Premium
From “new genetics” to everyday knowledge: Ideas about how genetic diseases are transmitted in two large Brazilian families
Author(s) -
Santos Silvana,
Bizzo Nelio
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/sce.20062
Subject(s) - hereditary spastic paraplegia , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , narrative , genetic counseling , genetics , biology , linguistics , philosophy , gene , phenotype
This study focuses on everyday or lay understandings of inheritance. In the northeastern Brazil, 100 individuals were interviewed in order to describe how they explain the origin of genetic disorders affecting their relatives for several generations. There were involved 60 individuals from a large consanguineous family with many members affected with a neurodegenerative disorder, SPOAN syndrome (spastic paraplegia, optic atrophy and neuropathy), and 40 individuals of another family living with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The results indicate that families here studied have built narratives to explain the origin of genetic diseases, saying that an ancestor infected with syphilis gave rise to disorders and birthmarks transmitted to descendents. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed , 89: 564–576, 2005