Genetics, Ethics and Archaeology

Evison, M.P. (1996). Genetics, ethics and archaeology. Antiquity, 70, 512-4. ISSN 0003-598X doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00083666 REPORTS Genetics, eLhics and archaeology MARTIN P. EVISON* A further contribution 011 the issues raised by modern genetics, and on tJleir relationship to the material evidence offered by archaeologicaJ remajns. Two recent articles (Plucienrrik 1996 ; Mirza & Dungworth 1995 ) remind us of dangers in ap plying an d interpretin g genetic eviden ce. As an arch aeo logis t with trai ning in mol ecu lar biology, I cannot h elp feeling disapp ointed when careless associations are made between anthropological genetics and h istorical repression (see also Hedges 1996). \l\lhilst we sh ould il\'o id excessi ve faith in science (or any other philosoph y) an d beware of the abuse of anll archaeological evidence, accus ations of ' raciSlll' level led at mo dern genetics are not justified. Both scienUfic and social literacies are required for informed consideration of th e eth ical probk ms and for m eaningful multi-disciplinary collaporfltion. A strong rese mblan ce between respo n sib le, critical perspectives in archaeol ogy and scien ce sho uld encourage an at mosphere of mutual understallding. Care fully cOllstructeu inter)Jretations of the past, derived from genetic, ar chaeolog ica l and other evidence, offer an imagillati\'e way forw ard for arch aeology. In reference to The histOl)' and geographl' of human genes (Cavall i-Sfor za ei a/. 199 4) , Pluciennik (1996) raises the possibility th ai gen eticists 'w ill help Russian n ationalists prove t11e disildvan tages of racial im purity. Mi rza & Dungworth (1 995) suggest anthropologica I geneti cs may be used by the 'NeK Hight' to exclude immigrants from a 'Fortress Europe'. As a reslllt of all assumed lack of'time resol ution', Plucielmik pres upposes, models of the past derived h'om genetic (and linguistic) da ta must 'sgueeze out' history an d rufference (1996: 14). Do population gr> nehcist<; con duct research inl o 'race'!' Do they resemble the discredited Socia] ｄ ｡ｲｷ ｩｮ ｾｬｳ＠ amI atlC'mp tto div ide h U.mcul groups by judgmcntaJ stereotypes. such as 'primiti ve and unci viJ ize d' or 'more like us'? Shoul d urchaeolugis ts see geneti cs as a force out to repres s history and difIerence? There are , in reality, no grounds in CavalliSforza et a]. (1994 ) to suppos e th at gen eli cists classify hum an groups as pri mitivp. or SllPf' rior, pure or impure. in conSi dering historical abus es of science , Cava lli-Sforza el a/. (1994 : 19-20) explicitly remi nd us of tl1e 'scientific failure of the concep t of race' an d tilat Lhcre is ' no scientific basis to th e b elief of geneti call y detemlined "superiority" of one population over is stro ngly an li-racist. anot he r'. T he ｭ ･ｳｾ ｡ｧ･＠ Gen etics is not a da ting metho d. The 'time resol ution' (Plucie nnik 1996: 13) it ma y give depenus up on the circumstances and the quality of tlle accompanying (and in dispensab le) archaeol ogical, h istorical or enviro nmental evide ur.e . Nt'v ertlleless, myriad differences in human history are eviden t in the uistriuution of mo dern genes. lu Europe, for fl..xampJ e,there are 33 lUiljor zones of sh arp gen eti c ch ange [Cavalli-Sforza et oj. 1994: 271, contm Mirza & Dungworth 1994: 347 ). Wi thin the regions . ｾｕ｣ｬ＠ as [Lal" rCava.lli -Sfor za at a]. 1994 : 27780) or Sardin ia (1994 : 273- 6), extensi ve local va riability is ""iden t. V\Tll en i ntcIj.Jreled in combi n ation with archaeological, liuguislic an d ecological ev idence , tIl lS geneti c vari a bility makes app arent a rich di versi ty of social histuries. People of the Basqu e region ilT e proud oi their uni que past. reflecled ir! identit\·. language. cul ture, landscape an d gene frequen cies ( H J0 4: 2 713 , 280- 87)' w hich ha ve probably evolved interacti vely h'om as fa r bad. as tl.Je JJa laeolithic. Man y cas es are knOln l where gene distribut ions c.aIl be associated ",· il l! lite h istorical ly narticular or even v..-ilh individual lives (ha emo/jlJjJja A in lhe European royal fa milies is a popu lar examp le), but staLislical vali d ation an d its c!('!n lan (1 for large sampies ｭｴ［ ｾ＠ ｡ｬ＠ lhal lllort' general concl u sion s arc also oflen drawn. TIl e olil y con stant which hi(1 l11 o]ecular , Reseorch School 01 Archaoolosy 1'.0 Alchat:oio!'icul Scicl1Go . Un;\,cr:;;ly oj Shpfl'leid Z Mnppill SLJ-eo! . Shcflid<l 411'f. Elll!,tand f mui l: m.p.Gvisol1<o:<!sh ei field.oc.,,), f\ cceiveo 29 Marrh ｝ｾＹｇ . .&IG(:pplen 23 April 199G. At-;11Q11rry 71111 9 !lG) ' 51 2- ]4 Sl arc11aeologists 'p retend ' (Pluciennik 1996: 13) can be extrapolated back intel the distant past is lhe genetic material. Our D;-JA, altho ugh far from unch anging, is perhav the best-preserved tra ce of the past av ail able tn th e·) archaeologist. Our an ces tors h ave passed it dow n fro m generation to ge neration , since tb e u egi nning of life on earth. All informe d critique of The history and geography of human gen es is given by Terrell & Stewart (1996), wlw do not raise th e ra cist bogeyman . Terrell & Stewart lay bare th e p roblems of trying m eaningfu ll y to delimi l huma n social aggregates on the basis of ethni c, li.nguistic, cultural or geographical criteria - p roblems Cavalli-Sforza et aj, do not adequately ad dress. There is much to learn about the detailed interaction bet ween identit y, language, cultw-e, ecology and genetics - a pressing and longterm problem for th e se rious anthropo logical archaeologist. Althou gh apparent relalionship s are often discernible, the particular hislOrical circumstances which bring them about are problematiC, a fund am en tal concern ""'hich CavalliSforza et oJ. gloss over. Terrell & Stewart advocate local in-dfJpth longitudinal studies, w hich coul d incorporate langu age , materia] cul ture , social relations. gene distTi butions and ecology. \lVhat little is already kn own, frOD! parts of Melanesia for example, illustrates tbe compl exi ty of the interactions an d the absence of cross-cultw-al rul es. Cavalli-Sforza et 01. (1994: 286-7) di scuss th e work in France of Le Bras & Todd (1981), who have sh own how the differf>nl ideological (or socio-po iiticaJ) perspectives of human agen ts rnav influence family stru cl ure and marriage patt()Tlls. wh;ch i n turn Call inil u ence gene dis tributi ons. ;\t this early stage of multi -di sciplin<1ry work it is evident thai gene rustribu tions can be as mnc], the COn5 Aguence of social acti on and social rr.l atio ns as can lnn guage, material culture, lalldscdpe and environmen t. Although gen es do not determine idenLi IY, it is premature to assert th at genetics will 11ut cOlltrlh u te Lo answ f'ring qllestiollS abo ul identity. In terpretations base r! on ge ne frequenc ies alone are ofli ttle value; 1ll1;] li-disciplillary stu dy essen ti al. 1 agH'" that we do n ot work in a 'p oliti cal va culiln ' (Plucien ai k 1996: 14). Rese al'cll car be an d has been abused. There is no ro om fo r complacency in any anthroJlological diScipli ne or in th e na tural scien c.es. A p opu lar m istrust 513 of science and the sensationali zation uf scienWic d iscoveries can bring it into public dGrep Ule (M addox 1995; Keasl1996 ). Evolution ary (Goul d 1981 ) and mol ecular (Lewontin 1991 ; Rose e/ oj. 1990) bi ologists have addressed abuses of scien ce. Wh ile w e specu la te how a nth ropolo gical genetics m igh t be u se d, Hamilakis & Yalouri (1996) remind us that Antiguity is co nstantly use d by thE' slate . by differen l interes t groups an d by indi\'i dmlls . The abw,c of m e dical science in pre-war IJnilf'd States. Nazi Germany and elsewhere (Proctor 1992) re veals what a danger complacellc\' is. In his desire to portray scie nc e a3 'esoteric an d indiges tible ' or 'naive'. and 'un critical '. Plu ciemli k (1 996: 14 ) constru es peo pl e 'who practis e science as stereotyp es, ignorant of t.he social , and al tlle same tim e naive an d siuister. As recent history (Proctor 1992) agftin sho\Ns, such sweeping Qssum p tion s about arbitrari ly defi ned group' of people are at the 11eart of the very dangers Pi ucien nik wish es to help us to avoi u. Both PIucienniJ... and Mirza & Dtmgworth erect vague and unjustified associa lions between mo dern gcnetir.s an d J\azi ide olog ies (pas t and present], allusi on s w hich risk devil luing the eu orm.ity of the IIolocaust and weak ening the value ofbioethical analogies \\-hich can be ma de wit); it (Cap lan 1992). The Nazi call for 'mo r Goe the and less Newton' (P roctor 1992: 27) show s tbe abanuonment of sc iellce for philosophy would provide J10 elllical safeg uar d. Archaeologists should know ti le \'al ue of The historl' and geogra phy of huma11 geneS;jS well it rai ses . A as th e complexity of the ｰ ｲｯ ｢ｬ ･ ｭｾ＠ strong anti-rac isl mess age can be fo und in population genetics. It is impurt an t in prov id ing il]1pl'CIpriate med ic.]1 care to ethni c gronps and in hu man righ ts cases (BuIes ef a/. 1995). AT｣ｨ｡･ ｯｬ ｯｧ ｩｳｴｾ＠ m ight '\\'ish to consider bioelhiCQ I delJates (Reich 1995), such as i n allthropology [Cavalli -S forza pi oJ. 1992; Bu tler 1995 ; Anon. 1995 a) . molec u Jar IJiolog v (Vi nes 1995; LeVa y & I fall ier ] 994; BYlil' J 994), biulogir.al anthr op ol ogy (Weiss 1996; .'\11on. 1995b) or the iuｦｬＱ ｮ ｾ ｬ＠ sc i" nces (Ken l1Ad v 1995: Brare 19B!'i J. There is n o inU'aclable 'contrnd icli oJJ between arclt,l('ologv an d scif'l1ce. Th e cril ic, 1I li ennrIlculi c, ad vocated bv 1J 0dd er (198 G: 150 :i1) is stri kingly Sil lli!df' in pracl ice tu llloleculJJ' on a conlinual alld hinl ngy. a science ｢ｾＬｲ､＠ cri tical reCUJ's iOll belween ll'l'po thesis and ddtd, witllo nt th ... ｊ｡ＱＧｾ＠ which sciellti sts ann non -sci- Evison, M.P. (1996). Genetics, ethics and archaeology. Antiquity, 70, 512-4. ISSN 0003-598X doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00083666 REPORTS 514 entists a like assum e to be ob ligatory. The postprocessua l ins igh t into philosop hy and social theory is indispensab le to archaeo logy. but in no way implies th e need for a renun ciat ion of the empirica l aspec ts of research . I ca nn ot see how anti­scien tism is an v better than scieriiism . For tho se archaeo logists, and others, wh o hav e a genuine interest in multi­di sciplinary appr oac hes to th e co nstruction of histories , a long an d difficcll. t path lies ahead. Scientific and social litera cy wi ll be required. Nevertheless, th ere is a strong resemb lance between science pract ised se lf­cri ti cally and responsible arch aeolog ica l pe rspecti ves. To p araphrase Bradley (1 993), it is openness to id eas , imag ina ti on and fee ling for the archaeological record that are important. not the brand names.' vVe must be vigilant against the misinterpreta ti on and misapp lica tion of all archa eologica l ev iden ce , irrespective o r it s source. T h e UK Ne o li th ic S iudies Group Autu m n Mee l ing, British Musel1.m . 11 No v embe r 1996 . w i ll ad1lIcsS Ih e Mesolilhic­Neol ithie t ra n">Oio n in Brit aj n ....vilh con tri bll t ions from archae o log y. an thropo logy. his toric",1 li ngu is ti cs, pa laeoecology, population genetics C1n d ,jI1H:if'nt ON A . ' For rm·t hm d s ti'l ils contacL the a ut ho r. Acknow/edge.m ents. Biomo lec ul ar arc h aeol ogy a t Sheffield is suppOlted by NERC an d Tren t Centre, Natio Llall3lood Service. 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