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“With the children of the Moon”: Newton Freire-Maia study on albinism and its public repercussions in Brazil
Mon, July 13, 4:15 to 5:45pm, EICC, Floor: Level -2, Lennox 2English Abstract
The field of human population genetics emerged in Brazil in the mid-1950s, thanks to transnational scientific investment in the study of 'populations of special interest' – namely, ‘primitive’, ‘isolated’ and ‘admixed’ populations. Brazil was thus internationally recognized as the perfect laboratory for these studies, due not only to its racially diverse population, but also to its isolated indigenous groups and endogamous communities. The presentation focuses on a genetic investigation into an alleged human isolate in Brazil, a case that received a sensationalist media attention in Brazil at the time. Newspapers and magazines reported it as a Brazilian scientific breakthrough. Newton Freire-Maia was a pioneering human geneticist whose studies of inbreeding and its genetic effects were instrumental in the field in this period. He even created a map showing the extent of inbreeding within the Brazilian population. In the 1970s, he worked as a genetic researcher for the World Health Organization (WHO), studying an isolated group living on a small island in the state of Maranhão (Ilha dos Lençois ou do Valha-me Deus), who had a high percentage of an unknown type of albinism (piebaldism), which was then popularly known as the "Plague of Valha-me Deus", and its carriers as the "Children of the Moon". Freire-Maia's research team spent a 10-day field expedition on the island, carrying out various medical and scientific tests, including genealogical reconstructions and cytogenetic examinations. Freire-Maia used this special case to speculate on genetic theory. He immediately concluded that the disease resulted from a 'genetic oscillation' caused by genetic drift, and contended that in such an isolated, small population, albinism genes were neutral rather than deleterious, and that the fate of the 'children of the moon' should be seen as a random occurrence in human evolution rather than as genetic degeneration.