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Nhemachena A, Mawere M. Academics with Clay Feet? Anthropological Perspectives on Academic Freedom in Twenty-First Century African Universities. JOURNAL OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES (NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) 2022; 26:142-165. [PMID: 35730033 PMCID: PMC9189268 DOI: 10.1007/s12111-022-09584-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Clay feet are heavy and disabling, sadly in the decolonial scholarly battlefield which otherwise requires all-weather feet suitable for ongoing battles. Drawing on autoethnographic experiences in some African universities and drawing on Melanesian cargo cults, this paper argues that to decolonise Africa, African academics should abate cargo cult mentalities which account for pathological and uncritical intellectual dependence on theories, ideas and models from elsewhere. Similarly, drawing on Melanesian bigmanism and drawing on how some academics seek to control how students and colleagues think and write, this paper contends that those that pose as bigmen and bigwomen in African universities are a serious threat to decolonial critical, creative, innovative and original thinking. Thus, populated with some high-ranking academics who, nonetheless, lack decolonial creativity, originality, innovativeness and critical thinking, African universities are - like in Melanesian bigmen societies - marked by patron-client relations within which students and colleagues are sadly corralled into epistemic clientelism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Artwell Nhemachena
- Kobe University, Kobe, Japan
- University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
- University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Munyaradzi Mawere
- University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
- Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe
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McMahon R. Resurecting raciology? Genetic ethnology and pre-1945 anthropological race classification. STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES 2020; 83:101242. [PMID: 32950126 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2019.101242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2017] [Revised: 08/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/15/2019] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
This article places the current high-profile and controversial scientific project that I call 'genetic ethnology' within the same two-century tradition of biologically classifying modern peoples as pre-1945 race anthropology. Similarities in how these two biological projects have combined political and scientific agendas raise questions about the liberalism of genetics and stimulate concerns that genetic constructions of human difference might revive a politics of hate, division and hierarchy. The present article however goes beyond existing work that links modern genetics with race anthropology. It systematically compares their many similar practices and organisational features, showing that both projects were political-scientific syntheses. Studying how the origins, geography, filiations, 'travels and encounters of our ancestors' affect 'current genetic variation', both seem to have responded to a continuous public demand for biologists to explain the histories of politically significant peoples and give them a scientific basis. I challenge habitual contrasts between apolitical scientific genetics and racist pseudoscience and use race anthropology as a parable for how, in the era of Brexit and Trump, right-wing identity politics might infect genetic ethnology. I argue however that although biology-based identities carry risks of essentialism and determinism, the practices and organisation of classification pose greater political dangers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard McMahon
- Department of Political Science, University College London, 29-30 Tavistock Square, Kings Cross, London WC1H 9QU, UK.
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Blanchard JW, Outram S, Tallbull G, Royal CDM. "We Don't Need a Swab in Our Mouth to Prove Who We Are": Identity, Resistance, and Adaptation of Genetic Ancestry Testing among Native American Communities. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 60:637-655. [PMID: 33505045 PMCID: PMC7837598 DOI: 10.1086/705483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Genetic ancestry testing (GAT) provides a specific type of knowledge about ancestry not previously available to the general public, prompting questions about the conditions whereby genetic articulations of ancestry present opportunities to forge new identities and social ties but also new challenges to the maintenance of existing social structures and cultural identities. The opportunities and challenges posed by GAT are particularly significant for many indigenous communities-whose histories are shaped by traumatic interactions with colonial powers and Western science-and for whom new applications of GAT may undermine or usurp long-standing community values, systems of governance, and forms of relationality. We conducted 13 focus groups with 128 participants and six in-depth, semistructured interviews with a variety of community leaders examining the perceptions of GAT within indigenous communities across Oklahoma. Our interviews and focus groups suggest that participants-through the articulation of indigeneity as experiential and relational in nature and inherently distinct from genetic notions of ancestry-resist much of the challenge presented by GAT in usurping traditional forms of identity while at the same time recognizing the utility of the technology for tracing unknown ancestry and identifying health risks in the community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica W Blanchard
- Center for Applied Social Research at the University of Oklahoma (5 Partners Place, 201 Stephenson Parkway, Suite 4100, Norman, Oklahoma 73072, USA)
| | - Simon Outram
- Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID) of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at Duke University (2024 West Main Street, Erwin Square Mill Building, Bay C, Suite C103, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA)
| | - Gloria Tallbull
- Center for Applied Social Research at the University of Oklahoma (5 Partners Place, 201 Stephenson Parkway, Suite 4100, Norman, Oklahoma 73072, USA)
| | - Charmaine D M Royal
- Departments of African and African American Studies and Biology at Duke University (234 Friedl Building, Box 90252, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA)
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Abstract
This review aims to explore the relationship between anthropology and genetics, an intellectual zone that has been occupied in different ways over the past century. One way to think about it is to contrast a classical “anthropological genetics” ( Roberts 1965 ), that is to say, a genetics that presumably informs anthropological issues or questions, with a “genomic anthropology” ( Pálsson 2008 ), that is to say, an anthropology that complements and relativizes modern genomics (on the model of, say, medical anthropology and legal anthropology). 1 This review argues that a principal contribution of anthropology to the study of human heredity lies in the ontology of genetic facts. For anthropology, genetic facts are not natural, with meanings inscribed on them, but are instead natural/cultural: The natural facts have cultural information (values, ideologies, meanings) integrated into them, not layered on them. To understand genetic facts involves confronting their production, which has classically been restricted to questions of methodology but which may be conceptualized more broadly. This review is not intended as a critique of the field of anthropological genetics, but as a reformulation of its central objects of study. I argue for reconceptualizing the ontology of scientific facts in anthropological genetics, not as (value-neutral) biological facts situated in a cultural context, but instead as inherently biocultural facts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Marks
- Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223
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Capocasa M, Taglioli L, Anagnostou P, Paoli G, Danubio ME. Determinants of marital behaviour in five Apennine communities of Central Italy inferred by surname analysis, repeated pairs and kinship estimates. HOMO-JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE HUMAN BIOLOGY 2013; 65:64-74. [PMID: 24012323 DOI: 10.1016/j.jchb.2013.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2013] [Accepted: 07/23/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The work makes use of surname analysis, repeated pairs and kinship estimates in 11,009 marriage records celebrated in five communities of the Italian Central Apennine (Celano, Lecce dei Marsi, Ortucchio, Roio, Villavallelonga) from 1802 to 1965 with the objective to deepen knowledge of the relative influence of several determinants on their marital behaviour. These towns are part of the same geographic and economic environment: the slopes of the ancient Fucino Lake. This work further elaborates the results from previous studies on the bio-demographic model of the region. The data were analyzed according to three periods of approximately 50 years. Results show the highest inbreeding coefficients in the pastoral towns of Roio and Villavallelonga. Repeated pair analysis highlights a certain degree of population subdivision which declined in time in Celano, Lecce dei Marsi and Ortucchio. The highest and increasing values of RP-RPr in time in Roio suggest a general reduction in genetic heterogeneity. This is possibly due to the celebration of marriages among families selected on the economic basis of pastoralism, as this town historically has had a leading tradition of sheep-farming. Villavallelonga, excluding isonymous marriages, shows an increase in repeated pair unions in time, thus revealing a substructure with marriages among preferred lineages. This is in line with previous results on consanguineous marriages which indicated the tendency of avoiding unions between close relatives in this small geographic isolate. This study demonstrates the influence of geographical (altitude) and social factors (pastoralism) on the marital structures of the investigated populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Capocasa
- Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Charles Darwin", Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
| | - L Taglioli
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa, Via Luca Ghini 13, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - P Anagnostou
- Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
| | - G Paoli
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa, Via Luca Ghini 13, 56126 Pisa, Italy
| | - M E Danubio
- Dipartimento di Medicina clinica, sanità pubblica, scienze della vita e dell'ambiente, Università di L'Aquila, Piazzale Salvatore Tommasi 1, L'Aquila, Italy; Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
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Kent M, Santos RV. "Os charruas vivem" nos Gaúchos: a vida social de uma pesquisa de "resgate" genético de uma etnia indígena extinta no Sul do Brasil. HORIZONTES ANTROPOLÓGICOS 2012. [DOI: 10.1590/s0104-71832012000100015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Este artigo explora a articulação entre uma pesquisa de ancestralidade genética e a construção social de identidades étnicas no Rio Grande do Sul. Isso é feito através da análise da vida social de um projeto de pesquisa conduzido por pesquisadores da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Tal investigação estabeleceu a continuidade genética entre a população Gaúcha contemporânea e os presumidamente extintos Charrua, uma etnia indígena que vivia na região do Pampa do estado. Ao longo do desenvolvimento do projeto de pesquisa, a ideia de continuidade genética passou por diferentes configurações, a depender de contextos específicos, sendo afirmada com diferentes níveis de certeza. A presente análise enfoca as condições sociais e genéticas que possibilitaram o estabelecimento de tal continuidade, assim como a afirmação da especificidade genética dos Gaúchos. Finalmente, são explorados os impactos sociais dessa pesquisa, em particular as suas articulações com construções de uma identidade regional diferenciada.
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Destro-Bisol G. Interview with Sarah Tishkoff: Perspectives for Genetic Research in African Populations. Hum Biol 2011; 83:637-44. [DOI: 10.3378/027.083.0505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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Kent M. A importância de ser uro: movimentos indígenas, políticas de identidade e pesquisa genética nos andes peruanos. HORIZONTES ANTROPOLÓGICOS 2011. [DOI: 10.1590/s0104-71832011000100010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
O objetivo deste artigo é explorar as inter-relações entre a pesquisa genética, as lutas políticas de movimentos indígenas e os processos de formação de identidade étnica. Em particular, visa analisar as condições sociais que levaram à colaboração entre os uros, um grupo indígena que habita as ilhas flutuantes do lago Titicaca (Peru), e pesquisadores do projeto Genográfico. Os uros, cujas reivindicações de uma identidade étnica diferenciada eram altamente contestadas no âmbito local, se associaram aos geneticistas com o objetivo de obter um apoio científico para a afirmação dessa identidade e como parte das suas estratégias políticas e demandas territoriais. Assim, esse caso contribui ao maior entendimento da incorporação da pesquisa genética dentro de políticas conceituais travadas em torno das identidades étnicas, bem como da articulação do conhecimento genético com registros preexistentes para definir tais identidades
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Pálsson G. Disciplining anthropology – Æresforelesning, Norsk Antropologisk Forenings årskonferanse, Trondheim, 7. mai 2010. NORSK ANTROPOLOGISK TIDSSKRIFT 2011. [DOI: 10.18261/issn1504-2898-2010-04-02] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
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DNA and cultures of remembrance: Anthropological genetics, biohistories and biosocialities. BIOSOCIETIES 2010. [DOI: 10.1057/biosoc.2010.19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Santos R, Fry P, Monteiro S, Maio M, Rodrigues J, Bastos‐Rodrigues L, Pena S. Color, Race, and Genomic Ancestry in Brazil. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2009; 50:787-819. [DOI: 10.1086/644532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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