The interrelation between genetics and the social sciences

Abstract

The outstanding developments which have occurred in recent years in both the social sciences and genetics have not brought the two subject areas closer together. Most of the progress in human genetics has been in fields such as biochemical genetics, cytogenetics and clinical genetics which are not of special concern to the social sciences, and many - perhaps most - social scientists are not interested in any aspect of human biology and often deny the relevance of human genetics to their particular studies. Yet, in general terms it has long been recognized that there is a wide range of problems in the human sciences where an understanding of both sociology and human genetics, their concepts and their methods, is necessary. Whether one is concerned with structure and behaviour of individuals or of populations one is dealing with the results of complex interactions between environmental and genetic determinants, and it is rarely, if ever, justifiable to neglect completely one or other of these. Yet this has been repeatedly done, partly because the overall problems are so complex that workers have felt they could only make any progress by considering components in isolation, but also because there is so little communication and collaboration between social and biological scientists. What is of particular concern is that there is practically no-one in the country who has sufficient professional expertise in both sociology and human genetics to research in the interdisciplinary area. And this area is not only one of great academic interest but is of importance in many practical problems of human affairs. It is the purpose of this memorandum to review in general terms some of the problems concerning population structure, where a joint sociological and genetic approach is required, to discuss their wider relevance to sociology and human biology, to argue that priority should be given in universities for the training not only of students who are capable of undertaking the necessary further research, but also of a much broader class who are at least familiar with the nature of these problems and their relevance to everyday human affairs, and to indicate some of the ways by which research could be facilitated and training could be accomplished.