Różnorodność i równość w epoce genomu
Diversity and Equality in the Age of Genome

Author(s): Paweł Golik
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: genome; genetic diversity; equality; biological determinism; human evolution
Summary/Abstract: Recent advances in the study of the human genome resulted in a wealth of new discoveries of interest not only to biologists, but also to scholars working in social sciences and humanities. There remains, however, considerable distrust and lack of communication between the representatives of these diverse fields. Can the biological vision of the human animal, informed by genomics, be reconciled with the humanist approach? In this essay I argue that the approaches offered by biology and the social sciences and humanities are complementary rather than contradictory. Evolutionary continuity between humans and other forms of life, made apparent by comparative genomics, adds an important voice to the ecocritical, non-anthropocentric, and posthumanist discourse in the humanities. Modern human genetics reveals that human traits are the product of complex networks of interactions between multiple genes and the environment, rejecting the outdated notions of biological essentialism and simplistic genetic determinism. Similarly, comparative genomics unravels complex and intertwined histories of human populations, refuting the idea of racial essentialism rejected by cultural anthropology. Modern biology, social sciences, and humanities can find a common platform to study complex human and posthuman realities.

• Details
• Contents