More voices are always better: Tackling power differentials in knowledge production and access in human biology

Academic human biology seeks to characterize and explain human biocultural variation in terms of adaptations to local environments. Understanding and educating about such variation, if not carried out thoughtfully, can reinforce power asymmetries around who can produce and access the knowledge, and in what ways and places. One of many factors contributing to power inequities in knowledge production and access concerns histories of state-driven colonization, with people(s) dispossessed of land through colonization generally having relatively less power. Because human biologists disproportionately work with communities/sub-populations living in marginal environments, most of which have been moved, dispossessed, and/or reconfigured through colonization, we are prone to reproducing these land-related power imbalances but we are also well-situated to level them.

Here, we do three things we hope will move us toward research and teaching practices that recognize and begin to disrupt colonial power inequities in human biology knowledge production and access.

First, after defining terms core to understanding the power matrices at stake, we outline likely benefits to human biologists of using anticolonial approaches. Second, we highlight two frameworks offering anticolonial tools (community-based participatory research and "two-eyed seeing"). Third, we suggest several practical, behavioral changes to make and skills to develop for human biologists looking to shift power balances.

We conclude by reflecting on our own positions along the colonially rooted power gradients structuring human biology. We argue that doing so constitutes an essential early step toward creating anticolonial spaces for more ethical and just production, consumption, and application of knowledge.