transnational genetic research. Our data derive from anthropological investigation conducted in INCA (Brazilian National Cancer Institute), in Rio de Janeiro, with a focus on the drug warfarin. The criticism of Brazilian scientists regarding the uses of racial categorization includes a revision of mathematical algorithms for drug dosage widely used in clinical procedures around the world. Our analysis reveals how the incorporation of ideas of racial purity and admixture, as it relates to the efficacy of drugs, touches on issues related to the possibility of application of pharmaceutical technologies on a global scale.

My objective is to discuss the persistence of the notion of natural selection in the biological sciences, exploring the fact that: (1) this notion, just like the term culture in anthropology, is historically an inaugural concept in its particular scientific field, and, insofar as both possess a value of heuristic delimitation, both thus came to be considered as explanatory concepts, although today they may be more widely accepted as descriptive in kind; (2) this persistence seems to be equally linked to the fact that the term combines randomness and teleology, but without foregrounding the inherent contradiction; (3) the anthropomorphic metaphors generally used in the description of biological processes, by attributing intentionality to beings lacking in self-determination, presume the existence of a nature defined by processes oriented towards precise ends, endorsing the finalism that, I believe, underlies the idea of natural selection; (4) and, finally, I think that 'culture' and 'natural selection' correspond to disciplinary labels -for social anthropology and biology respectively -that arose in Victorian Britain, as defined by the Great Divide, but they no longer have explanatory power.Keywords: natural selection; biology; randomness and teleology.Seria a seleção natural uma quimera?Reflexões sobre a "sobrevivência" de um princípio ResumoMeu objetivo é discutir a permanência do conceito de seleção natural nas ciências biológicas considerando que: (1) este, bem como o termo 'cultura', sendo conceitos historicamente inaugurais em seus respectivos campos científicos, e tendo assim valor de delimitação heurística, passam a ser considerados como conceitos explicativos, embora atualmente possam ser mais aceitos como conceitos descritivos; (2) a permanência parece estar ligada igualmente ao fato de o conceito conjugar aleatoriedade e teleologia, sem que seja ressaltada a inerente contradição; (3) considero que as metáforas antropomorfizadoras, usuais na descrição de processos biológicos, ao emprestarem intencionalidade a seres desprovidos de autodeterminação, pressupõem a existência de uma natureza de processos que se orientam para finalidades precisas, endossando o finalismo que acredito estar subjacente ao conceito de seleção natural; (4) e, finalmente, avento que 'cultura' e 'seleção natural' correspondam antes a seus epítetos disciplinaresantropologia social e biologia -surgidos na Grã-Bretanha vitoriana, conforme limites estabelecidos pelo grande divisor, do que propriamente revelem poder explanatório. Palavras