Degrees of Mixture, Degrees of Freedom: Genomics, Multiculturalism, and Race in Latin America

Description

Race mixture, or mestizaje, has played a critical role in the history, culture, and politics of Latin America. In Degrees of Mixture, Degrees of Freedom, Peter Wade draws on a multidisciplinary research study in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. He shows how Latin American elites and outside observers have emphasized mixture's democratizing potential, depicting it as a useful resource for addressing problems of racism (claiming that race mixture undoes racial difference and hierarchy), while Latin American scientists participate in this narrative with claims that genetic studies of mestizos can help isolate genetic contributors to diabetes and obesity and improve health for all. Wade argues that, in the process, genomics produces biologized versions of racialized difference within the nation and the region, but a comparative approach nuances the simple idea that highly racialized societies give rise to highly racialized genomics. Wade examines the tensions between mixture and purity, and between equality and hierarchy in liberal political orders, exploring how ideas and scientific data about genetic mixture are produced and circulate through complex networks. Preface vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction. Mixture as a Biological Process 1 I. Purity and Mixture 1. Purity and Mixture in Human Population Genetics 27 2. From Eugenics to Blood Types 53 II. Genetics and Multiculturalism 3. Changing Practices 85 4. Colombia, Country of Regions 99 5. Brazil, Race, and Affirmative Action 122 6. Mexico, Public Health, and State Genomics 146 7. Genomics & Multiculturalism: Comparisons and Continuities 166 III. Narrating Mixture 8. Gender, Genealogy, and Mestizaje 191 9. The Geneticization of Race and Diversity in Everyday Life 223 Conclusion 258 Notes 267 References 273 Index 315