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Ethics, ethnicity and genetic structure
in southeastern Kenya: implications
for the assignment of African-
Americans to African ethnic groups.
K.B. Babrowski, S.R. Williams. Department
of Anthropology, University of Illinois
– Chicago.
As genetic ancestry testing becomes
increasingly more popular, care must be
taken to avoid inadvertently reinforcing
public misconceptions concerning race and
ethnic identity. Members of the general
public often perceive ethnic groups to be
static and unchanging and view human
genetic variation as something that is
easily divided into orderly, nonoverlapping
ethnic or racial packages.
Our recent study of two large ethnic
groups from southeastern Kenya, the
Taita and Mijikenda, will serve to highlight
some of the difficulties inherent in
using genetic ancestry testing to assign
African-Americans to African ethnic
groups.Ethics, ethnicity and genetic structure
in southeastern Kenya: implications
for the assignment of African-
Americans to African ethnic groups.
K.B. Babrowski, S.R. Williams. Department
of Anthropology, University of Illinois
– Chicago.
As genetic ancestry testing becomes
increasingly more popular, care must be
taken to avoid inadvertently reinforcing
public misconceptions concerning race and
ethnic identity. Members of the general
public often perceive ethnic groups to be
static and unchanging and view human
genetic variation as something that is
easily divided into orderly, nonoverlapping
ethnic or racial packages.


Our recent study of two large ethnic
groups from southeastern Kenya, the
Taita and Mijikenda, will serve to highlight
some of the difficulties inherent in
using genetic ancestry testing to assign
African-Americans to African ethnic
groups.many social anthropologists and
historians. The complexity of genetic
patterning observed in this region suggests
that individuals who expect to be
provided with an exact “genetic match”
with their ancestral ethnic group based on
a DNA sample are likely to learn that this
is not possible.

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Paleodemography and health in Predynastic
Upper Egypt: a perspective
from the working-class cemetery at
Hierakonpolis.
E.K. Batey. Department of Anthropology,
University of Arkansas.
The rise of the Egyptian state was a
complex process, involving increases in
both population and per capita output. In
his work on the Industrial Revolution in
Europe, Komlos (1989) suggests that increased
availability of nutrients provided
many with an escape from the “Malthusian
trap” that had served as a check on
population growth for most of human
history. Within an economic-historical
framework, an expectation is that, for the
emerging Egyptian state, overall disease
and stress would have become so high, as
to suppress production. Paleodemographic
and paleopathological data from
the working-class cemetery at Hierakonpolis
(HK43) allow us to test hypotheses
regarding the overall health of those paying
the biological “cost” of increased economic
productivity.

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