quote: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.
quote: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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