Rethinking the ' Prejudice of Mark ' : Concepts of Race , Ancestry , and Genetics among Brazilian DNA Test-Takers

Sociological accounts usually emphasise the primacy of phenotype (cor, colour) over ancestry for orienting concepts of ‘race’ in Brazil. In this paper, I present an alternative account of the cultural and political significance of ancestry in contemporary Brazil, drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with 50 Brazilians who had recently taken personalised DNA ancestry tests. The interviewees’ attitudes towards their ancestry are interpreted in relation to Brazil’s longstanding national myth of mestiçagem and the history of eugenic Whitening ideologies (ideologias do branqueamento) that have sought to erase traces of Brazil’s African origins. However, they are also interpreted also against the backdrop of contemporary Black Movement activism that aims to actively recovering AfroBrazilian histories and memories from these processes of erasure.

ABSTRACT: Sociological accounts usually emphasise the primacy of phenotype (cor, colour) over ancestry for orienting concepts of 'race' in Brazil. In this paper, I present an alternative account of the cultural and political significance of ancestry in contemporary Brazil, drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with 50 Brazilians who had recently taken personalised DNA ancestry tests. The interviewees' attitudes towards their ancestry are interpreted in relation to Brazil's longstanding national myth of mestiçagem and the history of eugenic Whitening ideologies (ideologias do branqueamento) that have sought to erase traces of Brazil's African origins. However, they are also interpreted also against the backdrop of contemporary Black Movement activism that aims to actively recovering Afro-Brazilian histories and memories from these processes of erasure. emphasise the disparity between common-sense notions of 'race', on the one hand, and the 'truth' presented by genetic science, on the other. 4 In Somos Brasil, however, there was very little commentary on the possible links between DNA ancestry and personal identity. On the contrary, the exhibition seemed to imply that Brazilians were unconcerned with their ancestry (genetic or otherwise). For example, the curator's note for the portrait of Josicleide do Nascimento de Oliveira and her young daughter Maria Auxiliadora related the family story that Josicleide's great-grandmother, as a child, was carried out of the forest by dogs, and brought up in the quilombo of Conceição das Crioulas, underrepresentation of certain groups or regions); and the methods used to decide whose DNA will be used to represent a given population (these issues also apply to uniparental analyses). Generally, the reference samples used for admixture testing are taken from individuals whose four grandparents were all born into the same group or locality, and whose recent ancestry is therefore considered relatively  (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2017), 34. 17 Hence, we share roughly 25% of our DNA with each biological grandparent; 12.5% with each greatgrandparent, 6.25% with each great-great-grandparent; 3.125% with each great-great-greatgrandparent, and so on. 18 One way of getting around this problem is to compare the DNA of several people who are known to descend biologically from the same ancestor. Since genetic recombination is random, biological siblings (except for monozygotic twins) all receive a slightly different mix of DNA from their parents, so collectively their genomes may be used to reconstruct a larger proportion of a given ancestor's DNA. comparisons between contemporary populations, they are not able to give a truly historical account of our ancestry. In the words of biological anthropologist contemporary uses of DNA data provide evidence of new biosocial practices in which genetic information is being incorporated strategically into social processes of identity construction. 26 These technologies may be changing the way societies think of race and ethnicity and the links between identity and the body; alternatively, they may be shedding light on, or reactivating the biological imaginaries that have long been subsumed within these concepts. 27 Before going on to examine these claims in relation to my own research with Brazilian DNA testtakers, in the next section I give an overview of the socio-political uses and scientific debates surrounding these technologies in Brazil over the past two decades.

Genetic imaginaries of race, national identity, and African ancestry in Brazil
Brazil has long been a site of key interest for studies in human population genetics due to its well-known history of mixture among diverse groups. In recent years, social science studies have focused in particular on how genetic population studies and personalised DNA ancestry data have been mobilised in relation to the introduction of racially targeted affirmative action initiatives at public universities. 30 Throughout the 2000s, some Brazilian geneticists participated prominently in the debates, penning scientific articles and public commentaries, and even acting as expert witnesses in legal cases relating to the university quotas. 31 Their arguments -which in particular underlined the extensive admixture characterising the nation, so that most phenotypically White Brazilians could be considered genetically Afro-descendant, while many phenotypically Black Brazilians are likely to have a large proportion of European genomic ancestry -were adopted frequently by opponents of the university quotas, including in a manifesto delivered to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, which argued that the policies should be ruled unconstitutional due to their racial character. 32 Quotas that relied on dividing the country into distinct racial groups, the signatories implied, were at odds with both Brazil's republican constitution, and its very genetic make-up.
These polemical public representations of genetic ancestry data have made some Afro-Brazilians -in particular activists associated with the Black Movementswary of DNA testing as a tool for shedding light on their personal ancestry and identity. 33  given DNA ancestry tests and then interviewed in groups upon receiving their results. 46 The study produced a number of findings: 1) none of the students claimed a priori to be 100% descended from a particular continental group (European/African/Amerindian), but rather described themselves as 'racially' mixed, to varying degrees; 2) students' genomic results typically diverged from their perceived ancestry (which was assessed using questionnaires before taking the DNA test), so that levels of European genomic ancestry tended to be higher than predicted for members of all three 'colour' groups -something that many found surprising and disconcerting; 3) most students said their ancestry predictions were based primarily on their phenotype (for instance rather than extensive family history knowledge); 4) the students agreed almost unanimously that DNA tests would not  and so the authors consider whether detection of the sickle-cell allele may be interpreted by patients as a marker for racial Blackness, regardless of the person's colour. Instead, they note, 'o que nossa pesquisa aponta é um quadro mais complexo onde ideias prévias sobre "raça", ancestralidade e Nação influenciam a interpretação dos discursos sobre "raça" e políticas de ação afirmativa (do âmbito da educação ou da saúde) e são, por sua vez, influenciadas por estes)'. 50 In my analysis, I take a similar approach to that of Calvo-González and Rocha, seeking to understand how test-takers' narratives of ancestry, race, and colour are influenced by scientific, political, and activist discourses (both historical and contemporary) as well as national myths of Brazilian identity. As I mentioned earlier, I also pay attention to the degree of 'truth' and 'authenticity' that test-takers attribute to their DNA ancestry reports, relative to other sources of ancestral knowledge (e.g. family histories, phenotype, etc.), as a way of analysing the ontological status that these individuals attribute to the concept of 'race'. to the actual results. In particular, participants were asked about how they interpreted the results in relation to their own identity and ancestry, and whether they felt they bore any significance for discerning a person's 'race'.

My analysis is based primarily on qualitative interview data, collected from
While the recruitment email specified that the study was oriented toward test- phase, and was therefore able to compare these data with the post-testing responses gathered in my interviews. In addition, I analysed 320 responses to a follow-up questionnaire sent round to all Brazilian participants of the CANDELA project (1,600 in total), which asked volunteers about their reactions to their DNA ancestry results.

Study findings
Before taking their DNA test, many of the CANDELA volunteers signalled that they saw genetics as potentially significant for informing their sense of racial identity.
In the pre-test questionnaires they filled out for the CANDELA project, most of the volunteers ranked 'saber sobre meus antepassados', and 'sabe mais sobre minhas raízes' as the primary reasons for their interest in DNA testing, followed closely by 'saber mais sobre minha identidade'. As part of the questionnaire, participants were asked to estimate their genomic ancestry proportions (divided into African, European, and Indigenous categories), and explain the basis for their predictions.
Only 10 of the 50 interviewees mentioned 'family stories' or 'genealogy' as the basis for these estimates, whereas 30 referred to their own 'colour' or 'appearance,' or those of their relatives. One of the trends discovered by the CANDELA project was that a majority of participants had higher levels of European genomic ancestry than they predicted, and lower levels of African and Indigenous ancestry than they expected -an effect explained elsewhere by geneticists as a result of 19 th and 20 th century immigration policies designed to racially Whiten the Brazilian population. 54 Since many of the CANDELA volunteers used skin colour as a proxy for estimating their genomic ancestry, this meant that those who identified with darker colour categories were more likely to receive a result that diverged strongly from their expectations. Indeed, after receiving their DNA report, two thirds (32) of the interviewees stated that the results differed from their expectations regarding their ancestry.
This was the case for Sâmela, 55 a student at the UESB, who was taken aback by her percentage of European ancestry (55%, rather than her predicted 0-20%).
She arrived at our interview wearing a bracelet in the colours of the Pan-African flag, and explained that she saw her Black identity as a political statement: a recognition então antigamente eu achava assim, ignorante. Agora com o conhecimento do projeto eu me identifiquei como da raça negra porque tenho origem e parda é tipo assim como se você for camuflar a realidade, eu acho'. In Eduina's affirmation we can perceive a dichotomy between 'colour' and 'race', with the former regarded as an agent of the Whitening ideology, working to obstruct perceptions of Brazilians' 'real' (i.e. genetic) racial affiliations.
Eduina was one of five interviewees who affirmed that DNA testing would be a good measure for determining who should benefit from the quotas. Notions of race seem to congeal around the question of quotas. The selection procedures for racially-targeted affirmative action initiatives require candidates to declare their race as a coherent, stable identity, in contradiction to how many Brazilians perceive their racial identities -as subjective, relational and contextdependent. If some of the CANDELA participants held the a priori belief that DNA analysis could offer an objective account of their 'race', the experience of comparing their personal DNA results with their self-described 'colour' often reinforced the impression of race in Brazil as something complex and multifaceted, rather than solid and self-evident.
Faced with the disparity between their DNA report and their perceived colour, Brazil's historical Whitening ideology, five participants asked for more information on the origins of their European ancestry, in comparison to just one who inquired about the origins of their African ancestry (no one made a similar request regarding their Indigenous ancestry).
Finally, in recent studies Brazilian geneticists have provided evidence that the selection of AIMs used for genomic ancestry analyses can affect the level of correspondence between individuals' continental genomic ancestry composition, their colour, and self-ascribed racial identity. 67 Since a majority of volunteers regarded their phenotype as their primary guide for estimating their ancestry, adjusting this variable could have a significant impact on test-takers' attitudes towards their results. This could include their ideas about the pertinence of DNA tests for orienting notions of personal identity and family history, and the perceived relevance of these technologies for the administration of affirmative action policies, an issue that continues to be polemical today.

Concluding remarks
I began this piece by describing a recent art installation, Somos Brasil, created by the British-born artist Marcus Lyon. In a TEDx talk, Lyon (who is married to a Brazilian woman and has two 'Brazinglish' children) said that he was inspired to do the project after being struck by the fact that -unlike in North America, where everyone has an ethnic identity as well as an American identity -Brazilians seemed content to be 'just' Brazilian. This was no doubt, he stated, a consequence of the country's 'all-encompassing culture'. Indeed, Brazil's national myth of mestiçagem has long been vaunted internationally as a formula for 'racial democracy', in comparison to North American and South African racial regimes based on de jure segregation.
These claims have been progressively challenged, however, by Black activists and social scientists who have shown how the myth of mestiçagem has worked to conceal entrenched social inequalities and patterns of symbolic and physical violence that remain rooted in the racialised power relations of slavery and colonialism. 68 Studies have shown that the logic of racial Whitening continues to be active in Brazilians' choices of marriage partners, their relationships with lighter-and darker-skinned relatives, and the selective ways in which they remember (or forget) certain ancestors. 69 Far from a disinterest in family history, all of this points to an ongoing preoccupation with the management of one's ancestry.
In recent decades Afro-Brazilian activists and cultural associations have been working to recuperate and reconstruct the country's Black and African histories, to counteract this Whitening ideology. 70 In the near future, it is possible that commercial DNA ancestry testing may be adopted by Afro-Brazilians (among others) to try to gain insights into their personal histories beyond what has been preserved by traditional records and living memory. Although the industry has been slow to gather momentum in Brazil (and importing tests from abroad can be prohibitively expensive), in recent years a handful of companies have begun to offer DNA ancestry services, sometimes partnering with commercial labs in the US to make the process more economically viable. The São Paulo-based company Genera, run by medical geneticist Ricardo Di Lazzaro, published a blog post in early 2020 stating that consumer demand for DNA ancestry tests rose dramatically in Brazil in 2019, a phenomenon probably linked to increased media interest and the falling price of DNA analyses. 71 In other post-slavery societies, genetic and genealogical techniques have been used by activists, scholars and citizens to uncover family histories rooted in slavery. 72 Doing so fruitfully requires mixed approaches, drawing on oral histories and archives to support clues from the genetic data, which must be evaluated critically with a keen understanding of the potential and limitations of this information.
Moreover, while companies like Genera and its main competitor MeuDNA (a filial of the São Paulo-based biotech company Mendelics) claim to be 'democratising' DNA ancestry testing in Brazil, 73 it should be borne in mind that ancestry remains a deeply political and contested subject, and as a result the spread of low-cost tipológicas de raça. Ao mesmo tempo, os argumentos genéticos constituem uma das linhas de frente dos questionamentos da noção de raça em sua acepção biológica, com desdobramentos importantes sobre as políticas de identidade. 74