TY - JOUR
T1 - Subject 01
T2 - Exemplary Indigenous masculinity in Cold War genetics
AU - Dent, Rosanna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2020.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - 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 Apöwá. Through Apöwá, 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 Apöwá continues to animate even four decades after his death.
AB - 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 Apöwá. Through Apöwá, 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 Apöwá continues to animate even four decades after his death.
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U2 - 10.1017/S000708742000031X
DO - 10.1017/S000708742000031X
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32762777
AN - SCOPUS:85091856751
SN - 0007-0874
VL - 53
SP - 311
EP - 332
JO - British Journal for the History of Science
JF - British Journal for the History of Science
IS - 3
ER -