Mestizo Genomics

"Mestizo Genomics is an exciting collection, one that will complicate critical race studies and the ethnography and history of race in Latin America. Focusing on Latin American geneticists against the backdrop of racial discourse in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, the contributors—the majority of whom are based in the three countries—provide a historically grounded, textured ethnography of the multiple and contradictory directions in which notions of race are moving in Latin America. I would definitely use this book in my teaching. It is fresh, it is probing, and it provides considerable room for debate." - Joanne Rappaport, author of The Disappearing Mestizo: Configuring Difference in the Colonial New Kingdom of Granada

"In this compelling volume, the authors illuminate the complex functions of race in contemporary science, exploring how concepts like biogeographical ancestry resonate with history, and how the notion of the mestizo matters to both national identities and genomic science. Peter Wade's thoughtful concluding analysis brilliantly places these remarkable case studies in conversation with relevant literatures in science studies and the history of science. All in all, a fresh and critical perspective on contemporary genomics research." - M. Susan Lindee, author of Moments of Truth in Genetic Medicine

"Mestizo Genomics makes an important contribution to the study of biology and the human sciences in Latin America.... This book will be useful to any scholar interested in science, race, and nation in Latin America as well as those considering how to formulate large-scale interdisciplinary projects." - Sarah Walsh, The Latin Americanist

"The strength of this volume lies in highlighting the multiple indeterminacies at play when bioscience is a privileged means for grounding national identity and development." - Udo Krautwurst, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"...this collection is vibrant and exciting, throwing up (without closing down) a finessed repertoire of compelling debates that tantalize with irresistible conceptual nuggets primed for future inquiry.... This kind of heuristic analysis looks set to enhance and extend discussions of mestizaje in the twenty-first century, in the academy and beyond." - Victoria Carroll, History

"While the authors explicitly orient their findings toward the field of science and technology studies (STS), this work has broad relevance to the history of science as well as to ethnic and racial studies in Latin America." - Santiago J. Molina, Ethnohistory

"All in all, the clarity of the project, the skill of the researchers, and the fine editing of the book as a whole allow for a study of great breadth and significance.... Mestizo Genomics will be of great interest to science studies scholars interested in racial science, biology, and genomics. Latin Americanists will find a compelling description of the historic and recent developments in scientific theories of diversity, unity, and homogenous identity in the area, and Latin America’s variety and specific taxonomies should be instructive to scholars of U.S. and European genomics." - Julia Rodriguez, ISIS

"This book... clearly contributes to current international debates on race, genomics and biomedicine. This work is not only of interest to biological anthropologists and historians of science, but also to a wider audience that should include evolutionary biologists and social scientists.” - Ana Barahona, Metascience