The Disappearing Microbiota. The Coloniality of a Narrative and Anti-Colonial Proposals

Research on human microbiota points to a previously overlooked disaster: many of the
microbes with which our bodies had symbiotic relationships have disappeared or are in the
process of disappearing. This account of disappearing microbiota invokes biomedical reasons
and major socio-ecological transformations. It is the basis for two global collection and
conservation initiatives: the Global Microbiome Conservancy and the Microbiota Vault. This
article shows that this narrative, “the theory of the disappearing microbiota”, confers a
discursive base and a historical imaginary to colonial logics that infuses strands of research on
microbiota. This essay characterizes the long duration of colonial patterns that unfold, as well
as some of their consequences for understanding the diversity of human communities, their
histories, and the historical mechanisms of the alteration of gut microbiota. This article
concludes with a series of proposals aimed at determining the conditions necessary for the
elaboration of other, less dangerous narratives that would lead scientists to pursue different,
anti-colonial practices.