Subject 01

Exemplary Indigenous masculinity in Cold War genetics

Bibliographic Data

ID8395226
AuthorsRosanna Dent (0000-0003-3360-2457, New Jersey Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume53
Issue3
Pages311-332
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000708742000031x
PMID32762777
OpenAlexW3047674042
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited44

In 1962 a team of scientists conducted their first joint fieldwork in a Xavante village in Central Brazil. Recycling long-standing notions that living Indigenous people represented human prehistory, the scientists saw Indigenous people as useful subjects of study not only due to their closeness to nature, but also due to their sociocultural and political realities. The geneticists’ vision crystalized around one subject – the famous chief Apöwẽ. Through Apöwẽ, the geneticists fixated on what they perceived as the political prowess, impressive physique, and masculine reproductive aptitude of Xavante men. These constructions of charismatic masculinity came at the expense of recognizing how profoundly colonial expansion into Mato Grosso had destabilized Xavante communities, stripping them of their land and introducing epidemic disease. The geneticists’ theorizing prefigured debates to come in sociobiology, and set up an enduring research programme that Apöwẽ continues to animate even four decades after his death

Biology · Colonialism · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Indigenous · Masculinity · Political science · Politics · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Subject (documents · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Anthropology · Ecology · Gender Studies · Law · Race, Genetics, and Society