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This book explores how human population genetics has emerged as a means of imagining and enacting belonging in contemporary society. Venla Oikkonen approaches population genetics as an evolving set of technological, material, narrative and affective practices, arguing that these practices are engaged in multiple forms of belonging that are often mutually contradictory. Considering scientific, popular and fictional texts, with several carefully selected case studies spanning three decades, the author traces shifts in the affective, material and gendered preconditions of population genetic visions of belonging. Topics encompass the debate about Mitochondrial Eve, ancient human DNA, temporality and nostalgia, commercial genetic ancestry tests, and tensions between continental and national genetic inheritance. The book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of science and technology studies, cultural studies, sociology, and gender studies.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Studying Population Genetics and Belonging.- Chapter 2: Mitochondrial Eve and the Affective Politics of Scientific Technologies.- Chapter 3: Imagining Origins through Ancient Human DNA.- Chapter 4: Evolutionary Nostalgia and the Temporality of Belonging.- Chapter 5: Genetic Communities and the Boundaries of Belonging.- Chapter 6: Reflections on Methodology and Biotechnological Change.- Index.
About the author
Venla Oikkonen is Research Fellow at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland. Her research explores cultural aspects of genetics, evolutionary theory, and vaccine controversies. She is the author of Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction in Evolutionary Narratives, and received the 2015 Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship.
Summary
This book explores how human population genetics has emerged as a means of imagining and enacting belonging in contemporary society. Venla Oikkonen approaches population genetics as an evolving set of technological, material, narrative and affective practices, arguing that these practices are engaged in multiple forms of belonging that are often mutually contradictory. Considering scientific, popular and fictional texts, with several carefully selected case studies spanning three decades, the author traces shifts in the affective, material and gendered preconditions of population genetic visions of belonging. Topics encompass the debate about Mitochondrial Eve, ancient human DNA, temporality and nostalgia, commercial genetic ancestry tests, and tensions between continental and national genetic inheritance. The book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of science and technology studies, cultural studies, sociology, and gender studies.
