In Annette B. Weiner’s The Trobrianders of Paupau New Guinea, the author follows in the footsteps of one of the fathers of modern anthropology, Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski and conducts an ethnographic study in the Trobriand Islands of Paupau New Guinea. The author mentions how the “…Trobriand Islands are one of…

Ever since I received my diagnosis of Bipolar type II disorder in April of 2018, my life and how I see the world completely changed. Prior to my diagnosis, I had many misconceptions about bipolar disorder myself. I was also completely incognizant of the stigma attached to having bipolar disorder…

There is no doubt that our genes play a significant role in our chance of acquiring diseases. Our genes also play a noteworthy role in our immunity to diseases as well. It is natural to assume that since humans vary genetically, our genetic predispositions to diseases should also vary. As…

Human population genomic studies and direct-to-consumer ancestry tests are produced by multiple social constructs. All the social constructs that interplay with human population genomic studies (race, ancestry, ethnicity, geography, and culture) are offspring of or tie back to a single social construct: the sense of personhood. Whether human population geneticists…

The study of human population genomics and direct-to-consumer ancestry testing has had societal consequences since its inception. As the child of 18th and 19th century biological anthropology, population genomics has contributed to furthering harmful and problematic ideas and practices in history, such as eugenics. Additionally, although population genomics have also…