Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020054

Authors: Chenae Christensen-Duerden Sarah M. Coyne Loren Marks Erin K. Holmes Ashley Larsen Gibby

Although identity development is often framed as a task of adolescence, identity continues to evolve across the life course. Midlife, in particular, involves significant role change, reflection, and meaning-making, yet women’s midlife identity development within religious contexts remains understudied. Using life course and narrative identity frameworks, this qualitative study examined how women navigate identity shifts during midlife within a family-centered faith context. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 women aged 38–69 who identified as practicing members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in six countries. A grounded theory analysis revealed three interrelated processes, identity disruption, re-evaluation, and revision, while anchoring identity in core sources of meaning. Faith and purpose provided continuity across transitions, supporting coherence, resilience, and growth. These findings challenge deficit-based models and position midlife as a generative period of ongoing identity development.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020053

Authors: Beatrice Taringa

Africa is historically celebrated as the cradle of humankind. However, there is doubt on whether she is maintaining her own originality and position as the motherland and fatherland of all humanity. Although globalisation has impacted all continents and states, its negative effects seem to be skewing towards African and in particular Zimbabwean Shona families. This paper examines how DNA testing has impacted on some of the Shona families in Zimbabwe. The Shona community in Zimbabwe is culturally porous and receptive in terms of traditional, religious, linguistic and cultural values. They embraced Western democracy that is premised on human rights principles, constitutionalism, and citizenship, which, however, do not guarantee their belongingness. As some of the Shona families in Zimbabwe drifted away from the traditional cultural belief system campus, they got into a foreign and alien worldview that is dictated by the host in the name of technology. This has led to excessive reliance on foreign systems that are appearing like global standards yet they are disempowering them and causing them emotional and social distress. The reliance is a result of neocolonialism, linguistic and cultural imperialism that needs decolonisation. Thus, the paper adopts a qualitative approach based on an illuminating multiple case study design of six purposively selected scenarios aired on the The Closure DNA Show programme broadcasted on Zimbabwe Television (ZTV). The Afrocentric paradigm serves as a lens to uncover some of the perceptions of Shona families in Zimbabwe on DNA testing and its implications on parenthood, the family unit, and identity. The findings reveal that DNA testing is perceived as gender divisive and a destroyer of the family unit and exposing children to vulnerability, while it is also perceived positively as a way of (dis)affirming identity, which is crucial among the Shona. The paper recommends that other television programmes be screened based on their implications on gender relations, the family unit and identity.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020052

Authors: Hundzukani P. Khosa

With a focus on how both traditions influence identity, memory, and lived spirituality in African contexts, this article examines the theological and cultural interactions between Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR). This study highlights the ongoing interaction between ATR and Christianity as two significant systems ingrained in African life, notwithstanding the continent’s religious diversity. In Africa, religion and culture are inextricably linked, influencing social customs, moral standards, and a sense of community but also constantly changing due to personal experience. African spiritual systems were frequently disregarded by missionary Christianity in the past, which led to conflicts that still exist in modern African Christianity. The importance of ancestors, rituals, and supernatural beliefs all of which are still fundamental to the worldviews of many African Christians are areas where these conflicts are especially noticeable. This article makes the case for a positive theological approach that acknowledges ATR as an essential tool for African Christian identity rather than as a rival or subpar system, drawing on the idea of inculturation. The article illustrates how African spirituality serves as a storehouse of collective memory and identity over generations by delving into issues of ancestry, ritual, and spiritual mediation. Additionally, it offers a liberative and dialogical theological concept that promotes understanding between Christianity and ATR. Such an approach not only bridges spiritual divides but also contributes to the development of a contextually grounded liberation theology that affirms indigenous knowledge systems while remaining open to global theological discourse.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020051

Authors: Madalina Iordache Ioana Chelu Daniel Dicu Ioan Gaica

This study aimed to estimate life expectancy at birth and survival patterns within a multigenerational family from Romania (102 individuals), whose members lived across the period 1900–2024. Life expectancy was estimated using abridged synthetic cohort life tables, and the results were interpreted through survival curve analysis. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at approximately 84 years for females and 80 years for males, while the overall life expectancy for the total family population was 81 years, representing a weighted estimate derived from sex-specific life tables, with weights corresponding to the proportion of females and males in the studied population, rather than a simple arithmetic mean, following standard demographic practice. The resulting survival curves exhibited a clear Type I survival pattern, characterized by low mortality at younger ages and an increasing concentration of deaths at older ages. When contextualized using recent Eurostat data, the life expectancy estimated for the analyzed family exceeds current national-level values reported for Romania and is close to the European Union average, particularly for females. These findings indicate a favorable survival profile at the familial level and illustrate the usefulness of life tables for investigating longevity patterns in small populations.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020050

Authors: Aaron Rosenthal Saher Selod

Objectives: Government surveillance of American Muslims has grown following 9/11, yet little scholarship has analyzed how this activity impacts political participation. We examine racial and ethnic variation in American Muslims’ experiences of state surveillance, as well as the connection between those experiences and voter turnout. Methods: Using a survey of 1000 American Muslims, we identify racial and ethnic patterns in being singled out in airports and by the police. We then analyze how being stopped in these venues shaped turnout behavior in the 2016 presidential election. Results: Black Muslims are more likely to encounter surveillance from the police, while Muslims who identify as Asian report the highest degree of monitoring in airports. We find that police encounters are linked to decreased electoral participation, but being singled out by airport security is not tied to a change in turnout. Conclusions: These findings provide a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of who is impacted by surveillance in the US and how that surveillance shapes American democracy.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020049

Authors: Nomatter Sande

There is a correlation between colonial histories and contemporary migration practices, and this paper examines these transnational enduring connections. Using a qualitative thematic synthesis of existing interdisciplinary sources, this paper argues that the politics of space, migration, and identity in the present cannot be fully comprehended without tracing their colonial genealogies. The findings demonstrate that colonial migrations in all forms (forced, enslaved, or settled) formed transnational genealogies that determine who moves, who is stopped, who belongs, and who is an outsider. The paper concludes that understanding current migration politics, spatial inequalities, and identities requires an appreciation of transnational genealogies that connect the past to the present. The paper suggests that colonial history is more than a background but a framework that sets the conditions within which migration occurs today. This paper contributes to showing that family functions as a neglected site where genealogies are transmitted and contested across generations.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020048

Authors: Wendy Hermeston

Permanency planning, an approach to the placement of children in out-of-home care, is central to child and family system practice, policy and law. Using the example of legislative reforms in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, this article explores how privileging legal permanence leads to ongoing failures to account for Aboriginal worldviews and child-rearing practices. Drawing on qualitative research, including Yarning Circles and semi-structured interviews that I conducted with Aboriginal community members in NSW, the findings contribute to limited evidence on permanence from Indigenous perspectives, revealing how familial and cultural connectedness shape belonging and social and emotional wellbeing and highlighting the importance of children’s ongoing connections with extended Aboriginal family, community and culture. Aboriginal understandings of permanence align more closely with cultural, relational and physical domains than with the construct of legal permanence that predominates in permanency planning approaches. Prioritizing legally permanent care arrangements above other domains poses long-term risks to Aboriginal children’s social and emotional wellbeing, demonstrating the need for “deep-level” cultural adaptation in child welfare law, policy and practice. The findings have implications for decolonizing child protection and repositioning Aboriginal conceptualizations of permanence as the foundation for legislation, policy and practice—reforms that must be Indigenous-led, culturally grounded from the outset, and anchored in full implementation of principles embedding self-determination and Indigenous children’s fundamental rights.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020047

Authors: Ănúolúwapọ̀ Adéwùnmí Adétọ̀míwá Elvis Banoeye Batung Hasiyatu Abubakari

This study investigates the role of naming practices as cultural repositories that preserve family, lineage, and community identity. It explores how anthroponymy encodes histories of ancestry, migration, settlement, and sociopolitical organisation in two West African societies, Dàgáárè-speaking communities and Yorùbá communities. Adopting a comparative onomastic ethnographic approach, this research analyses names among the two selected cultures. Data is drawn from interviews, school registers, attendance sheets, and cultural practices, with emphasis on how names record genealogical descent, settlement histories, occupational roles, spiritual affiliations, and ethical expectations. In Dàgáárè and Yorùbá culture, bal/baloo yoe (clan names) and lineage names identify descent from founding ancestors, document migration and settlement, mark ritual responsibilities, memorialise historical events, and regulate kinship and marriage through totemic and spiritual identities. This study argues that names in Dàgáárè- and Yorùbá-speaking societies operate as cultural texts that preserve and transmit heritage across generations. The significant implications extend to linguistics, anthropology, and heritage studies, where names can be leveraged as tools for cultural preservation and historical analysis.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020046

Authors: Ruth Ratidzai Murambadoro Carol Lynne D’Arcangelis

This article juxtaposes the Indigenous communitarian feminist concept cuerpo-territorio and the African proverb musha mukadzi drawing on ethnographic research with Zimbabwean women activists in the context of land reform, thereby expanding the scope of both concepts. Our entry point is Zimbabwean women’s struggles for land in the Third Chimurenga, or post-2000 Fast-Track Land Reform Programme. Despite egalitarian promises, land redistribution efforts have favored political elites and men, reinforcing colonial capitalist practices of extraction and accumulation. Our comparative exercise reveals musha mukadzi as a political discourse that enables Indigenous women to reclaim their body–land relationship through struggles for land reform and beyond. In the process, we identify four key resonances between musha mukadzi and cuerpo-territorio, namely, an ontological similarity expressed through Indigenous women’s commitments to and responsibilities for re/generating the network of life; a common appeal to ancestral (feminist) wisdom to enhance ongoing struggle; the political mobilization of the concepts by Indigenous women to seek liberation from patriarchal, neo/colonial oppression; and, their conceptual utility as feminist analytics. Finally, we lay the foundation for further work on the possibilities of transnational feminist solidarity between Indigenous women in Africa and Abya Yala.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020045

Authors: Khalid Ahmed Hassan Mahmood Sardaraz Khan Aasia Nusrat

This study analyses NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names through the framework of intersectional feminism, a concept introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw that examines how multiple identities, such as race, gender, and class, intersect to shape distinct experiences of marginalization. Bulawayo’s narrative, centred on the protagonist Darling, reveals the complex social forces she encounters as she navigates cultural and geographic transitions. Through a blend of English and Shona, the text reflects cultural duality and the tensions of migration, including acculturation and displacement. The episodic structure mirrors the fragmentation inherent in Darling’s African upbringing and her transcontinental journey. The analysis situates the novel alongside contemporary works such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, highlighting shared thematic concerns with identity, oppression, and the migrant experience. Ultimately, the study argues that Bulawayo’s representation of intersecting identities enriches the novel’s engagement with gender, race, class, and the transformative potential of language in articulating minority experiences.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020044

Authors: Bruce Durie

The question of which Scottish surnames constitute a Clan and which do not is hotly contested. It is wrongly felt, especially in the Scots-abroad communities, that Clan is somehow of higher status than “Family” or “House” and/or applies to everyone of Scottish heritage. Opinions and assertions are on a spectrum between two absolutes: (a) “everyone in Scotland is in a Clan, and everyone should wear kilts and tartans”; to (b) “Clans disappeared in the 18th century and there is no point clinging to a Romantic notion with no modern relevance”. Historically, the Clan is a phenomenon of the Gaelic-speaking Highlands and Islands and was not found as a social structure in the Lowlands; the Southern Uplands (Scottish Borders) are a special case. The “everyone” persuasion leads to cultural nonsenses such as Lowland-ancestry Scots abroad forming “Clan” Societies and adopting Highland dress. Scots overseas are looking for an authoritative statement as to whether their surname constitutes a Clan, a family, or some other nomenclature. Yet, there is no official or agreed historically based list of who are Clans and who are not. There is no such list—or a formula by which an answer can be derived. This essay is intended as a step towards that. Also, the non-historical concept of “Septs” is dismissed.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020043

Authors: Deniz Aktaş

In Western Europe, and particularly in The Netherlands, speech is rarely neutral: to talk is to participate morally and civically, while silence is frequently marked as evasive, passive, or suspect. The capacities for speech, for being heard, understood, and responsive, are widely regarded as hallmarks of autonomous, transparent, free-thinking, and sovereign subjectivity, celebrated as expressions of a shared progressive modernity. These ideals of subjectivity are routinely placed in tension within the so-called secular–religious binary framework, in which the compatibility of non-secular sensibilities or non-Christian religions, especially Islam, with such Dutch societal values is persistently and heavily problematized. Within such accounts, speech becomes a criterion Muslims in Europe are then expected to meet, not merely by speaking but by doing so in ways deemed proper and intelligible. To complicate and deepen understanding of these dynamics, this article draws on ethnographic insights from (secular) Christian–Muslim couples in The Netherlands, looking at how the dynamics of speech–silence function within intimate contexts, where they take place, where they break down, and ultimately where their limits lie. Attuned to the cacophony of multivocal gestures, whether in acts of refusal, the quiet eloquence of silence, or the directness of vocal protest, the article reveals the intricate and consequential interplay between these dynamics and the structuring and affective forms of secular and religio-racial norms in everyday life.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020042

Authors: Bernd Reiter

This article argues that racism did not originate with the modern invention of race but crystallized out of a much older imperial grammar that had already learned how to naturalize domination through embodied difference. Long before race emerged as a named category, ancient and medieval empires developed durable ways of converting historically produced hierarchies into features of nature, the cosmos, and divine order. Through a comparative genealogy spanning early Mesopotamian epic, Near Eastern imperial inscriptions, Egyptian visual regimes, Greek philosophy and historiography, biblical scripture, South Asian metaphysics, late antique encyclopedism, and medieval Marian devotion, the article shows how inequality was repeatedly anchored in the body, in genealogy, in geography, and in moral psychology. Across these traditions, political authority is consistently masculinized, while subordination is feminized, animalized, or rendered reproductively vulnerable. Patriarchy and racialization thus emerge as co-constitutive imperial technologies rather than as separate or sequential phenomena. Modern racism did not invent hierarchy; it rendered an ancient logic portable, inheritable, and globally scalable by fastening domination to visible human difference. By situating race within a longue durée history of empire and male domination, the article reframes contemporary debates on racism as questions of imperial continuity rather than modern deviation.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020041

Authors: Husniye Merve Bingol Turkan

The 1923 Greek–Turkish Population Exchange (Mubadele in Turkish), formalized through the Lausanne Convention, remains one of the most consequential cases of compulsory migration in modern history. This systematic review synthesizes a century of scholarship across political, legal, social, cultural, and historiographical dimensions. Findings indicate that the exchange not only legitimized forced displacement under international law but also reinforced authoritarian state-building in Turkey and exacerbated political instability in Greece. The social consequences included trauma, marginalization, and the emergence of heterogeneous refugee identities, while cultural memory oscillated between nationalist silencing and transnational remembrance. Urban landscapes and demographic structures were profoundly reshaped, producing visible legacies in contemporary cities. Furthermore, assimilation policies formalized the integration of populations, influencing the development of national identities in both Turkey and Greece. Historiographical trajectories diverged, with Greek scholarship emphasizing refugee struggles and Turkish scholarship foregrounding nation-building. Recent studies highlight hybrid identities and transgenerational redefinitions of belonging. This review underscores the necessity of integrating political, social, and memory studies to capture the multi-layered impacts of the exchange, offering a comprehensive account of its enduring relevance for migration, nationalism, and memory studies in Southeast Europe.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020040

Authors: Dianala M. Bernard

Intergenerational memories, migration histories, and the lasting influence of colonial linguistic systems profoundly shape heritage language maintenance in Afro-descendant communities of Central America. This study examines how genealogy functions as a pedagogical tool for sustaining English-based Creole languages among Afro-descendant populations in Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize, three nations linked by Afro-Caribbean migration yet shaped by distinct colonial and educational systems. Drawing on scholarship documenting oral histories, family narratives, and community-based linguistic practices, the study advances a genealogy-as-pedagogy framework to explain how families transmit language, identity, and belonging across generations through ancestral memory, positioning family-based knowledge transmission as curriculum. In Costa Rica and Panama, where Spanish colonial and post-independence language ideologies marginalize English-based Creole varieties, genealogical practices operate as primary mechanisms of linguistic continuity in the absence of sustained institutional support. In Belize, by contrast, British colonial legacies and the national recognition of Belizean Kriol create a distinct sociolinguistic environment in which state institutions, the media, and educational policy reinforce genealogical memory. Through comparative analysis, the study argues for integrating genealogical knowledge into multilingual education, community revitalization initiatives, and heritage language policy to strengthen Afro-descendant linguistic continuity in Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020039

Authors: Nikos Gogonas Christina Maligkoudi

Intercultural conflict is expressed as struggle due to a perceived incompatibility of values, norms, face orientations, goals, scarce resources, processes, and/or outcomes between at least two parties from different cultural communities in an interactive situation (Ting-Toomey and Oetzel 2001) [...]

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020038

Authors: Terri Libesman Paul Gray Wendy Hermeston Kirsten Gray

Across occupied Indigenous nations, child protection systems remain one of the most enduring sites of colonial power [...]

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10020037

Authors: Magezi Elijah Baloyi

Death is a universal phenomenon, defined by the rituals associated with it and conducted within the confines of the culture to which the deceased belonged; thus, it is nearly impossible to universalise a particular mourning pattern, as African people display considerable diversity. The complexities introduced into African mourning by colonialism and other developmental changes, such as urbanisation and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, have relegated many African traditions in relation to bereavement to the periphery. A newer and controversial practice associated with funerals conducted among black communities in South Africa is that of the “after tears” party. Although this practice has not yet infiltrated the rural areas, it is nevertheless a phenomenon that is worth investigating, seeing that those who participate in this practice are predominantly from townships in Gauteng, and such events are gradually occurring in the rural villages as well.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010036

Authors: Mehmet Nuri Şanda Doğan Gün

Located in northeastern Anatolia, Çıldır and Ardahan serve as a gateway to the Caucasus for political entities such as the state and mobile groups such as the tribe. Due to this geopolitical characteristic, the region has fallen under the dominion of numerous states and civilizations throughout history. With its fertile highlands, Lake Çıldır, and natural water resources like the Kura River, the area constitutes an attractive living space for hem settled agriculturalists and nomadic tribe groups subsisting on animal husbandry. These features have profoundly influenced the ethnic, demographic, socio-economic, and cultural fabric of the region. Following the establishment of Ottoman sovereignty in the 16th century, Çıldır and Ardahan assumed a vital role in the state’s Caucasian and Eastern policies. This research addresses the Turkmen tribe and other ethnic communities residing around the eyalet of Çıldır and the sanjak of Ardahan. It further examines the banditry activities carried out by these groups, the attitudes of central and local administrators toward such activities, migration and settlement patterns, and the economic and political pressures exerted by the Russian State upon these tribes. The political and economic pressures exerted by the Russian State on these tribes reflect a broader imperial strategy of frontier making, as discussed by Khodarkovsky in the context of Russia’s expansion into its southern borderlands. By positioning the region as a negotiated frontier, this study moves beyond a descriptive narrative to analyze how tribal mobility and settlement functioned as tools of sovereignty and resistance within the broader context of Ottoman state formation and trans-imperial rivalry. The methodology employed in this study is the Qualitative Research Method; accordingly, documents from the Presidential Ottoman Archives (BOA) were transcribed, and the relevant sections were interpreted and incorporated into the study. The archival findings are contextualized within recent historiographical debates concerning the shifting definition of the state versus nomadic agency during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. While existing literature contains academic studies aiming to elucidate the archaeological, geographical, economic, and administrative structures of Çıldır and Ardahan, it has been determined that no academic research has been conducted to analyze the ethno-socio-demographic structure of the region specifically focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries in a historical sense. With this focus on the interplay between imperial frontiers and tribal identity, this study provides a critical analysis of how local dynamics shaped the grand strategies of the Ottoman and Russian Empires.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010035

Authors: Tiara Fernanda Aros Olmedo Hilde Danielsen

This article explores how young women of colour in Norway navigate everyday racism and how such negotiations are shaped by the tension between speaking out or maintaining social harmony in a society that largely perceives itself as egalitarian and non-racist. The study draws on qualitative interviews with 13 participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds—some were adopted, and others were children of immigrant parents or immigrants themselves. The analysis examines how anti-racism strategies are shaped by drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory, particularly the concept of the feminist killjoy. The notion of Orientalism, and the notion of cultural repertoires. The findings show that participants demonstrated different reactions from silence to confrontation, all demanding emotional labour. Several participants described the burden of having to choose between remaining polite and educating others, while others chose silence as a protective strategy. Rather than viewing resistance as a binary between silence and confrontation, this study demonstrates that everyday anti-racism is a fluid and context-dependent practice. How women performed anti-racism was also closely linked to their social position, social support, cultural norms, and access to political perspectives. The stories show that, over time, some women became more outspoken or secure in their interpretations of racist encounters, especially when gaining distance from constraining environments.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010034

Authors: Edgar Gutiérrez-Gómez Rocío Laime-Huallpa Rubén Darío Alania-Contreras Aldo Bazán-Ramírez Daniela Isabel Dayan Ortega-Révolo Wilfredo Bazán-Ramírez

The female oral tradition of harawi constitutes a living cultural expression in Quechua-speaking Andean communities, where song is configured as an instrument of collective memory and identity. This study aimed to understand how women, through harawi, construct spaces of cultural resistance in the face of processes of forgetting and social transformation. A qualitative approach was adopted, using an ethnographic and phenomenological design. Data collection was conducted over a period of one hundred and twenty days through semi-structured interviews, participant and non-participant observation, audiovisual recording, and documentary review. The findings show that harawi not only preserves ancestral knowledge but also strengthens female identity and the intergenerational transmission of the Quechua language. Subtle forms of symbolic resistance to linguistic and cultural stigmatization were identified. It is concluded that female harawi oral tradition constitutes a mechanism of living memory and an active practice of cultural affirmation in Andean communities.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010033

Authors: Tanya Allport Cinnamon Lindsay-Latimer

This article investigates narrative and storytelling as critical methods for understanding how relationships with land in Aotearoa New Zealand are shaped by colonial histories and ongoing systemic displacement of Māori (Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa). Colonialism is not a past event; it continues to structure daily life, disrupting our embodied connections to whenua (land) and reshaping what we call home. Drawing on the research project Tō mātou kāinga, tō mātou ūkaipō, Whānau conceptions of home we explore the concept of body–land, emerging from Indigenous women’s struggles and grounded knowledges, to examine how the land is not only a living genealogical ancestor but also a maker of our bodies and identities. Through narrative, we trace the ways land has been taken and commodified under colonial logics that frame it as property to be owned and extracted from, which contrasts with Indigenous ontologies that understand land as kin and relationality as central to existence. By centering Māori women’s embodied experiences, this article articulates home as a relationship rather than a fixed place and considers how these understandings open pathways toward relational, sustainable futures. This work contributes to broader conversations on decolonial praxis, Indigenous feminist theory, and the embodied politics of land and belonging.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010032

Authors: Rachel Nir Ismail Karolia John Wainwright

This study explored the experiences, perspectives and confidence of teaching and research staff of discussing race and ethnicity, and associated equalities matters, at a post-1992 university in North West England, UK. In particular, it studied whether colleagues, who were largely white, had the understanding and personal skills to deliver on race equity in teaching and learning in a Higher Education Institution (HEI). Further, it examined whether there was a disconnect between the intention of an HEI working towards the Race Equality Charter (REC) mark and the detrimental effects this may have on its minoritised ethnic staff. The study was based on focus groups and interviews of 43 academic staff as participants using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Intersectionality as the theoretical lens. These address discrepancies between institutional declarations and realities within higher education, which is important, as HEIs are increasingly positioning themselves as committed to diversity and equity, while the practical implementation often remains inconsistent. The findings demonstrate that the white participants were not confident, competent or pro-active enough to effect any meaningful change in race equity. At the same time, the minoritised ethnic participants often felt the burden of having to relive the trauma and pain of racism and take the lead in any race equity initiatives. In sum, the study demonstrates that HEI initiatives that purport to tackle systemic racism through decolonisation and the REC mark have little chance of effecting institutional change if the staff do not have the confidence, competence and necessary skills to make it happen.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010031

Authors: Idongesit Imohowo Eyakndue Arnold Benjamin Udoka

Among the Anaañ people in Akwa Ibom State, Southeastern Nigeria, the practice of naming serves as a central mechanism for communicating personal identity, recollecting memory and preserving social hierarchy across generations. The act of naming a child after a revered ancestor or existing relative is a form of moral inheritance that binds the name bearer to certain virtues, histories, and expected cultural nuance associated with the namesake. This article investigates the social functions of namesaking and in its role in family inheritance amongst the Anaañ people. This study examines the rituals, ceremonies, and narratives associated with namesaking, and further analyses the intergenerational authority and social status embedded in the practice. The analysis is rooted in social memory theory by Halbwachs (1992), which views names as memory carriers that connect individuals to their nativity and ancestors. Drawing from ethnographic research design, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who were purposively sampled, the analysis reveals that namesaking and inheritance are interwoven cultural processes that promote social identity, reproduce lineage hierarchies, and individuate the bearer within the social universe of the community. This study concludes that in the Anaañ society namesaking is a symbol of continuity, with specific social expectations, moral obligations and traditional roles tied to the original name-holder.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010030

Authors: Emily K. Suh Erin Lehman

Language and discourse are central forces shaping representations of self and family creation in adoption narratives. Informed by theorizations of agency, as well as language and legitimacy, two transnational adopted persons engage in a collaborative autoethnography through electronically exchanged letters about the authors’ experiences as international and interracial Korean-American adopted persons. The resulting analysis uncovered how language and identity can intersect in adoption narratives, complicating adopted persons’ stories and their telling of them. The authors also explored the agentive potential of mushfake as hybrid and emerging discourse/Discourse. In narrating their experiences, the authors illuminated how adopted persons and other members of marginalized groups can exercise their agentive authority to take up and demand recognition of self-proclaimed identities which are situated in spaces of in-betweenness and becoming.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010029

Authors: Pallawi Sinha

The world is burgeoning with ever-growing disparities, nation-states are becoming increasingly oppressive with centrist politics, conflicts are intensifying, and climate change is causing natural disasters, which are increasingly displacing families and children. That is, 473 million children worldwide are living in conflict zones today. By the end of 2023, 47.2 million children had been displaced due to conflict and violence, while natural disasters had driven 26.4 million internal displacements, of which 8.8 million were children This article then responds to the uneven landscapes and dominant imaginaries confronted by contemporary childhoods. In doing so, it locates how children bear the burden of adult agendas in the waiting room of the past, present and future. This lends to the analyses of the wider politics that frame childhoods. In response, the article calls for a conceptual turn in childhood studies urging a radical politics of hope rather than the oppressive politics of tomorrow. It proposes a (re-)imagining of just futures for children whereby adults move from apathy towards childhood reparations and think about what might have been stolen from children and what we may owe them. The paper concludes that any imagination of reparative futures cannot be crafted without children.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010028

Authors: Jessie Fubara-Manuel Juliet Nkane Ekpang Romanus Aboh

Female-child naming represents a unique naming practice among women; yet, there are no current studies examining the interconnectedness between naming female children and gendering among married Bette-Obudu women. This study fills this gap in addition to exploring how Bette-Obudu women, southeastern Nigeria, use the names they assign to their daughters to dominate the “home space”. Ethnographic data were collected through semi-structured interviews from twenty-five purposively selected female-name-givers. Ethnolinguistic data of gendered names, within the Bette-Obudu anthroponomastic tradition, were investigated from the socio-onomastic perspective. This theory provides insights into the sociocultural and contextual meanings of names. The study aims to reveal that female-Bette names, such as Úbékpí (I will marry by force) and Ùngiéáwhúkyémá (The wife dominates her husband), among others, exemplify how mothers bestow names to their daughters to navigate patriarchal oppression and marginalisation, highlighting the concept of female space within the institution of marriage. Essentially, such names denote name-givers’ calculated effort to resist oppressive patriarchal regimes. This study increases understanding of how female-naming in the Bette-Obudu onomastics functions as an effectively subversive discourse against patriarchy by drawing scholars’ attention to the under-explored status of female-naming among Bette-Obudu women.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010027

Authors: Tiffany Lethabo King

This article underscores sites of Black and Indigenous ecological failure to draw attention to the limits of figuring ideal subjects on the “ecological field” as stewards of, laborers on, and ultimately masters of, the earth. I consider depictions of errant ecological comportment to render other kinds of orientations—boredom, distraction, orgasmic submission, grief—plausible and necessary for developing and honing an ecological ethic. What is often rendered implausible or undesirable might also contain the potential to stave off the impulse to reproduce humanisms that require mastery over the earth. To better pursue failure or an inability to achieve appropriate attunement with the ecological, I focus on a Black fat femme falling from a tree and an Anishinaabeg youth lying on the ground and looking up at a tree. These errant bodies function as sites of friction that trouble old and new materialisms that continue to shape ecological thought and subjectivity.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010026

Authors: Valentina Villafañe Jorge Hugo Villafañe

This article examines how minor noble houses in the Hispanic world sustained social status under economic constraint and changing institutional regimes. Using the House of Villafañe of Santiago del Molinillo (Kingdom of León) as a case study, it conceptualizes the Casa as a social, patrimonial, and symbolic formation rather than a strictly genealogical lineage. The study combines a long-duration perspective with microhistorical analysis and historical genealogy, drawing on notarial documentation, parish registers, population censuses, and litigation concerning hidalgo status in both Castilian and colonial settings. The findings show that the house’s continuity rested on adaptive strategies: the regulation of kinship, selective marriage alliances, flexible patrimonial arrangements, institutional participation, and the mobilization of symbolic resources such as lineage memory and public recognition of noble condition. The article further demonstrates that Atlantic mobility to colonial La Rioja and Cordova (Argentina) did not constitute a rupture, but extended established practices of social reproduction into new legal and social environments. The House of Villafañe emerges as a resilient collective actor that transformed structural constraints and geographic mobility into resources for long-term continuity, offering a productive scale for analyzing social reproduction and inequality in the Hispanic world.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010025

Authors: Rakhmanali Begaliyevich Bekmirzayev Samarbek Osmonov Asan Berdiev Nurgul Osmonova Gulsara Tureeva Nargizakhon Alimova Ikromjon Kuzikulov Bakhtiyor Khalmuratov Kakhramon Boymirzayev Begzod Iminov Yosin Ortikov Otabek Abduraupov Mirjalol Nazirov

This ethnographic study examines the jety ata (seven generations) tradition in the Goyibi lineage of the Jookesek tribe, a Kyrgyz community from southern Kyrgyzstan now living in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley. Based on 18 months of fieldwork (2022–2024), we document how this diaspora-in-place community sustains genealogical knowledge despite displacement, minority status, and political pressures. The core finding is “layered transmission”: a preservation strategy combining formal oral recitation, digital documentation (e.g., WhatsApp family trees), and adapted narrative pedagogy by grandmothers. These overlapping methods create redundancy and resilience, enabling adaptation to modernization while maintaining spiritual (eskeruu and ata-baba ruhu) and identity functions. Younger members engage selectively through gamified stories but resist rigid memorization. The case highlights women’s underrecognized role in transmission, ongoing epistemological negotiations, and identity anchoring in diaspora contexts. Findings are specific to this community and contribute to understandings of cultural reproduction and indigenous knowledge adaptation in Central Asia.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010024

Authors: Lucy Fulford

The Ugandan Asian expulsion of 1972 was a landmark moment in postcolonial politics, but the people at the centre of it have often been a footnote in Idi Amin’s story. This paper explores the strengths, if not essential nature, of bringing a critical family history and life-writing lens to this history of migration, within the boundaries of genealogy, as the family is central to both the experience of exodus and understanding the origins of South Asians in East Africa. Moving to a ‘history from below’ spotlighting underrepresented voices privileging gender, caste and class is a vital step in democratising this history. Through an examination of the methodologies of the author’s testimony and memoir-led history of the exodus, The Exiled: Empire, Immigration and the Ugandan Asian Exodus, this work reflects on personal scholarship, objectivity and positionality, showing the significance of an intimate and marginalised approach. It demonstrates how reclaiming this history among next-generation diaspora requires challenging revisionism, self-serving success narratives, and increasing politicisation in service of anti-immigration narratives, moving beyond the nostalgic view of empire invoked by some retellings towards a more nuanced living history of the expulsion.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010023

Authors: Dafina Vlahna Bedri Peci

Intergenerational wealth transfer represents a central mechanism through which genealogical bonds, family continuity, and economic stability are maintained across generations. This article examines inheritance law and financial regulation from a genealogical perspective, focusing on the role of family property as both a legal institution and a socio-economic structure rooted in kinship and lineage. By integrating approaches from genealogy, legal studies, and financial analysis, the study explores how inheritance frameworks shape intergenerational relations, preserve family identity, and influence patterns of economic inequality. The article analyzes inheritance law as a key instrument through which genealogical continuity is institutionalized, highlighting the ways in which legal norms regulate the transmission of assets, rights, and obligations within families. Particular attention is given to the interaction between financial regulation and family-based wealth, demonstrating how legal structures affect long-term economic sustainability and social cohesion. The study adopts a qualitative and theoretical methodology, supported by comparative references to selected legal traditions, in order to illustrate how inheritance systems reflect broader cultural, historical, and genealogical values. By situating inheritance and wealth transfer within the broader framework of genealogical relations, this article contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on family, law, and the economy. It argues that inheritance law should be understood not merely as a financial or legal mechanism, but as a genealogical process that shapes intergenerational bonds, social structures, and economic outcomes over time.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010022

Authors: Angelina Hurley

This article draws on my doctoral research, Reconciliation Rescue: An Original Blak Comedy Series and Aboriginal Cultural Perspectives on Humour, to examine how Aboriginal humour operates as a mode of resistance, truth-telling, and cultural continuity. My thesis consists of two components Reconciliation Rescue, an original scripted Blak comedy series, and an accompanying exegesis that situates the work within broader discussions of Aboriginal sovereignty, identity, and the politics of reconciliation. In this article, I extend that research to demonstrate how Aboriginal voices, when centred in comedic storytelling, challenge colonial paradigms and reframe national narratives. Grounded in my lived experience as an Aboriginal woman and my longstanding creative practice, I explore the ways in which Aboriginal humour addresses intergenerational trauma, racism, and stereotypes. I contrast the collectivist values and relational worldviews of Aboriginal cultures with the individualism of Whitestream society, arguing that humour particularly the oration of humorous storytelling has long served as a powerful tool of healing, resilience, and community cohesion. This distinctive form of ‘Blak Humour’ confronts harmful assumptions, empowers our people, and strengthens cultural identity. By reflecting on the development of Reconciliation Rescue and the principles that shape First Nations comedic expression, this article illustrates how Aboriginal comedy can act as an educational and transformative force. It highlights humour’s potential to foster understanding, unsettle entrenched power structures, and contribute meaningfully to more culturally informed and socially just approaches to reconciliation in Australia.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010021

Authors: Congrong Xiao Yan Zhang Dongkwon Seong

Situated within the field of modern Chinese political history, this study investigates the Late Qing New Policies (1901–1911) as a pivotal transition from a traditional tributary empire to a modern multi-ethnic nation-state. A critical limitation in current scholarship is the tendency to reduce these reforms to mere expedients for dynastic preservation, thereby overlooking the complex mechanisms by which they fundamentally reconstructed national identity and interethnic power structures amidst the “triple crisis” of territory, sovereignty, and nationality. To address this, the article employs a comprehensive historical analysis to explore how institutional restructuring in administration, military, and ideology catalyzed the transformation from imperial autocracy toward a “responsible government” framework. The research is distinguished by its innovative application of Anthony D. Smith’s theories of “ethnic” versus “civic” nationalism to deconstruct the “myth-symbol complex” of the Chinese nation, bridging the theoretical divide between the “New Qing History” paradigm and empirical modernization narratives. Findings demonstrate that while the Manchu leadership aimed to secure formal primacy, the practical implementation of reforms engendered a de facto Han-supported power structure, compelling the reconceptualization of the state as a “multi-ethnic constitutional monarchy” and establishing the institutional logic for the “Five Races Under One Union” model. Consequently, this study offers significant academic value by redefining the New Policies as the foundational phase of modern China, providing a crucial theoretical framework for understanding the continuity of China’s multi-ethnic statehood and national identity beyond the dynastic collapse.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010020

Authors: Deborah Gray White

This article introduces my mother and maternal grandmother into the American story. I bring together sources like the census and family bible, documented history, and my memory to demonstrate that genealogy and family history expand the archive on black women and the black family. I also reflect on the way history and memory are dichotomized and argue that autobiography/memoir holds a key to freeing black women’s history from the violence of the archive.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010019

Authors: Katie Cueva Jessica Saniguq Ullrich Taa’aii Peter Roberta Moto James Ay’aqulluk Chaliak Jessica Black Diane McEachern James Allen Lisa Wexler Stacy Rasmus

This paper describes Alaska Native youth-identified community strengths that support young people’s well-being. Youth from three rural Alaska communities were engaged by the research team in digital storytelling and photovoice to explore their perspectives on what their communities were already undertaking to support youth. Each youth participant was then invited to complete an interview, which was then transcribed, coded, and qualitatively analyzed by the research team leads. The community strengths described by young people align with several community-level protective factors identified in a parent study as associated with reduced risk of youth suicide. Findings illustrate that protective communities help young people build and maintain supportive relationships with community members, family, and peers, and promote their connection to their culture, including by providing opportunities to learn their language, history, and culture; to be out on the land hunting and fishing; and to practice traditional ceremonies and spirituality. Communities implementing initiatives that support these factors may protect young people from youth suicide.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010018

Authors: Kristín Loftsdóttir

Recent scholarship has called for greater attention to white supremacy. This is closely linked to broader efforts to foreground the structural and institutional dimensions of racism. In the Nordic context, such a perspective challenges longstanding assumptions of exceptionalism by highlighting the historical and contemporary presence of coloniality and racism in the Nordic countries. This article examines the concept of white supremacy in relation to the Nordic countries, arguing that white supremacy has constituted a longstanding feature of Nordic societies and that the erasure of Indigenous concerns and voices presents one way in which white supremacy has been expressed. It uses two recent cases involving artist production connected to Iceland, Kalaallit Nunaat, and Denmark to analyze the links between the past and the present. The historical embedded analysis of these cases demonstrates that white supremacy has been an enduring feature of Nordic societies. Nordic Indigenous critiques, as well as discussions concerning Indigenous people within and beyond the Nordic countries, reveal thus how white supremacy operates through everyday structural and institutional practices in the Nordic context. These findings underscore the importance of addressing white supremacy as a pervasive and normalized aspect of Nordic social and political life.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010017

Authors: Eyo Mensah Nancy Irek Aaron Nwogu Queendaline Iloh

The crown conveys a rich tapestry of history and deep cultural resonances among the Yoruba people of South-western Nigeria, beyond its representation as an emblem of leadership, royalty, and nobility. This article explores layers of the meaning of crown in the Yoruba personal naming system. It relies on an ethnopragmatic theory to analyse the cultural significance and symbolic impact of crown-related names among the Yoruba. Drawing on a qualitative research approach using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 25 participants who were purposively sampled in Ikeja, Lagos State, we argue that crown-related names are not mere identifiers or person reference labels, but they provide cultural insights and reflections on the foundation of authority and continuity, and carry the aspirational principles of the Yoruba traditional structure. The names symbolise personal journey; reinforce the hierarchical structure of the Yoruba society; and highlight the people’s deep connection to their ancestral lineage. This study concludes that crown-related names encapsulate the values, beliefs, and social structures of the Yoruba society, serving as enduring markers of dynastic identity and cultural values. In this way, crown-related names represent badges of honour that validate their bearers’ self-worth and dignity.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010016

Authors: Karen Rotabi-Casares Carmen Monico

Guatemala’s intercountry adoptions were suspended in 2007 after widespread illicit procedures and the persistent trafficking of children. This article is a historical and policy analysis of the related social welfare systems. It uses Midgley’s framework to examine the past and the changes that have resulted in Guatemala’s reform era. Specific attention has been paid to non-formal systems, market-based or profit-oriented systems, non-profit and faith-based systems, and importantly, government-based systems. Previous (pre-reform) child welfare systems, particularly during the millennium adoption surge, are then compared to a relatively new and reformed system. An international child rights legal and policy context, to include the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, frames the discussion that also considers the passage of the 2007 Adoption Law. The article has a child rights perspective and considers the role of women, particularly birth parents, during Guatemala’s peak adoption years.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010015

Authors: LaDrea Ingram Aliyah D. De Jesus Esthel Nam

Intergenerational trauma significantly affects the health and mental health of African American families, particularly women whose lives are shaped by systemic inequities and historical oppression. This scoping review examines how trauma and resilience are transmitted across generations in African American communities, with a focus on dyads such as mother–child and mother–daughter relationships and a conceptual grandmother–mother–daughter triad. The review aims to identify mechanisms of trauma transmission and resilience and to inform culturally responsive, multigenerational interventions. Peer-reviewed studies published between 2012 and 2025 were identified that included African American caregivers and children and addressed biological, psychological, social, cultural, and resilience dimensions of intergenerational processes. Data were synthesized using a dimensional conceptual analysis approach. Findings indicate that intergenerational trauma is perpetuated through chronic stress and discrimination, maternal mental health challenges, family structure and caregiving strain, and cultural narratives about strength and self-reliance. At the same time, resilience is transmitted through sensitive caregiving, spirituality and faith, social and kin support, racial socialization, and economic survival strategies that draw on cultural and historical knowledge. These results underscore the importance of addressing intergenerational trauma holistically by integrating dyadic evidence within a broader conceptual triadic framework. Culturally responsive, multigenerational interventions that leverage family and community strengths and make space for emotional vulnerability are essential for interrupting cycles of trauma and fostering healing within African American families.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010014

Authors: Desmond D. Mascarenhas Balaji Rajagapolan John W. Fox Richard J. Johnson

An accurate DNA clock can strengthen cross-disciplinary inputs in the study of genealogies and ancient migrations. New Y-chromosome sequence data gathered from a Lotli Pai Kaundinya (LPK) Brahmin cohort whose staged migration from the Pontic Steppe to the West Coast of India was previously reported, are used here to generate a more precise DNA clock. The formula distinguishes Y-mutation rates for transitions and transversions and corrects for dropped mutations in sequence reads. The formula is validated against a baptismal tree covering over four centuries (0–704 YBP interval), a published STR-based chronology for this same cohort (704–5200 YBP) and a comparison to Y-Full formation times for mutations older than 3000 YBP. Using this more precise clock, we support a proposed “founder effect” expansion in Khorasan during 4300–3800 YBP using a novel phylogenetic branching metric; and use archeological, numismatic, toponymic, climate reconstruction and ancient textual data to explore religious and professional dimensions of cultural kinship with other communities believed to have interacted with the LPK during their long migration. The availability of more precise dating facilitates the integration of such secondary data types, resulting in an enriched and more plausible migration narrative.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010013

Authors: Rachèl Overbeek Bloem Niké Wentholt Carolina Suransky

While drill music is often talked about in relation to crime, it is often overlooked as an art form and cultural practice. Consequently, its artists are rarely heard from. To address this societal and academic gap, we have conducted in-depth interviews with ten UK artists from this genre and subculture. This article presents the shared meanings these UK drill artists attach to the motivation to make their own music, the music subgenre and its culture, and its ongoing criminalisation. We do so by conceptualising these meanings as counter-narratives. The article departs from the observation that these counter-narratives present themselves in drill, as a form of expression, on two dimensions: drill as the outcome of intra-group expression of emotions and social relations, and as the platform to engage with social injustice on the inter-group level. An interdisciplinary theoretical framework, combining psychological insights on needs, philosophical cues on (mis)recognition, and the lens intersectionality, allows us to study and bridge these two dimensions. We identify twelve counter-narratives that were validated by a majority of respondents. The study, besides analysing these in-depth counter-narratives, also foregrounds UK drill artists’ agency generally absent from both societal and academic discourse.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010012

Authors: Samson Maekele Tsegay

Historically, the number of United Kingdom (UK) emigrants has exceeded the number of immigrants, but this trend began to change in the early 1970s. The UK government has been enforcing strict immigration controls to reduce the number of immigrants, especially asylum seekers. The country even left the European Union to better control its borders and consider new arrivals based on their skills. However, despite tighter immigration policies, long-term international migration to the UK has continued to grow. The ongoing, and to some extent gendered and racialised, migration fix has not provided a sustainable solution for the country. Instead, it has increased the vulnerability and anxiety of refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants. Informed by a scoping review and the concept migration fix, this article examines UK immigration policies since World War II. This article is important for understanding the migration fix in UK immigration and asylum policies and their effects on asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010011

Authors: Oluwaseyi B. Ayeni Oluwajuwon M. Omigbodun Oluwakemi T. Onibalusi

Citizenship is not only a legal status but also a form of recognition. Every state defines who belongs by tracing lines of descent, yet the way ancestry is proven differs widely. This study compares nationality laws in Europe, Africa, and North America to show how evidence shapes access to citizenship. It asks what kinds of proof states require and what happens when those forms of proof are missing. The analysis draws on nationality laws, constitutional texts, case decisions, and administrative practice. The findings show that Europe relies on documents and registration systems that treat records as truth, while African states face gaps in documentation that leave many citizens unrecognised. In North America, technology and DNA testing have made biology a new measure of belonging. Across these regions, the law of descent has become a law of evidence. Documents and DNA dominate, while oral and community genealogy have lost authority. These evidentiary habits travel across borders, shaping how migrants and diasporas prove identity in a world that equates paperwork with legitimacy. The study concludes that certainty and fairness can exist together if states accept multiple paths to proof. When documents, sworn statements, and community testimony are combined, the law can recognise descent without excluding those who lack official records. Belonging should rest not only on what is written or tested but also on what is known and trusted.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010010

Authors: Chamion Caballero

The author wishes to make the following corrections to this paper [...]

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010009

Authors: Nathalie Lozano Neira

This essay theorizes the body-land, a living site where colonial violence, displacement, and resurgence converge through a hemispheric dialogue between Indigenous and decolonial feminisms from Abya Yala and Turtle Island. Drawing on Lorena Cabnal’s concept of the body-land as the primary terrain of colonial invasion and regeneration, María Lugones’s analysis of the coloniality of gender as a system that fractures body, land, and relations, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s theory of embodied relational resurgence, and Diana Taylor’s notion of the repertoire as embodied memory beyond the archive, the essay argues that silence, gesture, and affect function as insurgent practices of knowledge transmission that contest colonial modes of erasure. Through an autoethnographic narrative spanning displacement from Villarrica, Tolima, and re-rooting on the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations, the analysis traces how colonial grammars of race, gender, and territory are inscribed in the body. Yet these embodied inscriptions also generate practices of resurgence. By bringing Cabnal, Lugones, Simpson, and Taylor into direct conversation, the essay demonstrates that resurgence must be understood as an embodied, relational, and hemispheric process, one in which the body becomes a generative territory for reimagining belonging and repairing the fractures of colonial modernity.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010008

Authors: Mutsa Murenje Sipho Sibanda

The integration experiences and vulnerabilities of migrants in host states are a critical area of study. This qualitative research, grounded in a human rights and social justice framework, investigates the systemic injustices and integration challenges faced by Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa. Through in-depth interviews with 16 participants and six key informants, the study employs thematic analysis to uncover the socio-cultural, economic, and political barriers that impede successful integration. The findings reveal pervasive issues such as prejudice, discrimination, xenophobia, and language barriers, which exacerbate the migrants’ vulnerabilities and make it difficult to support their families. They, at times, fail to buy food and pay school fees for their children. Despite these challenges, the resilience and creativity of Zimbabwean migrants are evident. The study’s unique contribution lies in its widening of the genealogy of theories of migration by incorporating African-centred migration perspectives, which are grounded in social justice perspectives. This critiques the Global North-dominated narratives that have historically sidelined the lived experiences of migrants from the Global South. The study offers a comprehensive examination of the interplay between systemic barriers and migrant resilience, offering new insights into how migration involves and affects families. This research calls for the development and implementation of rights-based integration frameworks to address systemic issues and enhance the well-being of migrants so that they can better support their families and kinsmen.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010007

Authors: Akumjika Chikamma Michael Olubunmi Funmi Oyebanji Victoria Enefiok Etim

The paper explores how the diasporic Igbo community portrays its cultural identity through personal names and naming practices in a globalised context. The study employs a qualitative approach, involving computer-assisted semi-structured interviews with 26 diasporic Igbo individuals residing in the United States of America (USA), to examine how names are constructed to reflect cultural identity, community ties, and connections to the Igbo society. The paper adopts the sociocultural linguistic theory of identity to examine how culture and society shape language use, analysing names as social acts that establish connections to the Igbo community and cultural heritage. The paper examines how Igbo migrants negotiate traditional naming practices in the diaspora and communicate their cultural identity and worldviews through naming. The findings reveal that the diaspora Igbo community conveys its cultural identity, migration history, and emotional connection to its homeland while maintaining social relationships in its host country. The study will provide insight into the role of names in preserving cultural identity and fostering a sense of belonging among the diasporic Igbo community.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010006

Authors: Karine Coen-Sanchez

This study examines the mobilization of social and cultural capital among first and second-generation Afro-Caribbeans in Canada, focusing specifically on Jamaican and Haitian populations. Employing an analytical model grounded in resistance and identity multi-positionality, this research utilizes Yosso’s theory of cultural wealth as a theoretical framework. Qualitative data were collected through focus groups and an intake survey aimed at exploring the dual objectives of defining Blackness and constructing an in-group Black identity alongside the establishment and contestation of social capital within these groups. The findings reveal a dynamic interplay between resistance and identity, highlighting how marginalized groups leverage their resilience to build robust social networks that challenge hegemonic norms. Significant generational differences were identified in experiences of racism, discrimination, and cultural preservation among the participants. This study contributes to the broader discourse on immigrant integration, social cohesion, and the role of cultural capital in mitigating systemic inequalities. The results underscore the necessity for intersectional approaches to comprehend the complexities of identity formation and social integration in multicultural societies. Moreover, the research emphasizes the critical importance of cultural heritage, identity, and community support as sources of strength and resilience for Afro-Caribbean communities in Canada.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010005

Authors: Bedri Bahtiri Kastriote Vlahna

This study examines the impact of Kosovo’s matrimonial property and inheritance laws on intergenerational inheritance and family connections. It explores how the division of property during marriage or upon divorce influences inheritance outcomes and the continuity of family lineage. The research employs a comparative approach, including genealogical case studies, to analyze these effects. Findings demonstrate that legal provisions significantly influence the preservation of family property and help prevent intra-family disputes. Well-structured laws ensuring the participation of children and the surviving spouse promote gender and social equality, respect heirs’ rights, and support economic sustainability. Comparative experiences from Germany and France offer practical examples for harmonizing property management in Kosovo. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of accurate property data and the use of genealogical records to maintain continuity in material inheritance and the construction of family history. Overall, matrimonial property and inheritance laws are more than legal instruments; they uphold social order and safeguard families’ material legacies. The study concludes with concrete recommendations for policy and legal practices that address communities’ real needs while acknowledging family history.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010004

Authors: James C. Beaufils

First Nations children remain dramatically over-represented in Australia’s Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) system, particularly in New South Wales (NSW), which continues to report the highest numbers nationally. This narrative review, grounded in a relational First Nations Standpoint Theory and decolonising research paradigms, to critically examine the systemic, structural, and historical factors contributing to these disproportionalities. Drawing on interdisciplinary evidence across law, criminology, education, health, governance studies, and public policy, the analysis centres Indigenous-authored scholarship and contemporary empirical literature, including grey literature, inquiries, and community-led reports. Findings reveal that the OOHC system reproduces the colonial logics that historically drove the Stolen Generations. Macro-level structural drivers—including systemic racism, Indigenous data injustice, entrenched poverty and deprivation, intergenerational trauma, and Westernised governance frameworks—continue to shape child protection policies and practices. Micro-level drivers such as parental supports, mental health distress, substance misuse, family violence, and the criminalisation of children in care (“crossover children”) must be understood as direct consequences of structural inequality rather than as isolated individual risk factors. Current placement and permanency orders in NSW further compound cultural disconnection, with ongoing failures to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP). Contemporary cultural rights and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) frameworks highlight the urgency of restoring Indigenous authority in decision-making processes. The literature consistently demonstrates that cultural continuity, kinship networks, and ACCO-led models are sort to produce stronger long-term outcomes for children. The review concludes that genuine transformation requires a systemic shift toward Indigenous-led governance, community-controlled service delivery, data sovereignty, and legislative reform that embeds cultural rights and self-determination. Without acknowledging the structural drivers and redistributing genuine power and authority, the state risks perpetuating a cycle of removal that mirrors earlier assimilationist policies. Strengthening First Peoples governance and cultural authority is therefore essential to creating pathways for First Nations children to live safely, remain connected to family and kin, and thrive in culture.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010003

Authors: Julia Bello-Bravo

This chapter examines shifting genealogies of knowledge and moral authority in Western Kenya by unsettling the hierarchical opposition between “indigenous” and “scientific” knowledge regimes as ways of knowing and acting. Treating pedagogy as a critical mode of social reproduction, it juxtaposes practices of taboo in the Mount Elgon region, as inherited prohibitions that regulate relations among people, animals, and land, with the deployment of animated educational media in Mumias by Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) as a technocratic apparatus for imparting new agrarian knowledge and practices. By staging an encounter between these two modes of social knowledge reproduction—both understood as moral technologies that shape conduct, sustain ecological balance, and transmit communal values (one grounded in taboo, the other in technical instruction)—the paper re-situates an “indigenous”/“scientific” inequality within longer genealogies spanning precolonial, colonial, and contemporary postcolonial and developmental formations. By foregrounding commitments to these knowledge traditions, the paper stages how taboos and educational animations alike can embody evolving modes of community self-determination and ethical stewardship. It ultimately argues that the force of the “indigenous < scientific” inequality lies primarily not in correcting its hierarchical opposition but in the ongoing struggle over which modes of life will be allowed to endure. Decolonizing these genealogies requires attending to the marked/unmarked distinctions that structure bodies, discourse, and social reproduction in the present.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010002

Authors: Ulugbek Ochilov Mehriniso Ochilova Makhzuna Shoyimkulova Mirzobek Akhmadov Alisher Asadov Feruza Adambaeva Botir Ahrorov Munavvar Amonova Hulkar Salimova Gulrukh Kakhkhorova

This study focuses on how various audiences interpret The Green Mile, Stephen King’s narrative that deals with race, disability and the prison system. Using a mixed-methods design, we used interviews, social media posts, translated editions and sound patterns. What has emerged from the results contains clear generational differences, with older audiences frequently perceiving the tale as an emotional story of kindness and sacrifice where younger respondents linked one of the remaining and ongoing debates about racism, disability justice and prison reforms. Translation analysis revealed that frequently in the Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Uzbek versions key racial and disability markers were altered or watered down. Sound design had a strong influence on affective responses, particularly for healing scenes. Across all the data streams, three modes of reception became apparent: emotional acceptance, critical engagement and abolitionist rejection. These results show the impact of social context, translation practices and media platforms on the interpretive frameworks of viewers and the ways in which the film’s meaning is recontextualized for modern viewers.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy10010001

Authors: Peter Bath

The term ‘conspiracy theory’ is used increasingly frequently, and its meaning is taken as common sense. However, I identify its recent popularisation with the ideology of neoliberalism. Tracing its origins to the theory of Karl Popper, which also influenced neoliberal thought, I show how the concept of the ‘conspiracy theory’ emerged to fulfil a crucial function within neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism configures social relations as a transparent market of rational, self-interested individuals, free from collective, conspiratorial forms of power like class or state intervention, and at the same time materially depends on conspiratorial forms of power. The concept of the ‘conspiracy theory’ enables the disavowal of conspiratorial forms of power, masking this contradiction and perpetuating neoliberal ideology. This conspiracy-phobic attitude is exemplified by the dismissal of conspiratorial narratives in contemporary academic and popular discourse, alongside other discourses, like critical theory, which similarly challenge neoliberal systems of thought. With developments in neoliberalism (and post-neoliberalism) which suggest the return of explicitly political rather than economic configurations of power, a future in which the label ‘conspiracy theory’ is impotent and conspiratorial forms of power are directly challenged seems possible.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040153

Authors: Zarine L. Rocha Chamion Caballero Brenda S. A. Yeoh

We are very pleased to publish this commemorative Special Issue, dedicated to the life and work of Peter J [...]

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040152

Authors: Zaina Shams

This paper explores racialization as a historical-sociological concept and an ongoing, contemporary material praxis, using a Global Critical Race and Racism (GCRR) framework. Racialization is an ideological and material practice of colonial conquest that requires constant reification and maintenance. This paper examines how racialization and racial practices are positioned within Egyptian state tourism campaigns, through a media content and discourse analysis, as a function of contemporary national-racial identity formation. Histories of colonial archaeology, race science, and the European colonial domination and imagination of Egypt heavily contextualize this analysis. First, the paper outlines how the identity of ancient Egyptians was a racing project fundamental to white supremacy and global race and racism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in ways that are intricately tied to contemporary nationalism, national identity formation, and nation-building in modern Egypt. The focus of this paper is Egypt’s agency in its national identity formation practices, wherein it acknowledges, negotiates, and markets aspects of its racialization that are economically and geopolitically advantageous, specifically within the tourism industry and in relation to Pharaonic Egypt. In this way, Egypt’s racialization is not simply externally imposed; the Egyptian state is engaging with global structures of race and racism by maintaining racial mythologies for Western imaginaries. Egypt’s contemporary national identity formation includes an engagement with its past that negotiates its position within a global hierarchy of nations across the racial-modern world system. This study explores notions of autonomy, acquiescence, and resistance under racialization by examining how nation-states engage with, resist, or leverage racialization.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040151

Authors: Joanna Brzegowy

This article examines the evolution of heraldic memory and genealogical consciousness within the Czerny family from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Focusing on this single lineage makes it possible to trace, in a longue durée perspective, how heraldic narratives emerged, were transformed, and became embedded in family identity. The study employs a mixed methodology combining historical and genealogical analysis of municipal and noble registers, heraldic artefacts, epitaphs, and family archives with critical interpretation of early modern panegyrics and oral traditions. This approach enables reconstruction of both material and symbolic aspects of heraldic memory and its adaptation to changing political and social contexts. The findings reveal three major patterns. First, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Czerny (Szwarc/Czarny) family consolidated its noble status by linking the Nowina coat of arms to heroic myths, especially after the death of Mikołaj Czerny at Pskov. Second, in the 17th century, Michał Czerny introduced the “Szwarcenberg” element to the surname, signifying aspirations to aristocratic prestige rather than actual heraldic adoption. Third, these narratives persisted in epitaphs, literary texts, and oral tradition into the modern period. The case illustrates how heraldic memory operated as a dynamic instrument of symbolic self-legitimation among the Polish nobility.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040150

Authors: Yaereem Lee Haniyeh Kheirkhah Hannah Stohry Brittany Aronson

This study examines the applicability of Critical Race Theory (CRT) beyond its U.S. American origins by analyzing the intersections of state, nation, race, and education in two distinct sociopolitical contexts: South Korea, and Iran. This manuscript explores how education functions as a genealogical site of power mediating relations among the state, nation, race/ethnicity, and social class in the construction and contestation of national identity. In South Korea, historical and contemporary student movements, from anti-colonial struggles and democratization to the Sewol Ferry protests, illustrate how education has served both as a means for producing normative citizens and as a site for cultivating democratic participants through civic resistance. In Iran, educational institutions intersect with gender, ethnicity, and political authority; within a tightly centralized system, CRT and intersectionality illuminate both possibilities and constraints of critical engagement. By situating these two cases within global debates on racialization, class inequality, and nationalism, this paper contributes to a comparative understanding of education as a contested arena where nations are imagined, challenged, and reconfigured. It contributes to scholarship at the intersection of race, class, and nationalism by offering insights into how the state structures and civic actors co-construct the politics of national identity through education in the 21st century while also highlighting the role of racial experiences in these processes.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040149

Authors: Allan Novaes Diogo Macedo de Novaes

This study analyzes the political speeches of Brazilian federal representatives from the Liberal Party (PL), the primary platform for Bolsonarism, to identify patterns and features of conspiracy theories. Two core concepts are used: conspiracy theories as a worldview that addresses unpredictability and complexity of life in contemporary society, and Bolsonarism as a fundamentally conspiracist worldview grounded in reactionary authoritarianism and populism. Analyzing speeches delivered between 2019 and 2024, our inductive methodology identified both epistemological (logic) and narrative (rhetoric) elements. These individual elements organically integrated to form a pervasive, overarching conspiracy theory that we term “The Grand Collusion”. This theory was strategically deployed to support electoral campaigns and structure political opposition to the Lula government. “The Grand Collusion” alleges a vast alliance between the top echelons of the Judiciary (led by STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes) and the Brazilian Left (led by Lula), with assistance from major media and multilateral organizations. Its alleged objectives include rigging the 2022 elections and orchestrating the systematic persecution and censorship of Right-wing politicians and conservative citizens.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040148

Authors: Loreen Maseno Sophia Chirongoma

Drawing insights from the work of two East African women theologians, Teresia Hinga and Nasimiyu Wasike, this article foregrounds how African women theologians are a formidable force in decolonizing patriarchy. Adopting a literature review approach, the article examines some of the literature produced by Hinga and Wasike, revealing how far they have gone in terms of breaking the thick walls of patriarchy which were fortified by Christianity, colonialism and modernity. In unison with these two giant East African women theologians, the article beckons all African women to resist the patriarchal injustices on their doorsteps. It raises a clarion call for them to reclaim their voices by refusing to be spoken for, spoken of, spoken about as if they were dead. Hence, it advocates for a resurgence of conversations around the decolonization of patriarchy. The article also suggests other possible interventions that can be implemented to enhance the attainment of gender parity.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040147

Authors: Hari Prasad Sacré

Universities have become central arenas in which the terms of racial justice are negotiated, contested, and at times sanctioned. This article examines how decolonial discourse in Belgian higher education navigates the tension between dialogic and authoritative discourse. Decolonial discourse in Belgium tackles racial illiteracy or the lack of institutional capacity to engage with the histories and contemporary realities of race. The study draws on a qualitative analysis of thirteen publicly available documents, including open letters, manifestos, and institutional responses produced between 2017 and 2021, with a dialogic analysis of five key texts within the Ghent University Association. Using Bakhtin’s framework of dialogic and authoritative discourse, operationalised through Matusov and von Duyke’s concept of internally persuasive discourse (IPD), the analysis identifies three modes of responding to racial illiteracy: appeals to personal conviction (IPD1), the formulation of new institutional norms (IPD2), and dialogic inquiry that treats illiteracy as a shared pedagogical problem (IPD3). The findings show that while decolonial movements expose the structural and epistemic conditions that sustain racial illiteracy, institutional responses from students, staff, and governing bodies often address these critiques by enforcing ‘decolonial’ personal convictions and institutional norms, risking the reproduction of the very illiteracy they seek to remedy. The article concludes that decolonial transformation requires cultivating dialogic practices that position racial illiteracy as a collective site of learning within the university’s civic mission.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040146

Authors: Syra Shakir Fadoua Govaerts Penny Rabiger

This article interrogates “enforced silence” in higher education as an active, racialised technology of governance that manages speech, polices dissent, and narrows the horizons of legitimate knowledge. Bringing scholarship on institutional racism, decoloniality, and academic freedom into dialogue with analyses of scholasticide, the systematic destruction of education and intellectual life in Palestine, the paper argues that neutrality and professionalism function as administrative veneers that protect institutional reputation while disciplining racialised scholars and erasing Palestinian epistemologies. Palestine operates here as both an acute site of violence and a diagnostic mirror that illuminates a transnational repertoire of epistemic governance: censorship, securitisation, campus injunctions, and weaponised definitions that chill debate and criminalise solidarity. The article extends the concept of scholasticide beyond material destruction to include ideological and institutional assaults on dissent and critical thought, demonstrating how marketised, securitised universities reproduce racial regimes while disavowing complicity. Against this architecture, the paper advances a praxis-oriented framework drawing on critical pedagogy and the Palestinian ethic of Sumud to envision universities as sites of freedom rather than corporate neutrality. It sets out concrete strategies for scholars and institutions, including protections for dissent, refusal of censorious definitions, divestment from complicit partnerships, cross-border classrooms, and recognition of emotional–political labour, to convert witness into transformative action. The article concludes by insisting that academic responsibility is irreducibly collective: education must commit to liberation, not serve domination.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040145

Authors: Paula Jane Byrne

The first generation of non-Aboriginal children born into the First Nations/Aboriginal country had their own relationship to colonising. For them, Aboriginal people were negotiated as part of play. The children escaped the strictures of work or classroom to spend time at the Aboriginal camps located near the homesteads, or to indicate Aboriginal presence on the stations. The locating of First Nations/Aboriginal people as part of play had an influence on the way non-Aboriginal people related to Aboriginal people and politics in Australian history.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040144

Authors: Charste C. Wolhuter Johannes Lodewicus (Hannes) Van der Walt Nico A. Broer

It seems, three decades into the twenty-first century, as if the interrelated trends of deglobalization, regressive nationalism, populism, and identity politics are gaining traction worldwide, thereby embodying inclinations that seem to be the opposite of those in preceding decades. Citizenship Education, both as a broad academic discipline and as a school subject, appears to be a suitable vehicle for addressing and even countering these new global trends, if and when required. The first part of this paper surveys and assesses the aforementioned global political trends that are currently unfolding. This is followed by considering whether these trends can be countered by citizenship as a broad academic discipline, and by Citizenship Education as a subject taught in schools. The historical evolution and present state of citizenship education are reconstructed and assessed. The article concludes with arguments aimed at reconceptualising Citizenship Education as a school subject capable of successfully countering current political trends, if required.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040143

Authors: Suriamurthee Moonsamy Maistry

South Africa has relatively recently transitioned from a condition of legislated racial stratification to a democracy in which all South Africans now enjoy political enfranchisement. While political emancipation has been achieved, economic and social emancipation remain elusive for the majority of Black South Africans who still bear the brunt of poverty and deprivation. South Africa’s white colonial communities, having relinquished political power, continue to retain and enjoy economic and social class privileges. Despite state-driven social cohesion and nation-building initiatives, the envisaged ‘rainbow nation’ (a metaphor coined by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu) is becoming an increasingly fragile social aspiration. Historical legacies, especially regarding white affirmation, wealth accumulation, and the imperative for economic redistribution and land reform, have become key flashpoints in contemporary South Africa. This paper addresses the issue of how South Africa’s corrective justice and affirmative action policies are re-racialised into narratives of reverse racism, white persecution, and white genocide. It examines how racial arbitrage works where whiteness is systematically re-racialised and traded for its value in a different country context. It examines how disillusioned white South Africans leverage white racial and class privilege for transnational mobility and protections, white settler-colonial receptivity and white nationhood. It draws attention to the tensions and contradictions in global asylum regimes, illuminating transnational networks of privilege and economic superpower coercion.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040142

Authors: Meron Zeleke Eresso Ninna Nyberg Sørensen

The migration of Ethiopian women to the Middle East has primarily been studied in connection with domestic labour and the related vulnerabilities. Due to assumptions about the low educational levels of women entering this sector, as well as the precarity and temporality the sector entails, opportunities for social mobility have been largely overlooked. This article examines changes in Ethiopian women’s labour market participation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It demonstrates that, over time, women who enter the workforce as maids may transition into better-paid work or establish their own business ventures. It further depicts an evolving pattern of well-educated Ethiopian women entering the skilled labour market. Based on ethnographic findings from the UAE, the article offers a critical re-engagement with prevailing narratives of victimhood and severely restricted social mobility opportunities. Drawing on recent conceptualisations of mobilities, trajectories, and temporalities, the article critiques the tendency to portray Ethiopian female migrants as a homogeneous group with similar paths, thereby concealing the diversity of their experiences. Second, it questions the essentialization of women migrant workers as passive victims. By highlighting developments in women’s aspirations and agency over time, the article contributes new knowledge on the potential for social mobility within transnational labour markets.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040141

Authors: Chadrhyn A. A. Pedraza

The lack of research on Asian and Asian American students attending Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the Southwest U.S. leaves this population vulnerable to marginalization by educational leaders who are not adequately prepared to support their unique needs. Considered both a numerical and racialized community in HSIs in addition to their position as the model minority, this study aimed to examine how navigating a predominantly Hispanic context shaped participants’ understanding and construction of the Asian/Asian American identity. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, the study developed a model suggesting that Asian and Asian American students construct their identities through three interconnected spaces: expressions of Asian culture, relationships with other Asians, and physical features associated with Asian identities. Key findings include: participants’ navigation and negotiation of externally created narratives; personal interpretations of what it means to be Asian; the role of interactions within the HSI environment in shaping participants’ Asian identity construction; the consideration of access to identity spaces in participants’ personal interest, investment, and salience; and the contributions of cultural, relational, and racial spaces to identity construction.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040140

Authors: Shahzad Farid Muhammad Fareed Majid Raza Ahmad Faizuddin

This study developed a model of non-economic exploitation using Marxian theory and Bourdieusian methods. A survey of 275 respondents from Hindu, Sikh, and Christian minorities in Pakistan assessed religious, cultural, and social exploitation. Using CB-SEM, findings revealed unequal distribution of structural resources, with minorities having fewer than the majority. Religious, cultural, and social exploitation were significantly related (p < 0.05), with religious exploitation being the strongest predictor of the others. The study concludes that minority–majority (MM) relations are exploitative in non-economic terms, prompting minority resistance. Future research should evaluate the impact of exploitation and the extent of minority responses.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040139

Authors: Özcan Palavan Zeynep S. Uçaral Ahmet Güneyli Şeniz Şensoy

Background: This study examines how the Yörük community in Türkiye balances the preservation of traditional childrearing practices with modernization and compulsory schooling. Context: The Yörüks, a historically nomadic Turkic people, possess a distinct cultural identity that centres around oral knowledge transmission, family-based education, and pastoral living. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was used. Data Collection: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 Yörük participants selected through purposive sampling. Results: Four core themes were identified: Yörük culture, expectations of children, childrearing practices, and perceptions of schooling. Tensions emerge between traditional responsibilities, gender roles, and modern schooling structures. Conclusions: The study shows that cultural dissonance with the national education system contributes to educational exclusion and identity tension among Yörük children. Theoretical Implications: This study challenges dominant educational paradigms that overlook minority epistemologies and underscores the need to incorporate pastoralist worldviews into inclusive education theory. Practical Implications: It calls for flexible, culturally responsive policies, such as mobile or seasonal schooling and culturally inclusive curricula. Research Implications: Future studies could focus on the longitudinal impacts of modernization on the educational outcomes of pastoral communities or conduct comparative studies with other nomadic groups.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040138

Authors: Oluwaseyi B. Ayeni Oluwajuwon M. Omigbodun Oluwakemi T. Onibalusi

Genealogy has shifted from the private domain of family history to a central mechanism in law and governance. This article examines how genealogical claims are used as evidence in three critical domains: citizenship, inheritance, and indigenous recognition. Using a comparative socio-legal approach, the study analyses statutes, case law, and interdisciplinary scholarship to reveal both convergences and divergences in evidentiary practice. Across legal systems, descent remains decisive in allocating rights and recognition, yet the hierarchy of proof varies. Civil law states privilege documentary records, common law courts increasingly rely on DNA testing, and indigenous forums continue to give authority to oral genealogies. The rapid growth of genetic genealogy databases adds new complexity. While these technologies expand opportunities for verification, they also create ethical challenges concerning privacy, consent, and the extension of genealogical data into surveillance. To address these dynamics, the article develops an evidence regime framework that treats genealogy as criteria of proof, media of proof, institutional gatekeepers, and social consequences. The findings highlight genealogy’s dual character: it enables claims to rights yet also reproduces exclusion when evidentiary hierarchies are imposed. The article argues for pluralist standards that respect documentary, genetic, and oral genealogies, offering a pathway toward more inclusive and just legal recognition.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040137

Authors: Andrea G. Pérez Portillo Nidia Hernández Xochilt Alamillo

Social connections and social support have shown strong associations with mental health within immigrant populations. This study examines the nuances in the associations between social network measures and perceived interpersonal support on depression among immigrants from Central America residing in the United States. Data for this project came from the 2012–2013 wave of the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC-III). In determining the association between lifetime depression and perceived interpersonal support, three social network measures (diversity, domain participation, and count) were assessed through a series of logistic regressions that controlled for demographic characteristics. Linear regressions were used to assess the relationship between perceived interpersonal support and network characteristics. Immigrants who had higher levels of perceived support had lower odds of meeting the criteria for depression. Social network measures were not significant in their association with depression; however, supplemental analyses indicated a strong relationship between network characteristics and perceived interpersonal support. Future research is needed to further elucidate the mechanisms of the social resources that contribute to immigrant health across peoples’ lifespans.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040136

Authors: Lorne Preston Foster Lesley Allan Jacobs

This paper examines the pervasive yet underrecognized phenomenon of consumer racial profiling (CRP) against Indigenous peoples in Canada. Drawing on sociolegal analysis, public health research, and empirical data, the authors demonstrate how CRP—manifested in routine acts of surveillance, exclusion, and humiliation in retail and service spaces—functions as a contemporary expression of colonialism and systemic racism. The work identifies both individual and collective harms, including racial trauma, internalized inferiority, and civic alienation, while framing CRP as a neglected but critical human rights issue. The authors argue that CRP exacerbates intergenerational trauma and undermines reconciliation efforts, calling for Indigenous-specific remedies such as healing ceremonies, cultural safety training, and systemic data collection reforms. By situating CRP within broader patterns of legal consciousness, systemic discrimination, and access to justice, this report is a much-needed foundational resource for advancing anti-racist practices in commercial settings and fulfilling Canada’s private-sector obligations under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040135

Authors: Lucy Bland Chamion Caballero

This paper investigates the investigators behind the distinct ‘moral panic’ that targeted mixed-race families residing in Britain’s multiracial port communities during the interwar period. This period witnessed heightened social anxieties following the First World War, exacerbated by the economic downturn and the visible presence of multiracial populations, a consequence of wartime labour demands. The 1919–1920 ‘race riots’, erupting in various British port cities, served as a critical catalyst in the exposure of underlying racial prejudices and anxieties surrounding interracial relationships and mixed-race children. In our paper we explore how the ensuing ‘moral panic’ was not simply a spontaneous societal reaction fuelled by sensationalist and prejudiced reporting in the press, but was actively constructed and sustained through a confluence of official investigations and the actions of key individuals within government and society. These forces collectively contributed to a pathological legacy that profoundly impacted the treatment and perception of mixed-race families in Britain well beyond the interwar years. Our paper builds upon our collaborative work with Peter Aspinall, to whom this paper is dedicated as one of his last scholarly endeavours.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040134

Authors: Georgia Spyropoulou Ilirida Musaraj

This article focuses on one critical factor among the many influencing identity formation in the second generation of Albanian origin in Greece: the acquisition of citizenship. Citizenship is more than a legal status; it serves as a fundamental marker of belonging, shaping access to rights, social mobility, and political participation. Despite the 2015 Greek citizenship law aiming to facilitate naturalization, many second-generation Albanians still face bureaucratic obstacles, and prolonged legal uncertainty. These barriers create a sense of social exclusion by limiting opportunities in education and employment and depriving them the right of political participation. Navigating these challenges forces individuals to negotiate their identity in complex ways. Some emphasize Greek identity, others adopt a hybrid identity, yet others reinforce Albanian self-identification. Broader societal attitudes, including stereotypes and discrimination, further shape these identity strategies. These strategies are furthermore influenced by the individuals’ life trajectories, which can either reinforce a sense of otherness or counteract it. Through in-depth interviews, this qualitative study argues that citizenship constitutes a crucial determinant of cultural and/or national belonging for some people, as it produces practical and symbolic conditions of inclusion or exclusion. Ultimately, Greek citizenship functions not just as an institutional gatekeeper but as a broader social force that shapes an individuals’ identity and sense of belonging within Greek society.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040133

Authors: Shila Khuki de Vries Sarah Janaki Peshala de Vos Kristen E. Cheney

This article highlights the role of adoptee activism in raising awareness and changing policy regarding Intercountry Adoption (ICA) in The Netherlands. Through interviews with a selection of adoptees engaged in activism, this study shows that (i) adoptees became engaged in activism as a result of growing adoptee consciousness in combination with encountering irreconciliation; (ii) they employed many types of activism, sometimes with different goals and strategies; (iii) they cooperated in different constellations and with many allies such as journalists, lawyers and scholars; and (iii) their activism had significant impact on general awareness and government policy. Despite visible progress, reforms have fallen short of their needs, and implementation of government plans remains insecure. Many adoptees therefore feel compelled to continue their activism.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040131

Authors: Daniel Heath Justice

Despite extensive and multigenerational efforts by the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes to educate the larger public about the sovereign right and authority of Cherokee governments to determine affiliation, well over a million unaffiliated and unsubstantiated American claimants still declare Cherokee heritage in official records, deforming public understanding and reinforcing dangerously anti-Native racial logics. This article considers the problems associated with the “Cherokee” population categories in the 2020 U.S. census, its relationship to genealogical stereotypes in mainstream family history research, its dangers to Cherokee nationhood, and its consequences for Indian Country as a whole.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040132

Authors: Philip Stead Penelope R. Haddrill Alasdair F. Macdonald

The family name Hay (plus associated spelling variants) is a prominent Anglo-Norman-in-origin surname that has been well-documented as a Scottish noble lineage since the 12th century CE. Their historical significance, linked to the rise in the Anglo-Norman era (1093–1286 CE) in Scotland, and the historical complexities of surname adoption post-Norman conquest of England, justifies the need for a comprehensive understanding of the genetic history of the Hay noble lineage. This study focuses on examining the patterns of paternal inheritance in lineages with the Hay surname. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of Y-chromosome data that is publicly available on the Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) platform, and specific FTDNA surname projects, as well as looking in more detail at three well-documented male-line descendants of William II de la HAYA, 1st of Erroll (d. 1201) that have been verified to a high degree of confidence. Our results reveal that all descendants of William II de la HAYA, 1st of Erroll (d. 1201) derive from the multigenerational Y-SNPs R1a-YP6500 (plus equivalent SNPs BY33394/FT2017) and R1a-FTT161. Furthermore, subclades of R1a-FTT161 have been identified that confirm direct male-line descent from two of William II de la HAYA’s sons. Subclade R1a-BY199342 (plus equivalents) confirms direct male-line descent from David de la HAYA, 2nd of Erroll (d. 1241), and subclade R1a-FTA7312 confirms direct male-line descent from Robert de la HAYA of Erroll. The result also confirms that the Hay noble lineage shares the Y-SNP R1a-YP4138 (estimated to have occurred in 832 CE) with several non-Hay test takers that have surnames of Norman origin, therefore providing further evidence to support the Norman origin hypothesis for these surnames. In addition to the identification of multigenerational Y-SNPs associated with documented Hay noblemen, this study has observed significant Y-DNA haplogroup diversity among males with the surname Hay (plus associated spelling variants: Hays, Haye, Hayes, Hey and Haya). Our results show that only 22% of the men sampled (n = 109) with the surname Hay (plus associated spelling variation) are descended from the 12th-century progenitor of the noble Hay lineage of Scotland. Therefore, this confirms that a significant proportion of males with the surname Hay do not descend from the noble progenitor of the Scottish Hay lineage of Erroll.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040130

Authors: Ann-Marie Moiwo Delia Massaquoi Tuwoh Weiwoh Moiwo Mamie Sam Juana Paul Moiwo

Genealogy is a powerful analytical framework for understanding the cultural evolution of tribes, communities, and societies. This article demonstrates that the recurrent reliance on genealogical structures is a common feature of human societies, serving as a fundamental mechanism for cultural evolution through time, space, and culture. Based on comparative analysis of indigenous tribal societies (e.g., Aboriginal Australian kinship, Polynesian chiefly genealogies), agrarian civilizations (e.g., European feudal lineages, Chinese patriliny), and modern nation-states (e.g., nationalist mythmaking, DNA-based ancestry movements), this study reveals consistent patterns in genealogical functions. Drawing on an interdisciplinary perspective from anthropology, sociology, history, and evolutionary biology, it is argued that genealogical systems are not passive records of descent but dynamic forces of cultural continuity and adaptation. The evidence shows that, despite vast sociocultural differences, genealogy widely operates as a dual-purpose instrument. It preserves cultural memory and legitimizes political authority while simultaneously facilitating social adaptation and innovation in response to new challenges. The paper also critiques contemporary trends like commercial genetic genealogy, highlighting its potential for reconnecting diasporic communities alongside its risks of biological essentialism. Ultimately, the work establishes that the persistent and patterned reliance on genealogy from oral traditions to genetic data offers a critical lens for understanding the deep structures of cultural continuity and transformation in human societies. It further underscores the importance of genealogy in cultural evolution, historical persistence, societal transformation, and the construction of belonging in an increasingly globalized world.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040129

Authors: Alejandro Ayala-Wold Felicity Atieno Okoth Jørgen Sørlie Yri

Migration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic has long reflected Hispaniola’s intertwined histories of grievances, distrust, inequality, and interdependence. Under President Luis Abinader (2020–2025), this relationship gained renewed political significance as regional instability and Haiti’s institutional collapse made migration a central concern of governance. This study examines the Dominican state’s discourse on Haitian migration through a combination of historiographical interpretation and discourse-historical frame analysis. Using the diagnostic–prognostic–motivational triad, this analysis examines 26 official statements, legal documents, and media articles to trace how notions of order, security, and humanitarian responsibility have structured migration policy during this period. The findings identify four interrelated logics—securitisation, nativism, racialisation, and statelessness—that shape how migration is problematised and managed. While overtly xenophobic or racist language has largely disappeared from official discourse, older anti-Haitian hierarchies persist beneath a technocratic and humanitarian surface. Deportations, biometric border management, mass detentions, violence, and preferential bureaucratic practices are presented as neutral governance, even as they disproportionately and unlawfully affect darker-skinned citizens and migrants of Haitian descent. The analysis suggests that Dominican migration governance represents neither rupture nor continuity, but rather a rearticulation of narratives of security, sovereignty, and national identity in a context of contemporary securitising issues in Haiti.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040128

Authors: Monerica Arnuco

In today’s digital world where presence is often equated with personal visibility, the choice of Emirati women to remain faceless on social media presents a powerful counter narrative—one that reveals the complexities of identity, modesty and belonging in a hyperconnected multicultural society. This study takes a closer look at how these women manage their online identities by intentionally choosing not to show their faces on Instagram. Using digital ethnography and thematic analysis, this article explores how they navigate the balance between global expectations of self-expression and the traditional values of modesty and honor. Over a three-month period, the study observes their activity on Instagram, analyzing shared images to see how facelessness becomes a form of agency. The findings highlight the tension between Western-centric paradigms of identity and selfhood, proposing digital veiling as a transferable framework for understanding how modesty, discretion and agency are negotiated across digital cultures. This article contributes to the broader conversation on digital identity, gendered representation and intercultural negotiation by foregrounding the silent yet strategic practices of women who remain unseen but not unheard.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040127

Authors: Zulkarnain Mohammed

The existing literature on the differences in the internalization and perception of racism between Black African immigrants and African Americans in the United States has produced myriad data. However, what is lacking is a systematic conceptualization of the revealed patterns and trends. Moreover, the few attempts in this regard are primarily based on a single geopolitical understanding of space in the United States, relegating the geopolitical space of Africa to the back burner. This paper attempts to bridge these gaps by proposing not just a multidisciplinary framework for conceptualization, but also a multi-space plane that cuts across both the American and African geopolitical spaces. The framework proposed in this paper consists of concepts drawn from sociology, negotiation studies, conflict resolution, and international studies. With this, I argued that the differences in self-conception, the availability of BATNA and externalities owing to the transnational identity of Black African immigrants grant them (Black African immigrants) the leverage of a relatively less internalized base of racism than their Afro-American counterparts. Within this context, this paper aims to provide one of many frameworks for assessing racism in the American context. Concomitantly, it adds to the growing body of literature advocating for intersectionality and a multidisciplinary approach as ideally suited to exploring and understanding the complexities associated with racial discourses.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040126

Authors: Gonda A. H. Van Steen

This article explores the nature of forced consent in 1950s child adoptions from Greece to the United States. It contributes to critical adoption studies by centering the lesser-known “sending country” of Greece and by drawing from a rare combination of biographical data and testimonies, microhistorical contexts, and otherwise scant archival sources. At stake is the exceptionally well-documented treatment of a Greek birthmother who consented to the overseas adoption of her daughter under conditions of socioeconomic pressure. The article illustrates and denounces the aggressive postwar American approach to child adoption from Greece, which left no room for a strengths-based approach to the dependent nation, let alone to the unwed birthmother. The systemically disempowered birthmother and adopted daughter become paradigmatic of many more such seemingly private but essentially biopolitical adoption processes, which may elude notice for lack of proper documentation. Drawing also on conversations with the affected adoptee in later life, this article further endorses recent child-centered, diachronic historical methods and interdisciplinary approaches, as well as a call for truth and reconciliation.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040125

Authors: Anna Linde Michael C. Sims

International adoptees share the experience of unwanted separations as well as exposure to racism. Previous research has a general focus on adoptees’ infancy, childhood, and adolescence rather than adoptees in adulthood, which makes their own contributions and voice in research insufficient. The purpose of this study is to address the gap in research around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHRs) for adoptees in adulthood. By interviewing 35 international adoptees in Sweden and with the use of semi-structured interviews, the connection between Sexual Health and being adopted was explored. Anchored in a decolonial approach, this study draws on Hooks’ Critical Race Theory and Simon and Gagnon’s script theory when analysing the informants’ answers. Findings show that adoptees’ sexual health is partly shaped by structural racism, internalised norms, and the tension between expectations and adoption narratives. The knowledge gained from this study is expected to be of importance to people in the care sector as well as people working with adoptees because of its importance in understanding and exploring the lived experience of adoptees. Although the study is conducted in a Swedish context, it is relevant in a wider environment as it contributes to how colonial and historical contexts may inform and continue to impact adult adoptees’ sexual health, reflecting the complex interplay between societal expectations, personal identity, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040124

Authors: Atamhi Cawayu Chandra Kala Clemente-Martínez

In critical adoption scholarship, significant attention has been devoted to the searching and returning transnational adoptee, while those who opt not to search altogether remain largely overlooked. This article addresses this gap by examining the experiences of transnational adoptees who, despite being raised in the 1990s and 2000s amid increasing openness about origins and adoption, choose not to search. Drawing on two anthropological studies with Bolivian adoptees in Belgium and Nepali adoptees in Spain, the article explores how agency and choice are shaped in relation to the decision not to search. It further examines how socio-political, cultural, and historical legacies—such as the enduring secrecy surrounding adoption and the privileging of closed familial models—have shaped adoptees’ convictions toward their origins, including the decision not to search. Foregrounding the perspectives of non-searching adoptees reveals that their position is not merely oppositional to that of the searching adoptee but rather emerges from the very same structural conditions within the adoption system—namely, a system built on silence, erasure, and restrictive notions of belonging.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040123

Authors: Hannah Stohry Monique Hanna

The U.S. was constructed on a Black–white racial hierarchical system to maintain the subjugation of communities of color, of which we understand through racial formation that race continues to adapt and evolve to support structures of anti-Black racism. Our project centers racial formation as our theoretical framing for why race categories exist under a white supremacist, anti-Black system that profits from hierarchical inhuman realities. This critical collaborative autoethnography explores the learning journeys of one biracial Korean faculty member and one Lebanese-American undergraduate in their continued inquiry about erasure/affirmation of mixed-race and MENA identities. We explored the in-between gray spaces that our mindbodyspirits move through, and revealed the systematic impact of violent structures on our racialized mind–body–spirits. Findings allude to the limits of our belonging, in relation to dominant structures that cannot hold our in-between experiences. We urge social justice professions to recenter the literal marginal voices of mixed-race and MENA peoples as essential in the relational racial healing and restorative journeys of our multiracial and intersecting communities of color.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040122

Authors: Cindy Blackstock Pamela Palmater

As many face significant financial costs and legal barriers to accessing justice to remedy systemic human rights violations rooted in colonialism, they are increasingly turning to class action litigation for recognition of harms and to safeguard others. Drawing on Canadian examples, including a class action involving First Nations children, this article examines the complex and sometimes conflicting relationship between class actions and human rights remedies. The paper highlights the risks of class actions displacing human rights awards, the ethical challenges in relationships between class counsel and Indigenous victims, and the limited effectiveness of settlements in preventing recurring injustices. The article concludes by calling for stronger regulation of class action lawyers and tethering such proceedings to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other human rights standards, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040121

Authors: Jorge Hugo Villafañe

This article formulates and evaluates historical hypotheses on the origin and formation of the Villafañe lineage in Santiago del Molinillo (León) within the broader dynamics that connected the urban patriciate and the rural hidalguía (minor nobility) of late medieval and early modern Castile. Through an integrated examination of population registers, parish records, hidalguía lawsuits, and notarial protocols, the study reconstructs the family’s trajectory and its institutional anchoring in the concejo and parish. The evidence suggests an urban origin on León’s Rúa through Doña Elena de Villafañe y Flórez, whose marriage to Ares García—an hidalgo from the Ordás area—established the local house and the compound surname “García de Villafañe” as both an identity marker and a patrimonial device. The consolidation of the lineage resulted from deliberate family strategies, including selective alliances with neighboring lineages (Quiñones, Gavilanes, Rebolledo), participation in municipal and ecclesiastical offices, and the symbolic use of heraldry and memory. The migration of Lázaro de Villafañe to colonial La Rioja and Cordova in the seventeenth century extended this social status across the Atlantic while maintaining Leonese continuity. Although the surviving evidence is fragmentary, convergent archival, onomastic, and heraldic indicators support interpreting the Molinillo branch as a legitimate and adaptive extension of the urban lineage. By combining genealogical and microhistorical analysis with interdisciplinary perspectives—particularly gender and genetics—this article proposes a transferable framework for testing historical hypotheses on lineage continuity, social mobility, and identity formation across early modern Castile and its transatlantic domains.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040120

Authors: Damjan Mandelc Ana Ješe Perković Tjaša Učakar

This article examines how Slovenia’s post-communist approach to diversity management marginalizes minorities from the former Yugoslav republics. The constitution grants cultural rights and parliamentary representation to Italian and Hungarian minorities, but communities from Bosnia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Croatia are excluded from these protections. Recognised mainly by religious affiliation, these groups have limited access to formal minority rights. Their fight for recognition is fragmented, lacking unified political representation, and the 1992 “erasure”—the removal of thousands from the permanent resident registry after independence—still undermines their sense of belonging. Drawing on theories of racialized citizenship, belonging, multiculturalism, and social mobility, the article examines how exclusionary legal frameworks create hierarchies of belonging that hinder mobility for these unrecognised minorities. The qualitative interviews with descendants of Bosnian migrants reveal intergenerational struggles with recognition, ambivalent experiences of citizenship, and discrimination. Set in the post-communist Eastern European context, the study argues that even under the pressures of EU integration, citizenship regimes remain divided along ethnic lines. This division maintains structural inequalities and marginalizes certain groups despite their long-term residence and formal citizenship. The study contributes to debates on ethnicised citizenship and diversity management by showing how legal exclusion, historical legacies, and fragmented minority politics limit belonging and mobility in post-communist societies.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040119

Authors: James P. McHale Silvia Mazzoni Martina Maria Mensi Russia Collins Alice Busca Arianna Vecchio Marina Riso

When young children come to the attention of helping professionals because they are experiencing significant behavioral or emotional challenges, effective solutions frequently involve establishing whether there are strains or ruptures in the child’s coparenting network impeding functional communication about the child. Coparenting refers to the shared—and ideally, mutual—parenting efforts of adults working together to socialize, care for, and raise children for whom they share responsibility. Among the most important aims in understanding and strengthening the family’s coparenting alliance is evaluating who the various adults are comprising the functional coparenting network. As part of a coordinated effort to provide guidance in best practices for evaluating coparenting, an International Coparenting Collaborative (ICC) has highlighted the use of a pictoral mapping tool—a child-centered ecomap—as one effective means of assessing coparental engagement and learning more about existing levels of child-related teamwork and conflict. Completed ecomaps provided by multiple coparenting adults in the same family also provide an opening to highlight and explore child focus and to facilitate pivotal information sharing among the multiple caregivers. In this article, we examine the use of child-centered ecomaps in a variety of family-centered cases seen in four different collaborating sites and services partnering in the ICC. The cases highlight the unique value of an assessment tool that goes beyond simply illuminating the nature of the child’s coparenting system to afford the interventionist with a means of refocusing coparents’ attention on the perspective of the child. Closing reflections focus on the child-centered ecomap’s advantages, both as a method for learning more about coparenting in the family and for setting a stage for subsequent child-centered work with the family through more comprehensive and nuanced case conceptualization.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040118

Authors: Brady G’sell

Refugees are a growing population in the state of Iowa. Many arrive through the state’s resettlement agencies, yet far more are secondary migrants—those placed elsewhere who voluntarily resettled in Iowa. Even amidst dominant discourses that either vilify immigrants or exclude them from the state narrative, refugees often hold strong claims to their new homeland. Drawing upon two years of ethnographic fieldwork with African refugees, this paper considers how, and under what terms, these new Iowans claim belonging. How are they building satisfying lives for themselves and their families? Where do they place themselves in Iowa’s present and future? Dominant narratives about the American Midwest in general and Iowa in particular, characterize the region as homogenously white and ideologically provincial and insular. I contend that African refugees are producing counternarratives about the region as (1) a place of opportunity, even for Black folks, (2) a place where anti-Black African racism and islamophobia are comparatively less harsh and (3) a place where they have built communities of support. In their responses to the persistent question, “why Iowa” I argue, that African refugees are authoring new narratives for understanding the American Midwest.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040117

Authors: Vivian Jessica Salles Vieira Pinto

This article examines how the insecure and precarious legal status of adoptees gives rise to vulnerabilities, with a particular focus on the citizenship of foreign-born adoptees. The primary objective of this work is to identify vulnerabilities associated with U.S. citizenship rules. While adoption is often assumed to guarantee both familial belonging and a legal status of citizenship, the U.S. legal framework frequently reveals gaps that leave adoptees in vulnerable positions. By tracing how administrative requirements, adoptive parents’ lack of due diligence, and fragmented legal pathways create insecurity, this article shows that the law itself may generate or exacerbate vulnerabilities it purports to resolve. Drawing on the concepts of vulnerability and navigating the intersection of family law and immigration law, the analysis highlights how citizenship is more than a legal status, affecting deeper issues of identity-building and belonging. The article concludes by underscoring the need for a protective, adoptee-centered, coherent approach to citizenship rules, one that offers better legal permanence for adoptees.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040116

Authors: Valentina Migliarini Nabil Ferdaoussi

The conjuncture of our present time, as Stuart Hall would argue, calls for a critical scrutiny of socio-political forces that aim to destabilize epistemologies and praxis of inclusion, diversity and equity. Such forces use education as a strategic site to perpetuate far-right ideologies and the idea of superiority of white, Western, middle-class nation-states. This article explores more recent manifestations of fortress Europe through the co-optation of inclusive education for migrant and refugee students in Italy and Tunisia. As critical scholars from opposite sides of the Mediterranean, we draw on anti-Blackness to engage in an analysis of the use of education policies to reproduce white supremacy in Italian society, while investing in humanitarian education in Tunisia to contain the movement of African migrants towards Europe. Lastly, the article intends to center the voices of Afro-descendant activists, who have increasingly gained a platform to speak back against such policies, and advocate for a more equitable society, with a more inclusive citizenship law.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040115

Authors: Sultana Ali Norozi

The integration of immigrant and refugee youth in Norway entails navigating linguistic, cultural, and social challenges that can hinder educational attainment, wellbeing, and future opportunities. Community-based mentoring has emerged as a promising strategy to support immigrant youth in their adaptation processes. This study explores how immigrant youth participants in the Vinn Vinn project experienced and perceived the role of mentoring in their social integration and overall wellbeing in three municipalities. The project, initiated by the Human Rights Academy in collaboration with Save the Children Norway, paired young immigrants (aged 16–23) with volunteer mentors who shared similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Drawing on twenty two semi-structured interviews and complemented by targeted observations of programme activities, the findings demonstrate that mentoring facilitated social belonging, improved language and cultural competence, reduced loneliness, and provided both emotional and practical support. Anchored in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the study highlights how mentoring created opportunities for positive interactions across micro- and meso-level systems, bridging individual needs with wider community and institutional structures. The article contributes to the scholarship on immigrant youth integration by showing how culturally responsive, community-based mentoring can complement formal welfare services and enhance wellbeing among young immigrants in Norway.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040114

Authors: Sophie Withaeckx

In the adoptive family, discourses of love have been mobilized to attach the adoptee to the intimate space of the nuclear family, thereby detaching them from other spaces and meaningful others. In this article, I engage with the question of what kinds of love have been erased in the adoptive family, how understandings of love impact upon adoptees’ subjectivity and which ways of imagining the self, in its connection to present and absent others, thereby become disabled. In order to assess whether alternative understandings of love, self and kinship can be imaginable within the adoptive family, I turn towards two works of autofiction written by adoptees: Shâb ou la nuit by the French author Cécile Ladjali and The girl I am, was and never will be by US author Shannon Gibney. In examining their articulations of love and the difficulties of finding words for that which might exist outside of dominant, quasi-hegemonic discourses, I draw on Maria Lugones’ articulation of love as connected to her theory of world-traveling. This enables us to understand adoption narratives and searches as attempts to reconnect with pre-existing worlds and meaningful others, made inaccessible by the Euromodern institution of adoption.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040113

Authors: Daniel John Pratt Morris-Chapman

Over the last decade, Cameroon has been embroiled in a violent civil conflict. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated and killed. Following an increased security presence in the English-speaking regions, armed groups surfaced calling for secession—the creation of an independent nation of Ambazonia. The failure to resolve the crisis peacefully through dialogue has resulted in a spiral of violence between armed separatists and the military. Building on the work of Frantz Fanon, this paper offers an analysis of the construction of these identities before and after European colonisation. In mapping the contours of Francophone and Anglophone assimilation it seeks to explore how the current crisis might be resolved through what Fanon describes as a transformation of the collective unconscious and what the Nigerian philosopher Cyril Orji describes as a psychological transition away from prejudice against the Other.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040112

Authors: Gil Baptista Ferreira

This article develops the concept of digital genealogy as a critical lens for understanding contemporary subjectivity in environments structured by platforms and algorithms. Building on Benjamin’s aura, Bauman’s liquidity, and Han’s burnout, the analysis traces how digital selfhood is produced through practices of performative presence, memory curation, and visibility. Empirical studies of selfies, ephemeral stories, and Bitmojis illustrate how authenticity is negotiated through fragments that are at once intimate and replicable, while van Dijck’s work shows how digital memory shifts from archiving the past to continuously fabricating the self. The paradox that emerges—identities are performed as fleeting yet archived permanently by infrastructures—reveals the coexistence of ephemerality and machinic inscription. Read through Benjamin’s concept of aura, reinterpreted by contemporary authors such as Mirzoeff, Groys, and Hansen, this transformation situates singularity not only in artworks but in the self, which must be ceaselessly enacted and recomposed in algorithmic environments. The framework also connects to critiques of precarity and exploitation: Marcuse, Fuchs, and Varoufakis highlight how self-expression doubles as unpaid digital labor within platform capitalism. Digital genealogy thus provides both a theoretical and normative contribution: it discloses the paradox of visibility and exhaustion as the price of belonging, and it points toward future empirical research—such as ethnographies of adolescents and creators—that can test how individuals negotiate the tension between platform imperatives and the desire for rooted self-narratives.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040111

Authors: Muna Saeed Fareh Mohammed

This article reflects on the fading of personal and familial histories in the context of migration, trauma, and cultural transformation. While modern tools such as ancestry kits and digitized records promise clarity about our roots, they often fail to capture the emotional and narrative legacies that define us. Drawing on scholars such as Jan Mason, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Saidiya Hartman, this piece explores the silence that surrounds intergenerational memory. Whether caused by disruption, grief, or survival, silence is shown to be both an absence and a form of protection. The editorial calls for greater intentionality in preserving stories through conversation, documentation, and creative expression as a way to resist erasure and affirm identity in the face of historical neglect. In a world where wars, migration, and climate disasters are uprooting millions, we risk losing not just homes but the stories, languages, and rituals that carry who we are. This piece is a call to hold on to those fragile histories beyond the facts and dates, so that what is most human in our past is not silenced by the speed and forgetting of the present.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040110

Authors: Serdar Özdemir

This study examines the figure of the baksı as a living reflection of ancient Turkic belief systems in contemporary Kazakh culture. The baksı, whose earliest attestations in Old Uyghur Turkic derive from the Chinese po-shih (“scholar, teacher”), historically denoted a wide range of roles, including religious guide, scholar, scribe, healer, bard, and shaman. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates philological, lexicographic, folkloric, and ethnographic perspectives, the research traces the semantic development of the term across Turkic and Mongolic traditions, its uses in historical texts, and its representations in Kazakh oral literature such as proverbs, idioms, epics, and fairy tales. The findings show that while the baksı has been idealised as a healer, sage, and spiritual mediator, it has also been depicted with suspicion as a deceiver or figure associated with jinn, particularly in the post-Islamic period. Ethnographic insights further reveal that becoming a baksı involves a sacred calling, initiation rituals, and distinctive clothing and performance practices, situating the figure at the intersection of religion, medicine, and art. The study concludes that the baksı is not only a historical heritage but also a dynamic cultural institution, mediating between past and present, nature and society, and continuing to shape Kazakh identity today.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040109

Authors: Vasile Chasciar Denisa Ramona Chasciar Claudiu Coman Ovidiu Florin Toderici Marcel Iordache Daniel Rareș Obadă

This study investigates the determinants of Romanian workers’ migration intentions towards Italy, integrating economic, social, and psychological perspectives. Based on a sample of 358 respondents, four hypotheses were tested concerning perceived living standards, working conditions, quality of public services, and anticipated integration difficulties. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rho correlation, Mann–Whitney U, Chi-square, ANOVA, and ordinal logistic regression. The results confirm that higher perceived living standards and better working conditions in Italy significantly increase the likelihood of expressing migration intentions, while favourable evaluations of healthcare and education act as additional pull factors. Conversely, anticipated integration difficulties, particularly language barriers and cultural adaptation, reduce migration intentions, indicating that socio-psychological obstacles can counterbalance economic incentives. By combining non-parametric and multivariate analyses, the study demonstrates that migration is a multidimensional process shaped not only by structural opportunities but also by behavioural and psychological appraisals. These findings are consistent with recent research on European labour mobility and contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of subjective perceptions in shaping migration decisions. Implications for policy include the need to address both economic disparities and integration barriers to support more balanced mobility within the European space.

Genealogy doi: 10.3390/genealogy9040108

Authors: Niyi Afolabi

Drawing upon the works of Kazadi wa Mukuma, Gerhard Kubik, Carlos de Lima, Vivian Gotheim, Wilson Nogueira, Temitope Fagunwa, and Alaba Simpson, this study traced the evolution of Bumba-Meu-Boi from its regional origins in Maranhao, Brazil, to its adaptation in Lagos, Nigeria, as an Afro-Brazilian returnee festival within the context of Lagos carnival. Beyond serving as a crucible for the historical return of repatriated Africans from Brazil following abolition of slavery in Brazil, the study also documents how the Afro-Brazilian community has been fully integrated into the Nigerian society. Through the formation of a thriving Brazilian Descendants Association, the Brazilian community has been able to sustain their Afro-Brazilian heritage through social events and community impact by preserving Brazilian architecture, culinary knowledge, festivals, teaching of Portuguese language, and the celebration of their Afro-Brazilian genealogical past.