Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Related links
Share
Revista Uruguaya de Antropología y Etnografía
Print version ISSN 2393-7068On-line version ISSN 2393-6886
Abstract
AVENA, Sergio; RUSSO, María Gabriela; LOZANO, Magdalena and ROCCA, Francisco Di Fabio. The use of racial categories in Argentine biomedicine. An analysis of national and international publications. Rev. urug. Antropología y Etnografía [online]. 2024, vol.9, n.2, e106. Epub Dec 01, 2024. ISSN 2393-7068. https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v9i2.2325.
One of the focal points of current biomedicine lies in analyzing the relationship between clinical characteristics, population differences and heritability. In approaches originating in the United States, this relationship is largely associated with the classification into human races, responding to a sociohistorical construction that is different in other parts of the world.
In this research we generated a dataset that compiles articles published by Argentinean biomedical researchers in national and international scientific journals that use the term "race" as a population category and surveyed the labels used, their justification and methodology, among other aspects. The aim was to analyse if there are differences in the use of the term ‘race’ depending on whether the articles were published in national or international journals.
The sources of information were the Open Access Journals portal of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, “Revistas Médicas Argentinas”, and the PubMed®️ database.
The analysis of the collected articles shows that racial conceptualisation is practically absent in publications in local journals. When it is present, it does so in the introduction section, mentioning its use in other countries. On the other hand, in international publications we recorded numerous studies with Argentinean samples classified under racial categories. These were not consistent, explicit or substantiated, nor were the inclusion criteria explained, and frequently the origin of the samples was not stated, giving the idea of a false homogeneity of the population. Furthermore, these categories have been conceived of as exclusive and estimates of sample composition had widely differing values.
The pressure to adopt unusual criteria in everyday life and the incentive to join international consortia with high funding power leads to epistemological challenges and, potentially, public health issues that need to be addressed.
Keywords : biomedicine; Argentina; racial categories; scientific communication; subordinate integration.