New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

Mark Munsterhjelm, "Forensic Colonialism: Genetics and the Capture of Indigenous Peoples" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2023)

Dec 10, 2023

Forensic colonialism and the exploitation of Indigenous Peoples' genetic material in the development of racializing forensic technologies. Controversial projects like the Human Genome Diversity Project and the use of genetic data from Uyghurs and other Indigenous Peoples from Xinjiang and Tibet. The fusion of intelligence-led policing with the war on terror and the controversial topic of genetic testing in the Xinjiang region. The impact of forensic genetics on various categories and the ethical concerns associated with these advancements.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Forensic Colonialism: Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples in Genetic Research

02:42 • 8min

The Human Genome Diversity Project and the Transformation of Indigenous Peoples

10:25 • 5min

Intelligence-Led Policing and Genetic Testing: Implications and Ethics

15:51 • 16min

Forensic Genetics, Categorization, and Ethical Concerns

31:48 • 2min

Forensic genetic technologies are popularly conceptualized and revered as important tools of justice. The research and development of these technologies, however, has been accomplished through the capture of various Indigenous Peoples' genetic material and a subsequent ongoing genetic servitude.

In Forensic Colonialism: Genetics and the Capture of Indigenous Peoples (McGill-Queen's UP, 2023), Mark Munsterhjelm explores how controversial studies of Indigenous Peoples have been used to develop racializing forensic technologies. Making moral and political claims about defending the public from criminals and terrorists, international networks of scientists, police, and security agencies have developed forensic genetic technologies firmly embedded in hierarchies that target and exploit many Indigenous Peoples without their consent. Collections began under the guise of the highly controversial Human Genome Diversity Project and related efforts, including the 1987 sampling of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples as they recovered from near genocide. After 9/11, War on Terror rhetoric began to be used to justify research on ancestry estimation and physical appearance (phenotyping) markers, and since 2019, international research cooperation networks' use of genetic data from thousands of Uyghurs and other Indigenous Peoples from Xinjiang and Tibet has contributed to a series of controversies.

Munsterhjelm concludes that technologies produced by forensic genetics advance the biopolitical security only of privileged populations, and that this depends on imposing race-based divisions between who lives and who dies. Meticulously researched, Forensic Colonialism adds to growing debates over racial categories, their roots in colonialism, and the political hierarchies inherent to forensic genetics.

Melek Firat Altay is a neuroscientist, biologist and musician. Her research focuses on deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders.

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