Nara Milanich, a Professor of history at Barnard College and author of "Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father," delves into the complex evolution of fatherhood. She argues that paternity is socially constructed rather than just a biological fact, influenced by historical and cultural contexts. Milanich discusses how pioneering paternity testing, particularly in Brazil, shaped societal views of fatherhood. She highlights the differing applications of paternity testing and its implications for marginalized groups, showcasing the intricate relationship between science, law, and family dynamics.
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Paternal Uncertainty: A Social Construct
Paternal uncertainty, the idea that fatherhood is impossible to know with certainty, is a social construct, not a biological fact.
Historically, fathers were defined by behavior or marital status, not biology.
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Modern Paternity: A New Definition
Modern paternity, emerging in the 1920s, defines the father as biologically determined and knowable through science.
It promotes the idea that knowing the father is beneficial for society.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Blood Tests in Brazil
Early blood tests in Brazil were used in rape cases to assess the veracity of women's claims, not for child support as in Germany.
This highlights how the same technology can be used for different social purposes.
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Nara Milanich's "Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father" explores the historical evolution of paternity, tracing how it transitioned from a socially constructed role to a biologically defined concept. The book examines the development of paternity testing, from early methods like blood tests to the advent of DNA technology. Milanich analyzes how these scientific advancements impacted legal systems, social norms, and individual lives across different societies. She highlights the uneven application of paternity tests, often favoring privileged groups. The book also delves into the cultural and political implications of paternity testing, particularly in immigration and citizenship contexts. Through case studies, the book reveals the complex interplay between science, law, and social perceptions of family.
Nara Milanich’s Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father (Harvard University Press, 2019) explains how fatherhood, long believed to be impossible to know with certainty, became a biological “fact” that could be ascertained with scientific testing. Though the advent of DNA testing might seem to make paternity less elusive, Milanich’s book invites readers to think about paternity not as a biological fact but as a socially-constructed role that has evolved over time. Historically, given assumed paternal uncertainty, fathers were defined in terms of their behavior (acting like a father) or their relationship to a child’s mother (being married to a woman made a man the father of her offspring). In the twentieth century, paternity testing developed as a way to scientifically determine male progenitors, although these new methods never replaced older ways of reckoning paternity. Milanich describes blood tests and other early techniques proffered by doctors and scrutinized by courts as a way to know the “true” father. Paternity testing, she points out, has been used to different ends in different societies: it could identify an errant progenitor or reveal a mother’s liaison. A certain paternity test result could mean economic security for a child or put a person’s life in jeopardy. Moreover, Milanich reveals the uneven application of paternity testing that has tended to protect the most privileged groups in different societies. Paternity is a transatlantic study that moves from South America to Europe and the United States, and its chapters touch upon the histories of science and medicine, gender and the family, and immigration. The podcast features fascinating case studies set in Brazil and Argentina. This book’s reflections on the making of modern paternity speak to our own time, when, for example, the U.S. government is using DNA testing at the border to separate “real” kin from “fictitious” families, as Milanich explains to podcast listeners. The stakes of knowing the father go far beyond determining biological progenitors, and this book vividly reconstructs the political uses and cultural implications of the paternity test.
Rachel Grace Newman is joining Smith College in July 2019 as Lecturer in the History of the Global South. She has a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, and her dissertation was titled “Transnational Ambitions: Student Migrants and the Making of a National Future in Twentieth-Century Mexico.” She is also the author of a book on a binational program for migrant children whose families divided their time between Michoacán, Mexico and Watsonville, California. She is on Twitter (@rachelgnew).
New Books in Sociology