Anti-Racist Technoscience: A Generative Tradition

Chapter author: Ron Eglash

Page author: Chance Gamble

Summary
Eglash walks readers through the main contributors to polygenesis, the idea that each race/species of human had a different origin, before showing how this theory provided the scientific support proponents of slavery needed to maintain their biological racism. He finds “the alternative biology envisioned by Douglass was one that coupled common descent—the monogenetic origins of the one human race—and adaptive physiology,” resulting in “an ongoing network of conversations between anti-racists and scientists [that] resulted in the generative framework” (231). Charles Darwin and both his grandfathers are cited in the history of scientific abolitionists and are followed by an examination of medical abolitionists who, like Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, were key friends of Douglass and compatriots in the abolitionist cause.

A variety of scientific fields were key in disproving the arguments of pro-slavery rhetors, and Eglash writes a compelling narrative of some of the scientists who played essential roles in the post-antebellum social arena. He does pause to note “I am not making claims about some kind of simple opposition between an ethically bad reductionist science and morally good holistic science,” stating “merely celebrating hybridity does not in itself save us from the extraction of value” (238, 241). He finds hegemonic power structures always adapt to revolutionary opposition by absorbing it, creating a need for new forms and methods of opposition to maintain the push for justice.

Eglash concludes by stating, “Each historical era needs to re-create and reinterpret the generative tradition for itself, as the conditions surrounding hegemonic power in relation to extractive forces continue to evolve” (245). His analysis of indigenous methods of corn curing demonstrates the contextual significance of knowledge for science, supporting his argument for open-loops of knowledge- and meaning-making. While there are no easy answers, Eglash does believe (and model himself) that “a careful examination of the historic intersections of anti-racist activism and technoscience offers a subtle look at how to craft liberatory practices” (246).

Connection to other readings
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Connection to other chapters
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