Flattening and Unpacking Variation: Two Research Strategies of Human Genetics in Mexico

Introduction: This article analyzes two research strategies carried out by three projects of human genetics in Mexico, between 1960 and 2009. We distinguish between a strategy that incorporates multidisciplinary resources in the design of sampling, analysis and interpretation of data (which we call exhibition), and one that privileges pragmatic considerations on multidisciplinary analysis (which we call flattening). Development: We analyzed the work of the hematologist Rubén Lisker in the 1960s, the mapping of Mexican genomic diversity carried out by researchers from the National Institute of Genomic Medicine between 2004 and 2009, and the analysis of the native variation carried out by geneticist Andrés Moreno (then at Stanford University), and his colleagues in recent years. Conclusions: The strategic decisions taken by scientists have consequences in the measurement and characterization of genetic variation in human populations, but also in the demographic and biomedical social practices related to their study. While the first strategy exhibits detailed genetic variation hidden in human populations, thus favoring precision and realism, the second tends to flatten individual differences and lose historical depth but privileging the generalization and description of the broad features of a population.