This essay describes the effects of Zionist ideology on research into human population genetics carried out in Israel during the 1950s and early 1960s. I argue that the internalization of the dominant Zionist narrative is reflected in the articles that were written by Israeli geneticists and physicians during these years. My claim is based on a comparison of articles about human population genetics written and published by Israeli scientists between 1951 and 1963 with similar articles written by non‐Israelis. The comparison (...) reveals that during this period the Israeli human geneticists and physicians emphasized the sociological and historical aspects of their research and used their work, among other things, as a vehicle for establishing a national identity and confirming the Zionist narrative. (shrink)

During the 1920s and 1930s the testing of blood groups for large numbers of people became a very common practice. Although much of this was to ensure compatibility for blood transfusion, over 1,000 articles were published with results of tests on over 1.3 million people to answer more theoretical, scientific questions. The motivation for much of this research was the possible link between the well established hereditary blood types and other possible inherited traits. Because the existence of the blood groups (...) was a rather sudden discovery, the record of this publication offers an excellent case study of the diffusion of new scientific knowledge. Differences in the beginning of blood group research from country to country reveal some important influences of social setting on the spread and application of the new discoveries. (shrink)

Serological data have been used to address anthropological problems since the turn of the century. These were predominantly problems of two kinds in anthropological systematics: the relations of human populations to one another (racial serology), and the relations of primate species to one another (systematic serology). Though they were the locus of considerable debate about the relative merits of 'genetic' versus 'traditional' data, the serological work had little lasting impact in the field. I attribute this to the fact that the (...) research was carried out largely externally to anthropology, and often interpreted in facile manners. To a large extent the history of this research has been ignored or rewritten following the development of 'molecular anthropology' in the 1960s. To some extent, however, contemporary genetic research in anthropology replays aspects of the serological era. (shrink)

During the 1920s and 1930s geneticist L. C. Dunn of Columbia University cautioned Americans against endorsing eugenic policies and called attention to eugenicists' less than rigorous practices. Then, from the mid-1940s to early 1950s he attacked scientific racism and Nazi Rassenhygiene by co-authoring Heredity, Race and Society with Theodosius Dobzhansky and collaborating with members of UNESCO on their international campaign against racism. Even though shaking the foundations of scientific discrimination was Dunn's primary concern during the interwar and post-World War II (...) years, his campaigns had ancillary consequences for the discipline. He contributed to the professionalization of genetics during the 1920s and 1930s and sought respectability for human genetics in the 1940s and 1950s. My article aims to elucidate the activist scientist's role in undermining scientific discrimination by exploring aspects of Dunn's scientific work and political activism from the 1920s to 1950s. Definitions are provided for scientific discrimination and activist scientist. (shrink)