BIOETHNIC CONSCRIPTION: Genes, Race, and Mexicana/o Ethnicity in Diabetes Research

Abstract

Diseases that involve complex gene-gene-environment interactions (e.g., asthma, diabetes, heart disease) are the next frontier for genetic medicine. The Mendelian gold rush of the previous single-gene model has given way to a vastly more complex scientific venture. 1 Researchers must now transform "the environment" and at risk "populations" into variables that fit biological analyses while keeping in mind the speculative futures of potential drug markets, public health concerns and careerist imperatives. Characterizing the social and cultural implications of complex disease genetics requires analyses that attend to the collaborative, transdisciplinary, and multisited networks of knowledge production.In this article, I detail the use of ethnic and racially classified DNA in the search for genetic susceptibility for type 2 diabetes. 2 Drawing on ethnographic research in wet (bench) and dry (computer) labs, at a DNA sampling field office on the U.S.-Mexico border and at scientific conferences, 3 I examine how the complicated social and biological meanings of race and ethnicity simultaneously shape the biomedical production and representation of diabetes knowledge. 4 By following DNA from its point of origin, through the pathways of knowledge production and into medicoscientific representations of diabetes knowledge, I illustrate that researchers use ill-defined ethnic taxonomies to parse populations and social history to rationalize their categorical choices. This results in a nuanced reiteration of biological human variation that naturalizes (Yanagisako and Delaney 1995) Mexicana ethnicity to explain diabetes etiology. In a process I call "bioethnic conscription" the social identities and life conditions of DNA donors are grafted onto the biological explanations of disease causality. ABSTRACTThis article is an examination of academic, corporate, and state-funded alliance of molecular, biological, computer, and clinical scientists who are conducting research into the genetic epidemiology of type 2 diabetes. Because type 2 diabetes affects human groups differently, researchers use ethnic and racial taxonomies to parse populations and social history to rationalize their categorical choices. In a process termed "bioethnic conscription, " the social identities and life conditions of DNA donors are grafted into the biological explanations of human difference and disease causality in both objectionable and constructive ways. Bioethnic conscription is presented as an ethnographically sound alternative to the either-or proposition of the (R)ace-no race debate within biomedicine and anthropology.

Species of Biocapital

“…Hogle, 1999;ScheperHughes, 2001), and social analyses tracking the rise of markets in racialized genomics (e.g. Fullwiley, 2007;Montoya, 2007;TallBear, 2008). Also absent are works theorizing recent transformations in capitalism and governance more generally (e.g.…”

The multiplicity and situationality of enacting ‘ethnicity’ in Dutch health research articles

“…Specifically, we do not simply assume that ethnicity 'means' different things to different researchers in different context; rather we seek to elucidate the research practices and dynamics through which ethnicity is 'made to be' in different ways in health research. The framework involved in this analysis is informed by two specific lines of research within the field of STS -attending to scientific practices and to the situatedness of these practices (Mol, 2002;Montoya, 2007;M'charek, 2013;Shim et al, 2014).…”

“…A second line of research has emerged from STS analyses of ethnicity and race in biomedical, health, and genomics research -namely situationality (Shim et al, 2014;Montoya, 2007;Epstein, 2010;Helberg-Proctor et al, 2016). Scientific practices involved in research on race and ethnicity in health and genomics have been shown to be situated in and shaped by various specific national, sociopolitical, and historical contexts (Hinterberger, 2012;Epstein, 2010;Tsai, 2010;Olarte Sierra and Díaz Del Castillo Herná ndez, 2014).…”

“…Ethnicity thus remains an essentially contested concept, and its relevance to health similarly remains a debated subject. Scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS), sociology and anthropology have shown how specifically scientific research not only describes and aims to understand and unravel possible relationships between ethnicity, race and health, but also shapes and reifies these very objects in doing so (Fullwiley, 2007a, b;M'charek, 2013;Rose, 2009;Fujimura and Rajagopalan, 2011;Fujimura et al, 2008;Epstein, 2007;Duster, 2015;Montoya, 2007). Inspired by this line of scholarship, in this paper, we apply a practice-centred analytical framework in order to study how scientific practices in biomedical and health research shape ethnicity in the Netherlands; specifically, we investigate how the dynamics of specific research practices are relevant to understanding situational and multiple enactments of ethnicity.…”

The Barker hypothesis and obesity: Connections for transdisciplinarity and social justice

“…For example, Evans (2010) critiques the 'anticipation of fatness' inherent in risk assessment as a form of 'pre-emptive politics' that supports rather than challenges a notion of fat as pathological. The hypothesis has been criticised for assuming that social structures and one's place within them remain static through the life course and generations (Vagero and Illsley, 1995) and for 'racialising' disease in using race as an operative concept (Montoya, 2007;Paradies et al, 2007;Poudrier, 2007). Important critiques address the ways in which the hypothesis is mobilised towards the biomedical control of women's reproductive bodies.…”