A question of blood, race, and politics

This article explores the political and intellectual context of a controversy arising from a proposal made at the 1959 meetings of the American Society of Blood Banks to divide the blood supply by race. The authors, a group of blood-bankers and surgeons in New York, outlined difficulties in finding compatible blood for transfusion during open-heart surgery, which they attributed to prior sensitization of their patient, a Caucasian, by a previous transfusion from an African American donor. Examining the statistical distribution of blood-group antigens among the various races, they concluded that risk of adverse hemolytic reactions and the cost of testing could be reduced by establishing separate donor pools. The media reported the suggestion, which, given the political climate of the day, rapidly became a public issue involving geneticists, blood-bankers, physical anthropologists, and the African American medical community. Liberals condemned it, whereas eugenically inclined segregationists used the finding to support their views concerning evolutionary distance between the races and the dangers of miscegenation. Here we examine the contribution of comparative racial serology to this affair, the arguments and background of the main players, and the relevance of the debate to discussions about the role of "race" in post-genomic medicine.     

ENCOUNTERING INDIGENEITY: RE-IMAGINING AND DECOLONIZING GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT. In an era of postcolonialism and postcolonization, Indigenous struggles continue. Within 'settler societies' issues of dispossession—particularly of lands—remain largely unresolved. As part of the discipline of geography's active movement away from its colonizing project, this introduction to this special edition of Geografiska Annaler B seeks to (re)focus a disciplinary lens, and (re)open a dialogue—and potential research trajectory - about 'indigenous geographies'. As the papers in this special issue demonstrate, new cultural geographies have begun a process of re-engagement with issues of indigeniety through careful, sensitive, inclusive, representative and emancipatory research projects.     

A 6000 Year‐old Fossil Dugong from Botany Bay: Inferences about Changes in Sydney's Climate,Sea Levels and Waterways

The excavation in the 1890s of a skeleton of the warm‐water marine mammal Dugong dugon, associated with Aboriginal artefacts, from a Botany Bay salt marsh, marked the beginning of speculation about climate and sea level change in Australia over the period of human occupation. The dugong bones have recently been dated, giving a conventional ¹⁴C age of 5520±70 years BP, which is consistent with three older ¹⁴C dates for a layer of buried trees that underlies much of the north Botany sediments. The carefully drawn cross‐sections of depositional strata produced by the original discoverers allow further interpretation of the pattern of Holocene sea‐level fluctuations in the Sydney region. Layers of estuarine sediment, such as the one containing the dugong skeleton, are inter‐bedded with peat layers containing in situ roots and stumps, suggesting that the site alternated between sub‐aerial exposure and submergence throughout the Holocene. The presence of the dugong is suggestive of warmer conditions, and its inland location indicates a more extensive Botany Bay in the recent past. This is in agreement with other work from southern New South Wales describing both warm‐water marine species and higher sea levels several thousand years ago.

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HOUSING RENOVATION BY RECENT MOVERS INTO THE CORE NEIGHBOURHOODS OF SASKATOON

One hundred and eighty-five homeowning households who had moved into core neighbourhoods during 1975–80 were surveyed about their completed and planned interior and exterior home renovations. It was found that expenditures of less than $500 for cosmetic and minor repairs to the interior and exterior predominate. Discriminant analyses of subgroups of 'no' maintainer, normal maintainer, and large-scale renovator households identify financial constraints as the primary hindrance to renovating. Policy implications of the low levels of home renovation in these inner-city neighbourhoods are discussed.
Cent quatre-vingt cinq ménages propriétaries de maison ayant emmnagé dans les quartiers du centre-ville au cours de la période 1975–80 furent interrogs au sujet de leurs rénovations intérieures et extérieures, achevées et en projet. Les résultats montrent que les dépenses de moins de $500 pour réparations mineures et d'ordre esthétique prédominent. L'étude, effectuée a l'aide d'analyses discriminantes, de sous-groupes comprenant respectivement, des ménages qui ne pratiquent aucun entretien, ceux qui pratiquent un entretien normal, et ceux qui effectuent des rénovations majeures, identifie les constraintes financières comme etant l'obstacle le plus important pour la rénovation. Les implications des deux niveaux de rénovation résidentielle pour les politiques de planification urbaine sont discutées.