The Material Gene

Happe, Kelly E.; Moore, Lisa Jean

doi:10.18574/nyu/9780814790670.001.0001

Cited by 36 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…15 Prominently, it was genetic determinism that animated efforts to 'map' the human genome (completed in 2001) -but the outcomes of this turn-of-the-millennium genomic science then served to undermine genetic determinism. 16 The limited success thus far of genomic medicine suggests that genetic causality is much more complex than expected by many. Furthermore, the map of the human genome yielded a profound challenge to ideas of biological race: there is just as much genetic variation within socially defined racial categories as there is between them.…”

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the map of the human genome yielded a profound challenge to ideas of biological race: there is just as much genetic variation within socially defined racial categories as there is between them. 17 In other words, recent outcomes of genomic science suggest that genes do not map so simply onto socially relevant categories of race and disease. 18 Given these challenges, some genomic scientists are developing new, post-genomic models of life that take seriously the idea that 'nurture' -life circumstances, the environment -matters more than is presumed in genetic determinism.…”

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…21 It is important to note, however, that the gene-environment interaction model can also reinforce genetic notions of race and biological difference by showing how genetic difference affects susceptibility to environmental exposures: some people might be 'abnormally' susceptible to the effects of certain environments due to their genetic inheritance. 22 Furthermore, research in these areas focuses almost exclusively on race in terms of racial categories (even if seen as socially produced) rather than race as abnormality and so is unable to address how race as an operation of normalizing power changes (or not) with the rejection of genetic determinism. 23 …”

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These post-genomic models include both 'gene-environment interactions' and epigenetics (Figure 2). 19 In gene-environment interactions, environmental factors are crucial -but genetic 'predispositions' determine how much they matter and to which people. In this model, DNA mediates the biological response to environmental stimuli, acting almost as a filter: environmental factors pass through genetic inheritance to determine bodily response.…”

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

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Epigenetic life: biological plasticity, abnormality, and new configurations of race and reproduction

Mansfield

Guthman

2014

cultural geographies

173

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Environmental epigenetics is a 'hot' new field of post-genomic science investigating mechanisms that influence how genes are expressed. It offers a dynamic and non-dualistic understanding of the relationship between environments, genes, bodies, and health. We ask how this new science of biological plasticity is changing existing concepts of normality and abnormality. We find that epigenetics is contributing to a new biological (yet non-determinist) ontology of race and that the fetus and reproductive women are emerging as the central figures in this new epigenetic model of race and bodily plasticity. We find that epigenetics is a science of variation in which biological difference is figured as both normal (inevitable) and abnormal (a sign of disruption); it then seeks to improve life by identifying therapies to cure epigenetic 'abnormalities'. In this way, epigenetics emerges as a reproductive science, in which the 'uterine environment' is figured as the key space-time of epigenetic becoming. We argue that in this focus on abnormality and improvement, epigenetics is tied to a eugenic logic, even as it rejects notions of genetic determinism. While it might seem that epigenetic models of plastic life should eliminate race by eliminating notions of discrete kinds given in nature, it appears that epigenetics offers a new form of racialization based on reproductive processes of becoming rather than on pre-given nature.

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Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Race Eugenics and Genomic Models Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Epigenetic life: biological plasticity, abnormality, and new configurations of race and reproduction

Mansfield

Guthman

2014

cultural geographies

173

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Heredity

Happe

2017

The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory

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Links between gender norms and the intergenerational transmission of health information in parents carrying BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants

Gauna,

Carof,

Mouret‐Fourme

et al. 2023

Journal of Genetic Counseling

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Understanding how gender norms affect parents' communication of genetic and cancer risk information to their children can enable healthcare professionals to better facilitate cascade genetic testing. We conducted a qualitative study with semi‐structured interviews to determine social factors associated with parents carrying the BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants who communicated cancer prevention practices to their children. Thirty adult carriers (23 women, 7 men) participated in the interviews. All had at least one child aged over 8 years old. Interview topics included their discovery of the variants, their relationship to their body and to the risk of cancer, as well as disclosure to and subsequent communication with their children after testing positive for BRCA1/2. The interviews were analyzed qualitatively, and the major themes identified were identified and compared. We described the roles played by the BRCA1/2 carriers and their partners in communicating cancer prevention practices to their children, from how they managed their own risk of cancer after testing positive, to how they disclosed the risks linked to these pathogenic variants to their children. We also described their involvement in the process of their children going for professional genetic consultation. Gender norms lead women to be more attentive than men to their own health and that of their loved ones. In the context of the transmission of genetic information to children, gender differences in behavior are reinforced by perceptions of the risks of BRCA1/2 variants and women's related health management practices. Cancer prevention is shaped by complex links between gender norms and health management practices.

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The Material Gene

Cited by 36 publications

References 0 publications

Epigenetic life: biological plasticity, abnormality, and new configurations of race and reproduction

Epigenetic life: biological plasticity, abnormality, and new configurations of race and reproduction

Heredity

Links between gender norms and the intergenerational transmission of health information in parents carrying BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants

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