Race and nutrition in the New World: Colonial shadows in the age of epigenetics

Abstract

This paper addresses historical dimensions of epigenetic studies on human populations. We show that postgenomic research on health disparities in Latin America reintroduces old colonial views about the relations between race, environment, and social status. This especially refers to the idea – common in colonial humoralism and epigenetics – that different types of bodies are in balance and closely linked with particular local environments and lifestyles. These social differences become embodied as physiological and health differences. By comparing Spanish chronicles of the New World with recent epidemiological narratives on Mexican populations in social epigenetics (especially on obesity), we identify four characteristics that both share in distinguishing races, such as indigenous or mestizos from Spaniards or non-Mexicans: (i) Race is not intrinsic to bodies but emerges as a particular homeostatic body-environment relation; (ii) the stability of one's race is warranted through the stability of one's local environment and lifestyle, especially nutrition; (iii) every race faces specific life challenges in a local environment to maintain its health; and (iv) every race shows a unique social status that is closely linked to its biological status (e.g., disease susceptibility). Based on these similarities, we argue that currently in Latin America the field of epigenetics appears on the scene with a worrisome colonial shadow. It reintroduces long forgotten exclusionary and stereotypic perspectives on indigenous and mestizos, and biologizes as well as racializes social-cultural differences among human groups.