On the tropeiro´s trail: relations and kinship in Li-Fraumeni's Syndrome in Southern and Southeastern Brazil

• Grant number: 19/02706-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2021
• End date: May 26, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Claudia Duarte Rocha Marques
• Grantee: Juliana Pereira Lima Caruso
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07886-8 - Arts and semantics of creation and memory, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/12041-2 - Starting from a common ancestor: transmission, heredity, kinship and substances in an ethnography of Li-Fraumeni syndrome., BE.EP.PD

Abstract

This postdoctoral research project aims to describe and to analyze Li-Fraumeni´s Syndrome carriers kinship relations - highlighting the pathogenic variant p.R337H TP53-, which are members of the Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Association of Brazil (LFSA), living in Brazilian Southern and Southeastern Regions. Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, discovered in the late 1960s, is a syndrome that predisposes its carriers to an increased risk of developing Cancer throughout their lives. In Brazil, the high incidence of the syndrome in the Southern Region is related to the presence of the variant p.R337H TP53 which, in turn, is attributed to a common apical ancestor. This founding ancestor of the variant is presented to the carriers of Li-Fraumeni through the historical figure of a "tropeiro" who, in the 18th century, on his trade route would have passed through these places, leaving numerous descendants. Considering the notion of a common apical ancestor to all carriers of the variant p.R337H TP53 and the conviviality and interaction of Li-Fraumeni carriers among themselves and with the carriers of less frequent variants during the events held by the Li-Fraumeni Association of Brazil, this project aims to reflect on kinship, ancestry, genealogical memory, identities and subjectivities established in this context. To this end, this relations will be studied through two main approaches: a quantitative one, which will include the genealogical survey of families linked to the Association of Li-Fraumeni Syndrome and the treatment of genealogical data with the aid of software; the second approach, qualitative and ethnographic, intends to study, considering the impact of the figure of the apical ancestor and the contacts made through the Association, how kinship relations are configured and constructed among Li-Fraumeni's Syndrome carriers. (AU)