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Your Genetic Journey - The Genographic Project
by Decius at 1:55 am EDT, Apr 14, 2005 |
] When your results are ready Project Director Dr. Spencer
] Wells will introduce you to your earliest human
] relatives the members of your specific haplogroup.
] You'll receive a personalized genetic analysis, including
] an online overview of your deep ancestral history. The
] analysis reveals where and when your haplogroup
] originated and how they lived. You'll also receive a
] dynamic map, specific to your lineage, on which to trace
] your relatives' journeys across the planet. At first glace this seems neat. For $100 you can send a DNA sample to National Geographic. They'll sequence part of it and line it up with a particular subgroup of African ancestors, and provide information about how those ancestors travelled across the planet. However, upon consideration I'm wondering if DNA analysis is really nessecary. If you were of African descent it might be interesting, but how many haplogroups migrated to Europe? A handful. Most English/Irish/French/Spanish come from one haplogroup. Some english people come from one of the others. If you are of eastern european descent or if you might be native american things get more interesting it appears. Also, aren't there still debates raging about how native americans got here? You'd think if they could perform this sort of genetic match accurately they could resolve whether native americans are asian, european, or a combination of the two... The website seems to show no relationship between native americans and european haplogroups, but it was my understanding that there is some confusion about this. Its possible that abberant data is written off (possibly incorrectly) as post colonial genetic mixing... |
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RE: Your Genetic Journey - The Genographic Project
by noteworthy at 9:57 am EDT, Apr 14, 2005 |
Decius wrote:
] At first glace this seems neat. For $100 you can send a DNA
] sample to National Geographic. They'll sequence part of it and
] line it up with a particular subgroup of African ancestors,
] and provide information about how those ancestors travelled
] across the planet. Richard Dawkins goes on at some length about this in his latest book. In short, he downplays the importance of geneaological ancestors in favor of genetic ancestry. He calls out for criticism a recent one-off British reality TV show in which selected British citizens were taken to meet their "ancestors" in Africa. |
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RE: Your Genetic Journey - The Genographic Project
by Decius at 8:41 pm EDT, Apr 14, 2005 |
noteworthy wrote:
] Decius wrote:
] ] At first glace this seems neat. For $100 you can send a DNA
] ] sample to National Geographic. They'll sequence part of it
] and
] ] line it up with a particular subgroup of African ancestors,
] ] and provide information about how those ancestors travelled
] ] across the planet.
]
] Richard Dawkins goes on at some length about this in his
] latest book. In short, he downplays the importance of
] geneaological ancestors in favor of genetic ancestry. He
] calls out for criticism a recent one-off British reality TV
] show in which selected British citizens were taken to meet
] their "ancestors" in Africa. So, this sounds like an interesting book. Would you recommend it? |
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RE: Your Genetic Journey - The Genographic Project
by noteworthy at 10:12 am EDT, Apr 15, 2005 |
Decius wrote:
] At first glace this seems neat. noteworthy wrote:
] Richard Dawkins goes on at some length about this in his latest book. Decius wrote:
] So, this sounds like an interesting book. Would you recommend it? On balance, yes, though I'd recommend buying the UK version from Amazon.co.uk, which features excellent full-color illustrations and images. The US version has only simple black-and-white line drawings which serve the purpose but are less than compelling. You'll have to learn to get past Dawkins's occasional political jibes, which his editor certainly should have squelched before publication -- they're already dated. The "Tale" format of the chapters is sometimes useful and occasionally a bit gimmicky, but the prose is nearly always engaging. |
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