A New Research Agenda for the Study of Genetic Ancestry Tests and the Formation of Racial and Ethnic Identities and Ancestries
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. An Analytical Review of the Use of Genetic Ancestry Tests
2.1. Reflections on the Use of Genetic Ancestry Tests in the USA
2.2. Reflections on Genetic Ancestry Testing in the UK
3. Ways Forward: Research Design
- Personal experiences and relationships with the living and the dead
- Senses of belonging to local places and communities as well as diasporic identifications that stretch across historical times and geographical spaces
- Individual and shared experiences of nationalism, xenophobia and racism
- Multiple and shifting personal and collective knowledges of migration histories
- Senses of identification with ancient ‘Celtic’, ‘Viking’ and ‘Saxon’ histories associated with ideas of white racial purity and Nordic European descent
- Individual and collective identification with colonial pasts and slave ancestries
- Diverse senses of religious and spiritual beliefs, and political views, for example on multiculturalism, immigration, national identity, ‘Brexit’ and so on
- Classed, gendered and sexual identifications
- Ideas on the inheritance of racial and ethnic identities, including, for example, the perceived inheritance of physical, cultural and personal characteristics and attributes of identity.
- individuals’ biographies including research participants’ experiences of doing family history research,
- research participants’ motivations for using a genetic ancestry test,
- reflections on their experiences of doing the test, receiving the test results and individuals’ thoughts on their family’s reactions to the test and its results,
- exploration of how the test has shaped (or not), formed and transformed research participants’ feelings of identity, including their ethnic, racial and class identifications, and feelings of belonging (or not) to ideas of Britishness,
- discussion of individuals’ reflections on genetic science for the practice of doing family histories
- research participants’ views on the wider implications of this science, including, for example, their views on the validity, cost and commercialisation of genetic ancestry tests for public use.
- (i)
- a regionally based family history society for people who trace their ancestry to a particular region of England, Scotland or Wales. As Edwards’ (2017) and Cannell’s (2011) studies show, the members of family history societies in England tend to be mostly white of both working and middle class backgrounds
- (ii)
- a family history society that is for people who want to trace their Caribbean and black history and heritage
- (iii)
- more specialist organisations such as the ‘Families in British India Society’ that assist people who are interested in tracing their ancestries to imperial India. Given the legacies of empire on the formation of contemporary white middle class British identities, it is anticipated that the members of this sort of society will be mostly white and middle class (Knowles 2007). Fieldwork within and across such organisations would open up a creative vista for examining how the colonial and slave past mediates the formation of British classed ethnicities, racialised ancestries and national identities.
4. Concluding Remarks
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Tyler, K. A New Research Agenda for the Study of Genetic Ancestry Tests and the Formation of Racial and Ethnic Identities and Ancestries. Genealogy 2018, 2, 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010001
Tyler K. A New Research Agenda for the Study of Genetic Ancestry Tests and the Formation of Racial and Ethnic Identities and Ancestries. Genealogy. 2018; 2(1):1. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010001
Chicago/Turabian StyleTyler, Katharine. 2018. "A New Research Agenda for the Study of Genetic Ancestry Tests and the Formation of Racial and Ethnic Identities and Ancestries" Genealogy 2, no. 1: 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010001