RichardA.

Lynch2014
ISSN:18325203
FoucaultStudies,No.18,pp.128130,October2014

TRANSLATION

Biohistoryandbiopolitics1
MichelFoucault

Underreview:JacquesRuffi,Delabiologielaculture[Frombiologytoculture](Paris:Flam
marion,1976).
Experience has taught us to be wary of grand monumental syntheses that take us from the
infinitesimal point of the molecule all the way to human societies, traversing at a gallop the
entirehistoryoflifeacrossthousandsofmillennia.Thisphilosophyofnature,whichevolu
tionismonceproducedinabundance,oftenbringsouttheworst.Thatambitioniscompletely
foreign to Jacques Ruffis book. It avoids the chastisements that such ambition ordinarily
merits, because the author has a perfect mastery of the immense domain that he addresses,
andespeciallybecause,insteadoftakingwhatheknowsasapretexttosaywhathethinks,on
thecontrary,heinterrogateswhatwethinkonthebasisofwhatheknows.
Iwilltakeonlyoneexample:whatbiologyhastosaytodayabouthumanraces.Itis
doubtlessonthispointthatJacquesRuffismethodandaccomplishmentsaremostapparent,
sinceheisoneofthemosteminentrepresentativesofthenewphysicalanthropology.Andit
is here, aswell,that a rigorous scientificknowledge can have an immediatepolitical signifi
cance in an age when the repetitive, global condemnation of racism, combined with a toler
anceinactualfact,permitsthemaintenanceofsegregationistpracticesandofinsidiousscien
tific endeavors like those of [Arthur] Jensen2 or the shameful UN resolution on Zionism.3
Ratherthanarhetoricwhoseindignationssheltersomanycomplicities,afilteringoftheprob
lemofracesinscientifictermsisindispensable.
Translator:ThisessaywasfirstpublishedinLeMonde,no.9869(1718October,1976),5,andistranslated
fromDitsetEcrits,Gallimard1994(no.179,volIII,pp.9597).ItappearsinEnglishforthefirsttimehere,
withthepermissionofditionsGallimard.ThearticleistranslatedforFoucaultStudiesbyRichardA.Lynch
(DePauwUniversity,USA).ThetranslationofthistextwassupportedbyagrantfromtheUniversityofSan
Francisco;mythanksalsotoJeffreyParis,EduardoMendieta,andKevinThompson.
2Translator:ArthurR.Jensenarguedinthelate1960sandearly1970sthatIQwaslargelygeneticallydeter
mined,andthatBlackswerethereforeintellectuallyinferiortoWhites.RuffidiscussesJenseninachapter
entitledBlackracismandslavery(byBlackracismhemeansracismagainstBlacks);Rufficitesseveral
studiesthatrefuteJensensconclusions(cf.Ruffi,436438).
3Translator:UnitedNationsGeneralAssemblyResolution3379(November10,1975)declaredZionismtobe
aformofracismandracialdiscrimination.ItwasrevokedonDecember16,1991,byUnitedNationsGen
eralAssemblyResolution4686.
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FoucaultStudies,No.18,pp.128130.

OutofthemanypagesthatRuffidevotestotheproblemofhumanraces,Ithinkwemust
retainseveralfundamentalpropositions:
just as a species cannot be defined by a prototype but by an ensemble of variations,
race,forthebiologist,isastatisticalnotionapopulation;
thegeneticpolymorphismofapopulationdoesnotconstituteadecline;itisbiological
lyuseful,whereaspurityistheresultofprocesses,oftenartificial,thatweakenadap
tationandmakeitmoredifficult;
apopulationcannotbedefinedaccordingtoitsapparentmorphologicalcharacteristics.
Ontheotherhand,molecularbiologyhasmadeitpossibletoidentifythefactorsupon
which the immunological structure and the enzymatic equipment of cells depend
characteristicswhoseconditioningisrigorouslygenetic.(Becauseitiseasiertostudy
theminbloodcells,theyarecalled,alittleimproperly,bloodmarkers.)
Briefly,bloodmarkersarefortheproblemofracestodaywhatsexualcharacteristicswere
forspeciesinCarlLinnaeusera.Exceptthatforalongtimethesexualtypologywasableto
establish the great botanic classifications, whereas the hematotypology now authorizes the
dissolutionoftheideaofhumanrace.Withawholeseriesofsupportingevidencefrompre
history and paleontology, it can be established that there never were races in the human
species;butattheverymostaprocessofraciation,tiedtotheexistenceofcertainisolated
groups.Thisprocess,farfromhavingsucceeded,reverseditselfbeginningwiththeNeolithic
era and, through the effect of migrations, displacements, exchanges, and diverse intermin
glings,itwassucceededbyaconstantderaciation.Wemustconceiveofahumanitynotas
juxtaposedraces,butascloudsofpopulationsthatareinterwoventogetherandcombinea
geneticinheritancethatisallthemorevaluablethemoreitspolymorphismisaccentuated.As
ErnstMayrputsit,humanityisapoolofintercommunicatinggenes4populations,thatisto
say,ensemblesofvariations,areunceasinglyformedanddissolved.Historydesignatesthese
ensemblesbeforeerasingthem;wemustnotlookatthemasrawanddefinitivebiologicalfacts
thatimposethemselves,fromthebasisofnature,uponhistory.
Jacques Ruffis text contains a number of other analyses of this type. All are im
portant, because one sees very clearly formulated here the questions of a biohistory that
would no longer be the unitary and mythological history of the human species across time,
and a biopolitics which would not be one of divisions, selfpreservation, and hierarchies
butofcommunicationandpolymorphism.

Translator: The phrase comes from Ernst Mayrs Populations, species, and evolution (Harvard University
Press,1970),394.RufficitesthisworkinitsFrenchtranslation,Populations,espcesetevolution,translated
byYvesGuy(Paris:Hermann,1974)throughoutDelabiologielaculture;thisphraseisquotedonpage415
(citingpage435oftheFrenchtranslationofMayr).Infact,RuffiandFoucaulthavemisquotedMayr:What
Foucaultquotesasunpooldesgnesintercommunicants,Ruffihadquotedasunseulpooldesgnes
intercommunicants . Mayrs sentence actually reads, They [humans] form a set of interconnecting gene
pools;intheFrenchtranslation,Ellesformentunseullotdepoolsdegenesintercommunicants.
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Foucault:Biohistoryandbiopolitics

Translatedby:
RichardA.Lynch
DePauwUniversity
Indiana,USA
richardlynch@depauw.edu

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