Arabel Joie G.

Arevalo
Anthro 1 - WFW

October 22, 2014

Pop culture meets physical anthropology

Even tiny drops of water, over time, can change the rock forever. And
it will never change back. (Roth, 146)
This is one of the lines that I liked in my favorite book trilogy,
Divergent. It clearly defines what mutation is, which is after all the shocking*
revelation of the whole book it was taken from. It was a symbolism in the
book, a huge slab of stone with a crack running along its middle and drops of
water coming out of it. It shows how small things such as a droplet of water
cause a crack that can never be stitched back together. The same goes for
mutation. Once a gene of an organism has been altered, it can never be
brought back to its original form.
Today, peoples perception on mutation is mostly influenced by movies
and books that mainstream. Sometimes, they dont even realize that theyre
already reading or watching about mutants! This is why people usually think
of mutation as something that would give them superpowers to do inhumane
things or some exaggerated form of a mutated human being. Mutation
doesnt work like that, at least not for most cases. It only happens on a low
level, affecting only portions of the human body bit by bit. Our eye colors,
skin colors and resistance to certain diseases are some examples of
mutation. As you can see, it is focused on some biological aspects, not on
the stereotypical human powers or unearthly life forms.
Although changes in the genetic sequence that result in a superpower
are rare, it doesnt mean that its not possible. There are some people who
possess inhumane qualities which are considered as disorders but are of a
great advantage to them. Alongside these traits are limitations that inhibit
them from doing something that a normal people do and requirements that
they must fulfill in exchange for their advantageous genes. For examples,
Marilu Henner, an actress from a 1970 sitcom, has this rare condition called
hyperthymesia which is the ability to recall even the tiniest details of the
past. She is able to recall any day of her life up to the smallest details. While
acquiring such trait would be incredible, people with these conditions are
found to have difficulty in memorizing things as they easily get lost in

remembering or focusing on things that are in the present or future because

theyre more used to recalling things in the past.
At age 65, Ozzy Osbourne is still alive and kickin even though he
likes to party, drink booze, and admittedly took a number of illegal drugs.
The heavy metal singer himself didnt know why he was still alive
considering the amount of booze and drugs in his system. Turns out he has a
sequence of gene sequences that scientists have never seen before and
has been dubbed as the Ozzy Genome. Scientists said that this gene
increases his susceptibility to alcohol and drugs. Ironically, his genes suggest
that he would be more affected by coffee, making caffeine his weak point.
A term closely related to mutation is cloning. Most of the times, they
use the terms mutation and cloning interchangeably. But both terms actually
differ. Mutation is just a process of cloning. And usually, people have an
indifferent* view on cloning. They usually think of cloning as something bad
and that should be discontinued. It might be influenced by their cultural and
religious beliefs that anything artificial is bad. The media might also be a
factor of how people conceptualize things.
Peoples reaction to things that are unfamiliar to them only falls into
two: either they get fascinated or they get repelled. People get envious
whenever we hear about red heads, people with sharp photographic
memory, people who can eat literally everything or people who are incredibly
flexible. On the other hand, people get repelled by other mutants too. These
are genetic mutants who have rare disorders that are caused by a change in
the genetic sequence. People who have a black complexion or those with
Down syndrome tend to get looked at twice. It is because people like them
are so rare that they stand out when put in a crowd of regular people.
Mutation and genetics are the main causes of diversity among
organisms. We are all equal until mutation chips in and these genes get
passed down to our offspring.
Lets use Allegiant, the third book in Divergent trilogy, to further
explain how mutation causes diversion among people. Although they may
choose freely, people in the book were divided according to the aptitude they
were good at; the brave, the honest, the selfless, the intelligent and the
peaceful. It was so because their genes had been manipulated a thousand
years ago in an attempt to make the people better since they found out that
their genes contribute to violent tendencies of people. This resulted not in
peace but war since it turns out that the altered genes were damaged ones,

not corrected. If the Dauntless genes of a person were heightened, they

would lack compassion. If you take away their selfishness, you take away
their sense of self-preservation. (Roth, 123). In order for them to restore
humanity to what it once was, they were divided into three communities and
observed. Genetically pure people were distributed to the communities in
order for them to breed and have genetically pure offspring. But these
genetically pure people were labeled as dangerous and hunted down. This
forced them to go beyond the borders of their community and there they
found out that they had only been part of an experimental project.

They were infuriated to find out that they had only been a part of an
experimental project and had damaged genes. What they once thought was
normal really isnt. They became angrier when they found out that
genetically damaged people were discriminated and are blamed for any
chaos that happens even outside the border of their community. They
werent allowed to work in the bureau and whenever they rebel, the bureau
blames their damaged genes for not understanding the situation.
Those things still happen today. Because of mutation, there exists a
line wherein people who dont pass the societys norms are discriminated
and belittled. This is an example of repulsion towards mutants. We tend to
see them as diseases instead of human.
Mutation happens to every people, other traits are just more noticeable
because they are rare and some mutations dont appear in the phenotype of
the organism. We are all mutants.

Resources:
Daeshevsky, E. (May 23, 2014). 9 Humans With Real-Life X-Men Mutant Super Powers.
Retrieved from: http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/323873/9-humans-with-real-life-x-menmutant-super-powers
Loewe, L. (2008) Genetic mutation. Retrieved from:
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-mutation-1127
The effects of mutation. (n.d.) Retrieved from:
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/mutations_05

Hyperthymesia. (October 2, 2014). Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia

Hutchison, C. (November 3, 2010). Ozzy Osbourne Is a Genetic Mutant. Retrieved from:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/genetic-mutations-ozzy-osbourne-party-hard/story?
id=12032552&singlePage=true