Genetic Enslavement

Genetic Enslavement PDF Author: Bruce L. Gary
Publisher: Bruce L Gary
ISBN: 0979844606
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Every living thing is assembled by its genes. This is a crucial starting point for exploring a fundamental human dilemma. As stated so starkly by Richard Dawkins, a human is "a lumbering machine, created for the task of safeguarding and propagating the all-important genes within." I would add that since the machine's behavior is driven by brain circuits pre-wired by those genes, sometimes we are prone to doing things which work against our individual best interest in order to advance the cause of the genes. In other words, some of our genes are our enemies ("outlaw genes") because they jeopardize individual well¬being as they work to assure themselves genetic immortality. Every thinking person must face the following dilemma: "How can I achieve liberation from genetic pitfalls when my values and thinking are so profoundly influenced by the very same genes that have created those pitfalls?" The more one tries to answer this question the harder it is to imagine that an answer is possible. Nevertheless, this is a challenge that can become irresistibly fascinating. This book is an attempt to bravely explore one of Humanity's most profound existential dilemmas. The fate of a civilization is also affected by the "outlaw genes," especially those responsible for a feeling of discontent with civilization and a vague preference for a simpler society, which I would describe as resembling those found in the human ancestral environment. This book explores how a flawed human nature undermines every civilization, starting a decline and eventual fall. Those of us born during the 20th Century are lucky for having seen the best of times for our civilization, and as a questionable bonus we may now witness from close-up the forces that have condemned every past civilization to ruin.

Genetic Enslavement

Genetic Enslavement PDF Author: Bruce L. Gary
Publisher: Bruce L Gary
ISBN: 0979844606
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Get Book Here

Book Description
Every living thing is assembled by its genes. This is a crucial starting point for exploring a fundamental human dilemma. As stated so starkly by Richard Dawkins, a human is "a lumbering machine, created for the task of safeguarding and propagating the all-important genes within." I would add that since the machine's behavior is driven by brain circuits pre-wired by those genes, sometimes we are prone to doing things which work against our individual best interest in order to advance the cause of the genes. In other words, some of our genes are our enemies ("outlaw genes") because they jeopardize individual well¬being as they work to assure themselves genetic immortality. Every thinking person must face the following dilemma: "How can I achieve liberation from genetic pitfalls when my values and thinking are so profoundly influenced by the very same genes that have created those pitfalls?" The more one tries to answer this question the harder it is to imagine that an answer is possible. Nevertheless, this is a challenge that can become irresistibly fascinating. This book is an attempt to bravely explore one of Humanity's most profound existential dilemmas. The fate of a civilization is also affected by the "outlaw genes," especially those responsible for a feeling of discontent with civilization and a vague preference for a simpler society, which I would describe as resembling those found in the human ancestral environment. This book explores how a flawed human nature undermines every civilization, starting a decline and eventual fall. Those of us born during the 20th Century are lucky for having seen the best of times for our civilization, and as a questionable bonus we may now witness from close-up the forces that have condemned every past civilization to ruin.

The Cooking Gene

The Cooking Gene PDF Author: Michael W. Twitty
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062876570
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year | 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner inWriting | Nominee for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction | #75 on The Root100 2018 A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep—the power that food has to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together. Illustrations by Stephen Crotts

Are We Slaves to our Genes?

Are We Slaves to our Genes? PDF Author: Denis R. Alexander
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108426336
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Genetic differences can influence differences in our human behaviours, but only occasionally undermine the reality of our free will.

Are We Slaves to our Genes?

Are We Slaves to our Genes? PDF Author: Denis R. Alexander
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110866444X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
There is a common misconception that our genomes - all unique, except for those in identical twins - have the upper hand in controlling our destiny. The latest genetic discoveries, however, do not support that view. Although genetic variation does influence differences in various human behaviours to a greater or lesser degree, most of the time this does not undermine our genuine free will. Genetic determinism comes into play only in various medical conditions, notably some psychiatric syndromes. Denis Alexander here demonstrates that we are not slaves to our genes. He shows how a predisposition to behave in certain ways is influenced at a molecular level by particular genes. Yet a far greater influence on our behaviours is our world-views that lie beyond science - and that have an impact on how we think the latest genetic discoveries should, or should not, be applied. Written in an engaging style, Alexander's book offers tools for understanding and assessing the latest genetic discoveries critically.

The Social Life of DNA

The Social Life of DNA PDF Author: Alondra Nelson
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807033014
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
The unexpected story of how genetic testing is affecting race in America We know DNA is a master key that unlocks medical and forensic secrets, but its genealogical life is both revelatory and endlessly fascinating. Tracing genealogy is now the second-most popular hobby amongst Americans, as well as the second-most visited online category. This billion-dollar industry has spawned popular television shows, websites, and Internet communities, and a booming heritage tourism circuit. The tsunami of interest in genetic ancestry tracing from the African American community has been especially overwhelming. In The Social Life of DNA, Alondra Nelson takes us on an unprecedented journey into how the double helix has wound its way into the heart of the most urgent contemporary social issues around race. For over a decade, Nelson has deeply studied this phenomenon. Artfully weaving together keenly observed interactions with root-seekers alongside illuminating historical details and revealing personal narrative, she shows that genetic genealogy is a new tool for addressing old and enduring issues. In The Social Life of DNA, she explains how these cutting-edge DNA-based techniques are being used in myriad ways, including grappling with the unfinished business of slavery: to foster reconciliation, to establish ties with African ancestral homelands, to rethink and sometimes alter citizenship, and to make legal claims for slavery reparations specifically based on ancestry. Nelson incisively shows that DNA is a portal to the past that yields insight for the present and future, shining a light on social traumas and historical injustices that still resonate today. Science can be a crucial ally to activism to spur social change and transform twenty-first-century racial politics. But Nelson warns her readers to be discerning: for the social repair we seek can't be found in even the most sophisticated science. Engrossing and highly original, The Social Life of DNA is a must-read for anyone interested in race, science, history and how our reckoning with the past may help us to chart a more just course for tomorrow.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome PDF Author: Joy DeGruy
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062692674
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From acclaimed author and researcher Dr. Joy DeGruy comes this fascinating book that explores the psychological and emotional impact on African Americans after enduring the horrific Middle Passage, over 300 years of slavery, followed by continued discrimination. From the beginning of American chattel slavery in the 1500’s, until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse. Given such history, Dr. Joy DeGruy asked the question, “Isn’t it likely those enslaved were severely traumatized? Furthermore, did the trauma and the effects of such horrific abuse end with the abolition of slavery?” Emancipation was followed by another hundred years of institutionalized subjugation through the enactment of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, peonage and convict leasing, and domestic terrorism and lynching. Today the violations continue, and when combined with the crimes of the past, they result in further unmeasured injury. What do repeated traumas visited upon generation after generation of a people produce? What are the impacts of the ordeals associated with chattel slavery, and with the institutions that followed, on African Americans today? Dr. DeGruy answers these questions and more as she encourages African Americans to view their attitudes, assumptions, and emotions through the lens of history. By doing so, she argues they will gain a greater understanding of the impact centuries of slavery and oppression has had on African Americans. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is an important read for all Americans, as the institution of slavery has had an impact on every race and culture. “A masterwork. [DeGruy’s] deep understanding, critical analysis, and determination to illuminate core truths are essential to addressing the long-lived devastation of slavery. Her book is the balm we need to heal ourselves and our relationships. It is a gift of wholeness.”—Susan Taylor, former Editorial Director of Essence magazine

The Mark of Slavery

The Mark of Slavery PDF Author: Jenifer L. Barclay
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252052617
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Exploring the disability history of slavery Time and again, antebellum Americans justified slavery and white supremacy by linking blackness to disability, defectiveness, and dependency. Jenifer L. Barclay examines the ubiquitous narratives that depicted black people with disabilities as pitiable, monstrous, or comical, narratives used not only to defend slavery but argue against it. As she shows, this relationship between ableism and racism impacted racial identities during the antebellum period and played an overlooked role in shaping American history afterward. Barclay also illuminates the everyday lives of the ten percent of enslaved people who lived with disabilities. Devalued by slaveholders as unsound and therefore worthless, these individuals nonetheless carved out an unusual autonomy. Their roles as caregivers, healers, and keepers of memory made them esteemed within their own communities and celebrated figures in song and folklore. Prescient in its analysis and rich in detail, The Mark of Slavery is a powerful addition to the intertwined histories of disability, slavery, and race.

Slavery and Freedom

Slavery and Freedom PDF Author: James Oakes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393317664
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Looking at the relationship between slavery and capitalism in 19th-century America, 'Slavery and Freedom' describes how slave resistance affected American politics.

Capitalism and Slavery

Capitalism and Slavery PDF Author: Eric Williams
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469619490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide. Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. Years ahead of its time, his profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development. Binding an economic view of history with strong moral argument, Williams's study of the role of slavery in financing the Industrial Revolution refuted traditional ideas of economic and moral progress and firmly established the centrality of the African slave trade in European economic development. He also showed that mature industrial capitalism in turn helped destroy the slave system. Establishing the exploitation of commercial capitalism and its link to racial attitudes, Williams employed a historicist vision that set the tone for future studies. In a new introduction, Colin Palmer assesses the lasting impact of Williams's groundbreaking work and analyzes the heated scholarly debates it generated when it first appeared.

Heredity and Hope

Heredity and Hope PDF Author: Ruth Schwartz COWAN
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029925
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Neither minimizing the difficulty of the choices that modern genetics has created for us nor fearing them, Cowan argues that we can improve the quality of our own lives and the lives of our children by using the modern science and technology of genetic screening responsibly.