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Reviews
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science by Kim TallBear
mxinky's review against another edition
5.0
Kim TallBear’s book is essential for anyone trying to understand the place of DNA tests in American society. TallBear traces the ways the tests have been marketed to explain how we have come to conflate DNA with so much more, so much that DNA will never be. (There is much more to this book but I won’t spoil it.)
I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
lizmart88's review against another edition
3.0
Academic text so a bit dry. Exploration of current trend to use DNA to identify your ancestors and genealogy, with a focus on how this impacts native American tribes.
The author is a member of a Dakota tribe and an indigenous studies scholar. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the topic.
Fascinating discussion about how DNA is often used as a stand in for blood, the many problems with doing so, and how it impacts tribal enrollments.
She intentionally focuses not on tribal members but in the scientists carrying out this research, and often the corporations profiting from it.
The author is a member of a Dakota tribe and an indigenous studies scholar. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the topic.
Fascinating discussion about how DNA is often used as a stand in for blood, the many problems with doing so, and how it impacts tribal enrollments.
She intentionally focuses not on tribal members but in the scientists carrying out this research, and often the corporations profiting from it.
daughterofaphrodite's review against another edition
3.5
Interesting and informative, but I think it’s very technical for a non-science audience.
libkatem's review against another edition
4.0
"Why do some narratives and knowledge systems gain more traction than others? It is not simply that scientific experimentation works, and “the” truth wins out in the end. Like other forms of Western knowledge—whether anthropology, philosophy, medicine, history, or the law—genomic practices and data sets cannot be disentangled from histories" (201).
This book is a toughie to read. I know enough about DNA to be dangerous, and this isn't quite a social history either. It's a look at the practices of DNA coding and classification, and one we all need to reckon with before we send in our saliva to companies/scientists, and others who want to look at our DNA.
This book is a toughie to read. I know enough about DNA to be dangerous, and this isn't quite a social history either. It's a look at the practices of DNA coding and classification, and one we all need to reckon with before we send in our saliva to companies/scientists, and others who want to look at our DNA.
lancre's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Wish there’d been more to this, yet paradoxically that it was less… I don’t know, that kind of academic viscousness. Regardless, very important book.
cloudss's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.5
wanted more. excels with blood quantum description + discussion of modern problems with it. look into early online DNA markers subculture fascinating. lot of technical anthropology/sociology ethics discussion