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

Dec 10, 2023

Mark Munsterhjelm, an expert in forensic genetics, explores the controversial studies of Indigenous Peoples and the development of forensic genetic technologies. He discusses the capture of Indigenous Peoples' genetic material and the ongoing genetic servitude. Munsterhjelm highlights the controversial Human Genome Diversity Project and its impact on Indigenous Peoples' rights. He also delves into the connection between genetics and intelligence in the context of the War on Terror. The podcast concludes with a discussion on current research projects and ethical concerns in forensic genetics.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Forensic Colonialism: Exploring the Impact on Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Sovereignty

03:11 • 7min

The Human Genome Diversity Project and Its Controversies

10:03 • 5min

Genetics, Intelligence, and the War on Terror

15:11 • 16min

Current Research Projects and Ethical Concerns in Forensic Genetics

30:57 • 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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