JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The University of Chicago Press and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access

more »

... Current Anthropology. Recent work on genomics and race makes the argument that concepts and categories of race are subtly reproduced in the practice of genomic science, despite the explicit rejection of race as meaningful biological reality by many geneticists. Our argument in this paper is that racialized meanings in genomics, rather than standing alone, are very often wrapped up in ideas about nation. This seems to us a rather neglected aspect in the literature about genomics and race. More specifically, we characterize race as an absent presence in Latin America and argue that genomics in the region finds a particular expression of race through concepts of nation, because this vehicle suits the deep-rooted ambiguity of race in the region. To make this argument we use data from an ethnographic project with genetics labs in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Much recent work on genomics and race makes the argument that concepts and categories of race are subtly reproduced in the practice of genomic science, despite the explicit rejection of race as a meaningful biological reality by many geneticists. Often this conclusion emerges from studies done in the United States, where standardized social categories of race are already part of public discourse, policy, and research practice in medicine, including medical genomics. 1 In this paper, we use Latin American data to develop and diversify this argument by bringing the concept of nation strongly into the picture. In most countries in the region, the categories and language of race are a much less accepted feature of policy Peter Wade is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester (School of Social Sciences, Arthur Lewis Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom [peter.wade@manchester.ac.uk]). Vivette García Deister is Associate Professor at the Social Studies