Abstract
This article explores ways in which advances in genetic testing have both facilitated and democratized genealogical research for individuals in search of their “roots” or ethnic heritage. These advances coincide with the quests of people of African descent to pinpoint their precise origins and ethnic backgrounds in Africa, revelations that have been denied to many African descendants in the diaspora from slavery times to the present. Genetics and DNA as the “great truth teller”, however, frequently yield results that go contrary to expectations. In this article, the author explores at a personal level the tensions that the “Genetic Revolution” produces between biology and society.
Highlights
This article explores ways in which advances in genetic testing have both facilitated and democratized genealogical research for individuals in search of their “roots” or ethnic heritage
Biotechnographies: Grafting Humanities and Sciences to Excavate Black Atlantic Narratives”, intriguing because of the extent to which it illustrated the evolution of black narrative to keep up with the complex, technologically-dependent reality of the 21st century
At closer glance, I came to the conclusion that the dissemination of black narrative has always relied on the use of contemporary innovation and technology, broadly defined, to tell and share the stories of men and women of the African diaspora
Summary
This article explores ways in which advances in genetic testing have both facilitated and democratized genealogical research for individuals in search of their “roots” or ethnic heritage. Biotechnography, loosely defined as “the exploitation of biological processes for the service of ethnography”, seems to fit with respect to the genetic testing revolution that is presently at the heart of black diasporans like myself who are concerned with or interested in connecting more fully and more completely with their discovery of their African ancestry.
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