Blood groups between transfusion testing, population genetics and anthropology: Arthur Mourant and human diversity in postwar Britain (360G-Wellcome-089652_Z_09_Z)

£80,532

To provide a context for Mourant's career, I will begin by examining the pre- and interwar context of blood-group research, in particular the links forged between clinically driven blood-group research, anthropology and population genetics in Britain, by focusing on the Galton Laboratory Serum Unit. I will then study the funding, remit, and activities of Mourant's Blood Group Reference Laboratory (BGRL), Nuffield (Anthropological) Blood Group Centre and Serological Population Genetics Laboratory (SPGL). I will examine how these activities related to his anthropological projects and explore the extent to which the more theoretical work depended on, and was justified by, his clinically oriented testing. Building on previous analyses of the representational techniques of early blood-group anthropologists, I will examine how Mourant, and the field of physical anthropology more generally, responded to new population genetic definitions of race, as formalized especially by the 1951 revised UNESCO Statement on Race, and how this affected the politics of Mourant's disciplines. I will examine how Mourant's project was received by different audiences - clinicians, geneticists, anthropologistsand the general public. Explaining the fate of his laboratory will cast light on the changing status of blood-group research.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 80532
Applicant Surname Bangham
Approval Committee Medical History and Humanities Funding Committee
Award Date 2009-06-11T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2008/09
Grant Programme: Title PhD Studentship in H&SS
Internal ID 089652/Z/09/Z
Lead Applicant Dr Jenny Bangham
Partnership Value 80532
Planned Dates: End Date 2012-09-30T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2009-10-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region East of England
Sponsor(s) Prof Nick Hopwood