Methodology and geneticist's responsibility facing sociological aspects and specificities of a multiethnic society: The case of Reunion Island (Indian Ocean)
Résumé
Reunion Island, a French 'département' located in the Indian Ocean, is a multiethnic and multicultural society. Through a process of creolisation, it was shaped by biological and cultural contributions from Africa, Madagascar, Europe, and Asia (mainly India and China).The events involved in its settlement are highly documented by historical, archival, and genealogical sources and studies. Thus, concerning population genetics, this population appears to be a favourable field in order to study the formation processes of a population stemming from numerous admixtures. Nevertheless, through the example of Reunion, we show in this paper how it is important to take into consideration the ethno-social context of a multiethnic society, when one wants to study its shaping processes. The anthropologist has to take into account numerous sociological elements, such as folk knowledge and representations about DNA or race, and the socioeconomic context of the society formation. Indeed, the anthropologist has to reduce the potential gap between folk culture and scientific knowledge to be able to explain his aims and the methods he uses. In this way, the anthropologist will minimise the negative impact his work might have on the studied population. Lastly, in order to make the methodology more suited to the local specificities, we also show how the molecular anthropologist has to consider the cognitive anthropological and sociological studies dealing with the inquired population.
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