Great Is Their Sin: Biological Determinism in the Age of Genomics

Egalitarianjay02 · Sep 11, 2015

In this article Joseph Graves discusses the history of biological determinism from Creationist racism to craniometry to biomedical and modern genomics research.

Joseph Graves said:

Abstract

The roots of biological determinism are ancient. Yet despite advances in biological science in the twentieth century, determinist thinking has not been eliminated. This article reviews the history of biological determinism, examining its varieties from its creationist beginnings to present-day biological thinking in the age of genomics. It elucidates the relationship between biological determinism and racialist understandings of human genetic variation. Of particular importance in this regard are the ongoing claims of racial medicine (a modern biological determinist variety) as well as resurgent attempts to classify humans into biological races utilizing genomic data and clustering algorithms (such as STRUCTURE). Finally it presents how the complexity of biological variation generated by genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and chance effects vitiates simplistic biological determinism.

Source: Great Is Their Sin: Biological Determinism in the Age of Genomics The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science September 2015 vol. 661 no. 1 24-50

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rayznack · Sep 12, 2015

Joe only seems to muddy the waters and dilute his own argument at the same time.

Epigenetics doesn't advance his argument on the causes of low Black IQ and criminality being related to racism, poverty, etc,.

I'm curious how he discredits the current findings on racial medicine.

Egalitarianjay02 · Sep 12, 2015

rayznack said: ↑

Joe only seems to muddy the waters and dilute his own argument at the same time.

Epigenetics doesn't advance his argument on the causes of low Black IQ and criminality being related to racism, poverty, etc,.

I'm curious how he discredits the current findings on racial medicine.
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Graves' discussion of epigenetics concerns health disparities which could be related to IQ (e.g. toxic environment) but mainly focuses on environmental effects on populations across generations.

Excerpt:

Joseph Graves said:

A variety of environmental factors can induce epigenetic changes (paramutations). These include aberrant and insufficient nutrition, nutritional supplements, endocrine disrupting chemicals, toxicants, hydrocarbons, gonadotrophin stimulation to enhance folliculogenesis (used to treat infertility), biotic and abiotic stress, exposure to xenobiotics, maternal physiology, parental behavior, and metabolic syndrome (McCarrey 2014). This means that understanding the expected health profile for any population requires recognizing that not only events and conditions within the current generation are relevant but that past environments also may play a crucial role (Graves 2011).

Recognizing that past environments can alter the epigenome also means that care must be taken not to “racialize” phenomena such as health disparity. Racializing can happen because the public does not understand genetics, genomics, or the differences between biological and social conceptions of race. A number of recent studies have suggested an epigenetic explanation for health disparities, such as for colorectal cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and cardiovascular disease (Kuzawa and Sweet 2009; Ambrosone et al. 2013; Ashktorab et al. 2014). A recent study examined the impact of low SES on methylation of the 5-HTTLTR promoter region (Beach et al. 2014). This promoter influences the expression of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT). This region is considered a potential modulator of environmental stress and may play a role in predicting depression (Caspi et al. 2010). This study focused on genetic variation (short allele, long allele, very long allele), environment (SES status), and epigenetic modification (CpG, methylation islands in the depression gene axis).

Source: Great Is Their Sin: Biological Determinism in the Age of Genomics The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science September 2015 vol. 661 no. 1 24-50
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If you haven't seen it already you should watch this video for Graves presentation on the problems with racial medicine.

[video=youtube;lwPH9sAWX98]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwPH9sAWX98[/video]

This article goes in to a lot more detail on his criticisms of racial medicine:

Joseph Graves said:

Abstract

Some scholars claim that recent studies of human genetic variation validate the existence of human biological races and falsify the idea that human races are socially constructed misconceptions. They assert that analyses of DNA polymorphisms unambiguously partition individuals into groups that are very similar to lay conceptions of race. Furthermore, they propose that this partitioning allows us to identify specific loci that can explain contemporary health disparities between the supposed human races. From this, it appears that racial medicine has risen again. In this essay Graves and Rose construct a case against racial medicine. Biological races in other species are strongly differentiated genetically. Because human populations do not have such strong genetic differentiation, they are not biological races. Nonetheless, the lack of population genetic knowledge among biomedical researchers has led to spuriously racialized human studies. But human populations are not genetically disjoint. Social dominance may lead to medical differences between socially constructed races. In order to resolve these issues, medicine should take both social environment and population genetics into account, instead of dubious ‘races’ that inappropriately conflate the two.

Source: Against racial medicine Patterns of Prejudice, Vol. 40, Nos 4-5, 2006

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Great Is Their Sin: Biological Determinism in the Age of Genomics

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