Mapping Flies, Mapping People: Theodosius Dobzhansky and Populations in Genetics: Summary of Proposed Research (Abstract)

Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) is a key scientific figure in the fields of evolutionary biology and population genetics. Dobzhansky's 1937 Genetic and the Origins of Species (GOS) was the first of a series of texts regarded as seminal in building the evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s-40s, and arguably the most important. Geneticist Bentley Glass has gone as far as to say that GOS "had consequences in the biological world of the twentieth century comparable to the effects of The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection in the nineteenth century" (1980, 2). The evolutionary synthesis unified the fields of genetics, paleontology, and systematics, with a new discipline-evolutionary biology-formed once Lamarckian, orthogenetic, and saltationist tendencies had been eliminated. These developments were preceded by theoretical contributions made by R. A. Fisher, J. B. S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright during the 1920s and early 1930s which demonstrated the compatibility of Mendelism and Darwinism. Fisher, Haldane, and Wright are today regarded as the founders of the discipline of theoretical population genetics. Dobzhansky is credited for founding population genetics as an empirical discipline in North America, by drawing especially on the theoretical contributions of Wright.     Over the ensuing decades, Dobzhansky's contributions were significant: his "Genetics of Natural Populations" series of papers spanned almost four decades from 1938 to 1975; he trained many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who went on to have distinguished careers; he made regular visits to Brazil and other Latin American countries where he collected flies, presented papers, and collaborated with local scientists; he made the work of Soviet geneticists available to an English-speaking audience; he assisted in establishing scholarly societies and journals and served on their boards. Several scientific ideas which remain important today-for example, the biological species concept and the distinction between typological and population thinking-were advanced and philosophically defended by Dobzhansky. For all of these reasons, Dobzhansky is worthy of serious historical and philosophical study. However, Dobzhansky is also historically and philosophically interesting because he was a socially and politically engaged scientist. He wrote numerous reviews, articles, and books for general audiences, many seeking to combat racism.     The research program has five objectives: (i) to assess Dobzhansky's contributions as an architect of the evolutionary synthesis in terms of their actual influence at the time and their legacy today; (ii) to trace the emergence of the typological-population distinction in Dobzhansky's writings and examine how Dobzhansky and his colleague Ernst Mayr used the distinction to advance their scientific and political agendas by portraying their fellow scientists as illegitimately promoting "typological" views; (iii) to examine Dobzhansky's introduction of the concepts "Mendelian population" and "gene pool" and to critically evaluate his realistic interpretation of them as spatio-temporal objects; (iv) to show how Dobzhansky redefined races as genetically distinct Mendelian populations, thereby instituting an object ontology for race which marked a departure from his previous representation of race as process, and to critically assess the tenability of his realism; and (v) to consider Dobzhansky's public face as an anti-racist scientific humanist in order to contribute to our understanding of the social responsibilities of scientists.     Although this is a historical study, it is of considerable contemporary relevance. The typological-population distinction continues to be used to arbitrate "good" vs. "bad" science. Philosophical questions about populations and population structure are presently of great importance, with scientists from areas like pharmacogenomics and DNA forensics looking to population genetics for methodological tools and theoretical foundations. Given recent debate on the use of racial categories in biomedical research and increased attention to patterns of human genetic variation with completion of the Human Genome Project, the history of race and genetics is of renewed importance. And questions about the responsibility of scientists and the role of social policy questions and values in scientific research are as pressing today as ever.