Afro‐Latin American Peoples

Abstract

Objective. To identify and summarize existing literature on the burden of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and viral hepatitis (VH) in indigenous peoples and Afrodescendants in Latin America to provide a broad panorama of the quantitative data available and highlight problematic data gaps. Methods. Published and grey literature were systematically reviewed to identify documents published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese with data collected between January 2000 and April 2016 on HIV, STI, and VH disease burden among indigenous peoples and Afrodescendants in 17 Latin American countries. Results. Sixty-two documents from 12 countries were found. HIV prevalence was generally low (< 1%) but pockets of high prevalence (> 5%) were noted in some indigenous communities in Venezuela (Warao) (9.6%), Peru (Chayahuita) (7.5%), and Colombia (Wayuu females) (7.0%). High active syphilis prevalence (> 5%) was seen in some indigenous communities in

Recommendations for Sustainable Ancient DNA Research in the Global South: Voices From a New Generation of Paleogenomicists

“…While Indigenous peoples have some legal recognition in these countries, the discourse of a majority mestizo nation erases Indigenous rights over ancestral lands and heritage under the illusion that all mestizos have equal rights over Pre-Hispanic cultural heritage ( Endere and Ayala, 2012 ; Silva et al, 2022 ). Afrodescendant communities, who have faced historical marginalization and invisibility in Latin American countries, encounter similar challenges because national identity in these countries is so strongly tied to mestizaje ( Arocha and Maya, 2008 ; Weltman-Cisneros and Tello, 2013 ; Agren, 2020 ). To illustrate how this misconception can permeate scholarship, a recent piece on global guidelines for aDNA research ( Alpaslan-Roodenberg et al, 2021 ) wrongfully claimed that mestizos in many Latin American countries “embraced their Indigenous roots”, hence the request to consult with Indigenous peoples in this region was “paternalistic” and “colonialist”.…”