Deconstructing the relationship between genetics and race

Bamshad, Michael J.; Wooding, Stephen; Salisbury, Benjamin A.; Stephens, Jonathan

doi:10.1038/nrg1401

Cited by 310 publications

(241 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Similar results are obtained whether coding or noncoding polymorphisms are used 49 . At face value, such results could be interpreted as supporting the use of race in evaluating medical treatment options.…”

Section: S30supporting

confidence: 80%

“…Broad population categories can be discerned genetically when enough polymorphisms are analyzed, as seen in Figure 3, so these categories are not devoid of biological meaning. When several thousand or more polymorphisms are examined, individual populations, such as Japanese and Chinese, can be delineated 34 , and members of 'admixed' American populations, such as Hispanics, AfricanAmericans and European-Americans, can be accurately identified 34,49 .…”

Section: S30mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genetic variation, classification and 'race'

2004

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New genetic data has enabled scientists to re-examine the relationship between human genetic variation and 'race'. We review the results of genetic analyses that show that human genetic variation is geographically structured, in accord with historical patterns of gene flow and genetic drift. Analysis of many loci now yields reasonably accurate estimates of genetic similarity among individuals, rather than populations. Clustering of individuals is correlated with geographic origin or ancestry. These clusters are also correlated with some traditional concepts of race, but the correlations are imperfect because genetic variation tends to be distributed in a continuous, overlapping fashion among populations. Therefore, ancestry, or even race, may in some cases prove useful in the biomedical setting, but direct assessment of disease-related genetic variation will ultimately yield more accurate and beneficial information.

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Section: S30supporting

confidence: 80%

Section: S30mentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic variation, classification and 'race'

2004

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“…Research by biological/physical anthropologists helped establish that race/ethnicity fails to account for the full extent of human biological variation, and that racial/ethnic categories are likely to be imprecise tools for use within biological or genetic research. Instead, human phenotypic and genetic variation is felt to be more accurately described in terms of independent traits distributed along discordant gradients or 'clines', rather than as discrete packets of concordant traits (Bamshad et al, 2004). Beyond these biological concerns, anthropological critiques from the socio-cultural school focus on the social construction of race/ethnicity and place greater emphasis upon how race/ethnicity emerged historically and has been associated with inequalities in power due to colonialism, slavery and discrimination.…”

Section: Genetic Explanations For Racial and Ethnic Disparities In Hementioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropological Insights Into the Use of Race/Ethnicity to Explore Genetic Contributions to Disparities in Health

Outram

Ellison

2005

J. Biosoc. Sci.

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Summary.Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore genetic contributions to disparities in health were developed using in-depth qualitative interviews with editorial staff from nineteen genetics journals, focusing on the methodological and conceptual mechanisms required to make race/ethnicity a genetic variable. As such, these analyses explore how and why race/ethnicity comes to be used in the context of genetic research, set against the background of continuing critiques from anthropology and related human sciences that focus on the social construction, structural correlates and limited genetic validity of racial/ethnic categories. The analyses demonstrate how these critiques have failed to engage geneticists, and how geneticists use a range of essentially cultural devices to protect and separate their use of race/ethnicity as a genetic construct from its use as a societal and social science resource. Given its multidisciplinary, biosocial nature and the cultural gaze of its ethnographic methodologies, anthropology is well placed to explore the cultural separation of science and society, and of natural and social science disciplines. Anthropological insights into the use of race/ethnicity to explore disparities in health suggest that moving beyond genetic explanations of innate difference might benefit from a more even-handed critique of how both the natural and social sciences tend to essentialize selective elements of race/ethnicity. Drawing on the example of HIV/AIDS, this paper demonstrates how public health has been undermined by the use of race/ethnicity as an analytical variable, both as a cipher for innate genetic differences in susceptibility and response to treatment, and in its use to identify 'core groups' at greater risk of becoming infected and infecting others. Clearly, a tendency for biological reductionism can place many biomedical issues beyond the scope of public health interventions, while socio-cultural essentialization has tended to stigmatize 'unhealthy behaviours' and the communities where these are more prevalent.

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“…Introduction to the state of the science Knowledge gained from the Human Genome Project and research on human genome variation is forcing a paradigm shift in thinking about the construct of 'race' [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , much like the process described by Thomas Kuhn in his renowned book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 9 . Kuhn describes the paradigm shift in science as occurring when anomalous, scientific results cannot be explained by inadequate methods.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing the paradigm from 'race' to human genome variation

2004

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Knowledge from the Human Genome Project and research on human genome variation increasingly challenges the applicability of the term 'race' to human population groups, raising questions about the validity of inferences made about 'race' in the biomedical and scientific literature. Despite the acknowledged contradictions in contemporary science, population-based genetic variation is continually used to explain differences in health between 'racial' and 'ethnic' groups. In this commentary we posit that resolution of apparent paradoxes in relating biology to 'race' and genetics requires thinking 'outside of the box'.

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Deconstructing the relationship between genetics and race

Cited by 310 publications

References 74 publications

Genetic variation, classification and 'race'

Genetic variation, classification and 'race'

Anthropological Insights Into the Use of Race/Ethnicity to Explore Genetic Contributions to Disparities in Health

Changing the paradigm from 'race' to human genome variation

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