Knowing the Origins of Your DNA
Evolutionary studies have shown that all humans originated from Sub-Saharan Africa with subsequent migration causing some genetic markers (short DNA sequences) to be specific to certain races. Students, staff, and faculty at the College of Alameda in California had these genetic markers analyzed by ANCESTRYbyDNA to get a glimpse of their DNA ancestry. It was part of a school experiment conducted by anthropology, psychology, sociology and African-American history professors to show how closely related everyone is despite their physical appearance. (Oakland Tribune, June 27, 2005)
How would you react if your DNA test results turned out to be other than what you’d expected?
Of the 200 people who participated, only one was 100 percent Caucasian and two were 100 percent East Asian. Some people were surprised to find that they were a mix of races. Others were emotional, upset, and even ashamed upon seeing their results.
Kerry Compton, vice president of student services for the college, measured 4 percent African American. The administrator, who is considered Caucasian, showed no trace of a Native American heritage even though relatives were said to be Native American.
ANCESTRYbyDNA donated these $200 tests to the College of Alameda and will provide another 400 free tests to students and faculty this year. The company seems interested in making DNA testing a common experience and is working with anthropology professor Nathan Strong to distribute the tests to more residents of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Professor Strong thinks that getting more people tested will bring everyone closer together.
“The differences we have to deal with are not biological, they are social,” he said.
Assuming the test results accurately represent migration patterns and ancestral origin (and that’s a big assumption), I’m not sure that racial harmony will result from everyone knowing their DNA make-up. In fact, I think knowing the percent breakdown of our DNA origins would make it easier to rank people. You won’t find me lining up for a free DNA test anytime soon.
Would you want to know where your DNA harks from?
ETA: For more discussion on this topic, see my follow-up post: Tracing Roots By DNA, Oprah’s DNA Test.
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POSTED IN: Genealogy and DNA
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10 opinions for Knowing the Origins of Your DNA
Chris
Jul 1, 2005 at 9:31 pm
I’m curious enough to get tested to see my DNA’s origin.
cooper
Jul 1, 2005 at 11:34 pm
Anthropologically speaking the dan would not be something to fear nor would it be something to rank by. It might even promote a little bit of tolerance.
I’d love to do it.
Lei
Jul 2, 2005 at 1:59 am
Thanks for your comments, Chris and cooper. You guys are certainly more optimistic then I am. Now when did I get so cynical…?
Qadira
Jul 2, 2005 at 10:16 am
I think a problem could come from our scientific makeup and our cultural makeup clashing.
People seem to naturally tend towards forming groups which include some and exclude the rest. Knowing you share the same primordial DNA as a person whom racially you do not resemble at all, and said race hasn’t been in any of your genealogical/familial history, won’t suddenly make most people have warm fuzzies for that other group.
True, it might help a few people find some compassion for others that they might not have been willing to based on a "well, they’re not kin"; but it won’t change most people’s opinions. In my opinion haha.
I see it as a way for people who want to sort out and segregate humans, to use the DNA markers as a sacrosanct scientifically backed method of righteously sorting out the Undesirables who Might Be Hiding Right Under Our Noses. Mixed-race people in many cultures who "pass" for the favored dominant racial type, have often been targets of horrid things when people "find out" their "horrible secret".
Homogenizing the human race, I believe, is undesirable because it takes away all the wonderful things that make us unique people. It devalues the differences, and says that having something of one’s own that others don’t is to be avoided. It’s insidious.
I don’t know what my DNA would show, and some day to satisfy curiosity, I am tempted to find out. Knowing that I had elements of African or Asian or Native American would be more something to put on a shelf like one does with pictures of family or knick-knacks. But it wouldn’t change that my actual family tree follows a certain path back to England and Scandinavia. It wouldn’t change that someone else’s family tree traces back to sub-Saharan Africa, or some part of Asia, if they found they have Caucasian in their DNA.
Our family ties are very strong, and very important, for many many people. Even if we loathe our family, we have an identity built around those pieces of knowledge and history.
Scientifically I think identifying people’s DNA and creating awesome charts of data to show migration, inter-breeding, etc, would be FASCINATING.
Culturally, I don’t think that such an enterprise would change our tendency to sort ourselves into race, culture, nation; and I think that the outer appearance would still trump whatever knowledge was gleaned from science.
There’s a part of me that reads too many sci-fi futuristic books that says Big Brother could just make people get their racial ratios tattooed on their arms or foreheads or something, and set up a caste system based on that. creepy.
Lei
Jul 2, 2005 at 11:56 am
Qadira - Thanks for the super long comment! It almost qualifies as a post in and of itself. ;)
Looks like you’re a fellow cynic. I definitely think that there are enough "bad" people out there who would use this kind of DNA information for evil, not good.
Stormwind
Jul 3, 2005 at 1:59 pm
I am quite curious about what the results would show, and equally curious about the use of autosomal tests versus the use of Y-chromosome or mitochondrial tests. I have traced some of my ancestors (who were European and Native American), but the difficulties in tracing Native American and part Native American ancestors (of which oral family history suggests were several generations of part Native marrying part Native) is well known. The curiosity factor for me is high, but it still doesn’t help locate the direct links which are still more important to me than blood quantum.
I think that for some people, knowing they were a mix of different racial groups would be viewed in a ‘we are all connnected/related’ fashion, but for others it would be a reason to rank folks as you suggested. Many of those same folks who find a reason to discriminate based on race would continue to do so, even if strict purity were no longer something they could claim. For a few, it would be eye opening, and might cause them to rethink their prejudices.. but my guess is that would be few. Even so, changing attitudes one person at a time might be worth it.
I am assuming that confidentiality laws would keep this from being something people were required to disclose. I am less concerned about personally chosen voluntary disclosure of the results to people or groups who would discriminate and more concerned about DNA testing in the medical field which is reported to health and life insurance companies… but those are different profiles and different issues.
Lei
Jul 3, 2005 at 9:25 pm
Stormwind, Welcome from BlogExplosion! :) Thank you for your comment and for sharing your story.
I especially liked it when you said -
"he curiosity factor for me is high, but it still doesn’t help locate the direct links which are still more important to me than blood quantum."
DNA might bring us closer to all of humankind, but not necessarily to our own kin.
And that’s an excellent point about confidentiality. You might be interested in this post I wrote about DNA privacy a while back: http://www.aboutweblogs.com…
stormwind
Jul 3, 2005 at 9:46 pm
I read FuturePundit so it was interesting to see a link. Sometimes I am amazed at the small world aspects of blogs. Someone whose writing I newly discover and enjoy is already linking to someone I read, and so on.. :-)
This - <i>"provide a better picture of a person’s general aptitude"</i> made me cringe a bit for the wording, but this- <i>"DNA privacy is of no greater concern than other types of privacy we already hold dear."</i> - I agree with. Privacy is something to which we all should pay much closer attention.
Nice blog by the way (I use the word nice to mean many things, but in this case- informative and well written). I will be back to read again.
Lei
Jul 3, 2005 at 10:01 pm
Thanks, Stormwind! I hope you’ll come back and join in the discussion again.
» Terrorism Genes Genetics and Health
Dec 24, 2005 at 1:40 am
[…] Some people think that we’d all get along better if, using DNA tests, we knew exactly how many ancestors we have in common. Somehow, I don’t think terrorists would accept such reasoning. Even hard evidence can be misinterpreted by our own biased perceptions. Where equal rights activists would revel in our similarities, racists and bigots would revel in the smallest differences. In the end, it still boils down to what we believe in our hearts. […]
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