Graciela Cabana
,
University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Knoxville, TN
This paper explores how commercial genetic technology in the form of
“personalized genetics” may be actively shaping a new politics of
identity and belonging in Argentina. Our research is inspired by the
recent spate of interest in genetic ancestry testing spurred by National Geographic’s Genographic Project. These tests use molecular markers to supplement and/or complement traditional genealogical methods. Through genetic ancestry testing, individuals can find out “where they come from” and where in the world their remote ancestors might have tread.Genetic information seen as tangible, measurable, and therefore authoritative seems to have the potential to change individual and national ideas of family, race, ethnicity and nationhood. More broadly, the genetic mapping of personal and social identity could alter moral concepts of kinship, heritage, and citizenship. Because genetic ancestry testing is presently being used to decide legal claims about personal and ethnic identity in the U.S., North American scholars have begun to take notice. Comparatively little discussion and research has been devoted to the same topics as they are experienced in Latin America, particularly from a comparative perspective. Yet, the impact of genetic research has already begun to reverberate there as much as in other regions of the world. We therefore explore similar implications of genetic research in Argentina, a country where the consequences of the social consumption of genetic research has received much less attention.In 2008, we conducted pilot research among self-reported middle class subjects in Luján, a mid-sized city located in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. We combined ethnographic methodology with genetic testing to assess how genetic research is experienced, understood and incorporated into the local narratives of ancestry and heritage. Here we will discuss our findings based on this pilot work and discuss avenues of future research.
