Language used by researchers to describe human populations has evolved
over the last 70 years

Date:
December 2, 2021
Source:
NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
Summary:
Researchers have found that the words that scientists use to
describe human populations -- such as race, ancestry, and ethnicity
- - significantly changed from 1949 to 2018. Such changes and their
timing, along with new descriptors for certain population groups,
may be linked to structural racism, social trends, and how people
view social constructs such as race.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== National Institutes of Health researchers have found that the words that scientists use to describe human populations -- such as race, ancestry,
and ethnicity -- significantly changed from 1949 to 2018. Such changes and their timing, along with new descriptors for certain population groups,
may be linked to structural racism, social trends, and how people view
social constructs such as race.


==========================================================================
The study results show that the term "race" is now used less on its own
but is used more when paired with "ethnicity." In addition, the use of "ancestry" and "ethnicity" also has increased. The survey, which was
led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute
(NHGRI), part of NIH, was published today in the American Journal of
Human Genetics.

For the field of genetics, the question of what makes a population is
a fundamental one. Accurately describing human diversity has a direct
impact on our understanding of genomic variation among people, and in
turn, how such variation influences our health. Historically, scientists
have often incorrectly conceptualized races as distinct biological groups, which has led to health inequities and supported scientific racism.

Many scientists rightly reject the idea of racial and ethnic categories
as biological units. Now, in the field of genomics, ancestry, ethnicity
and race are used as inexact proxies for genomic ancestry. But scientists
still disagree on how these terms should be used and understood.

"Given how ubiquitous these terms are, we wanted to empirically study
the historical use of these concepts in the context of genetics and
genomics research," said Vence Bonham Jr., J.D., senior author on the
study and acting deputy director of NHGRI.

Specifically, the researchers studied the usage of population terms
in the 70- year publication history of the American Journal of Human
Genetics, whichis the longest continuously published journal in the
field of human genetics. They searched the text of journal articles to
identify when "ancestry," "ethnicity," "race" and other related words
began to be used, whether they appeared together, and which terms were
slowly used less frequently. Of the 11,635 papers analyzed in the study,
11,360 were research articles, with the rest being award speeches and
other communications.



========================================================================== Zhiyong Lu, Ph.D., co-author and a senior investigator in the Intramural Research Program at the National Library of Medicine noted that the use
of simple natural language processing programs and robust statistical
tests allowed them to analyze tens of thousands of pages easily and find associations between words.

The study's results show that the term "race" appeared in 22% of
articles between 1949-58, and declined to 5% between 2009-18; however,
in recent years, the term shows up more often when used along with
"ethnicity." Conversely, the overall use of "ethnicity" and "ancestry"
has increased over time.

Geographic-based terms like "African," "Asian" and "European" are also
on the rise. "Hispanic" and "Latina/o/x" were introduced in the journal
in 1980 and 1996, respectively.

Of note, descriptors that the authors consider to have negative
connotations classically associated with the notion of biological race
have declined over the past several decades.

"Some of these shifts could be due to researchers becoming more cognizant
of or responsive to the historical and current debates regarding using
race in genetics," said Yen Ji Julia Byeon, first author of the study and
a doctoral student at Princeton University. "We need ongoing critical reflection as the terminology and concepts used to study human genetic variation continue to shift." The researchers note that the survey only reveals the quantity of the use of their pre-selected terms rather than
the quality. They also acknowledge the limitations of the study given
that it was performed on papers in only one journal.

"Future studies can dig deeper into how labels for populations continue
to evolve," said Lawrence Brody, Ph.D., co-senior author on the study
and director of the NHGRI Division of Genomics and Society. "The
goal is to acknowledge our troubled history with race and build
better genomics tools to accurately describe human genomic variation." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by NIH/National_Human_Genome_Research_Institute. Original written by Prabarna Ganguly, Ph.D.. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Yen Ji Julia Byeon, Rezarta Islamaj, Lana Yeganova, W. John Wilbur,
Zhiyong Lu, Lawrence C. Brody, Vence L. Bonham. Evolving use
of ancestry, ethnicity, and race in genetics research--A survey
spanning seven decades. The American Journal of Human Genetics,
2021; 108 (12): 2215 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.10.008 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211202123017.htm

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