Post by blackcrowheart on Feb 17, 2006 8:46:20 GMT -5
DNA gives blacks point of reference for identity
SOME FEAR INFORMATION CAN BE MISUSED
By Nathaniel Hoffman
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICEWALNUT
CREEK, Calif. - Melvyn Gillette knows her people are from Gum Springs, Ark.
She knew a great-grandfather was born in Alabama, became an African Methodist Episcopal minister and married in Gum Springs in 1866. She recently heard about Aunt Lula's high cheekbones.
But, without older relatives to interview, and with cousins spread all over the United States, the amateur genealogist and president of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, did not know much more about her family history.
Then she had her DNA tested and it linked to the Tikar people of Cameroon in West Africa.
"Even though I don't know who that person is who came from Cameroon, I'm still related to them," Gillette said, thumbing through birth and death records that she has collected in her Oakland, Calif., home.
A growing sector of the genetics industry, genetic genealogy, is changing the way African-Americans and other groups of people see their history. Companies that have compiled DNA data from Africa or from Native American tribes can take anyone's DNA and compare it with a database, possibly matching it to a specific population somewhere in the world.
Getting beyond the history of the slave trade is important to some.
"Having a history of enslavement isn't the most positive thing to identify with," said Gina Paige, president and co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based African Ancestry.
Many black families can trace their roots back only a few generations, and when students do family history projects in school they often come up short.
"When kids are saying my family comes from Poland or Russia, you have to say my family comes from Georgia or my family comes from Tennessee," Paige said.
DNA testing gives black Americans a more specific point of reference for their identity.
Gillette now refers to one cousin on the Tikar side of the family and her other cousins on the Kru side, a Liberian tribe.
Gillette has been to West Africa twice and has some interest in the cultures of Africa, but many African Americans have a large psychological stake in the continent. "Some people go into this with preconceived notions of who they are," said genetic ethicist Charmaine Royal.
Royal, director of the GenEthics unit at Howard University's National Human Genome Center, is studying why people get tested and how they react to the results.
"The information that people get is only a part of their ancestry," she said.
Adoptees have found even partial answers useful.
Debra Anne Royer always wore Native American jewelry and was told she looked Indian, but she had no information on her birth parents. A few years ago, Trace Genetics confirmed that she shared DNA mutations specific to a Northern California tribe.
"I saw it in my daughter," Royer said. "She looked like a little papoose."
Some people have used Trace Genetics testing as evidence to prove tribal membership or to confirm a native link in their family lore.
"The best stories are when people use it as a starting point for genealogy people who find out unexpectedly that they have mitochondrial DNA that's from a part of the Middle East that they weren't really aware of," senior research scientist Jason Eshleman said.
Eshleman, and Trace Genetics senior research director Ripan Malhi are molecular anthropologists and are aware that anthropologists have abused and ignored indigenous people for a century, even using disease and information gathered in the name of science against them.
Many Native American tribes are hesitant to work with the company, Malhi said. But Malhi said he tries to show tribal councils how DNA can also be used to identify the most likely descendant when Native American remains are unearthed and how it can be used to develop new medicines.
Royal, who has worked with both African Ancestry and Trace Genetics, said that Native Americans and African Americans have different concerns about the use of genetic material and information. Some Africa scholars say they fear DNA could be used to drive more wedges between African people.
"Some people are concerned about this information resulting in more division than unification," she said.
Many African-Americans already have an African identity and are not interested in more specific details.
"It doesn't matter whether it's Igbo or Ewe, I know culturally my base is in Africa," said Hattie Carwell, director of the Museum of African American Technology Science Village in Oakland, Calif.
Carwell would rather know who passed on her personality and what diseases she might be predisposed to, but she also has concerns that genetic profiles could lead to new forms of discrimination.
"Society will take any kind of information and use it against you if they can," Royal said.
SOME FEAR INFORMATION CAN BE MISUSED
By Nathaniel Hoffman
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICEWALNUT
CREEK, Calif. - Melvyn Gillette knows her people are from Gum Springs, Ark.
She knew a great-grandfather was born in Alabama, became an African Methodist Episcopal minister and married in Gum Springs in 1866. She recently heard about Aunt Lula's high cheekbones.
But, without older relatives to interview, and with cousins spread all over the United States, the amateur genealogist and president of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, did not know much more about her family history.
Then she had her DNA tested and it linked to the Tikar people of Cameroon in West Africa.
"Even though I don't know who that person is who came from Cameroon, I'm still related to them," Gillette said, thumbing through birth and death records that she has collected in her Oakland, Calif., home.
A growing sector of the genetics industry, genetic genealogy, is changing the way African-Americans and other groups of people see their history. Companies that have compiled DNA data from Africa or from Native American tribes can take anyone's DNA and compare it with a database, possibly matching it to a specific population somewhere in the world.
Getting beyond the history of the slave trade is important to some.
"Having a history of enslavement isn't the most positive thing to identify with," said Gina Paige, president and co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based African Ancestry.
Many black families can trace their roots back only a few generations, and when students do family history projects in school they often come up short.
"When kids are saying my family comes from Poland or Russia, you have to say my family comes from Georgia or my family comes from Tennessee," Paige said.
DNA testing gives black Americans a more specific point of reference for their identity.
Gillette now refers to one cousin on the Tikar side of the family and her other cousins on the Kru side, a Liberian tribe.
Gillette has been to West Africa twice and has some interest in the cultures of Africa, but many African Americans have a large psychological stake in the continent. "Some people go into this with preconceived notions of who they are," said genetic ethicist Charmaine Royal.
Royal, director of the GenEthics unit at Howard University's National Human Genome Center, is studying why people get tested and how they react to the results.
"The information that people get is only a part of their ancestry," she said.
Adoptees have found even partial answers useful.
Debra Anne Royer always wore Native American jewelry and was told she looked Indian, but she had no information on her birth parents. A few years ago, Trace Genetics confirmed that she shared DNA mutations specific to a Northern California tribe.
"I saw it in my daughter," Royer said. "She looked like a little papoose."
Some people have used Trace Genetics testing as evidence to prove tribal membership or to confirm a native link in their family lore.
"The best stories are when people use it as a starting point for genealogy people who find out unexpectedly that they have mitochondrial DNA that's from a part of the Middle East that they weren't really aware of," senior research scientist Jason Eshleman said.
Eshleman, and Trace Genetics senior research director Ripan Malhi are molecular anthropologists and are aware that anthropologists have abused and ignored indigenous people for a century, even using disease and information gathered in the name of science against them.
Many Native American tribes are hesitant to work with the company, Malhi said. But Malhi said he tries to show tribal councils how DNA can also be used to identify the most likely descendant when Native American remains are unearthed and how it can be used to develop new medicines.
Royal, who has worked with both African Ancestry and Trace Genetics, said that Native Americans and African Americans have different concerns about the use of genetic material and information. Some Africa scholars say they fear DNA could be used to drive more wedges between African people.
"Some people are concerned about this information resulting in more division than unification," she said.
Many African-Americans already have an African identity and are not interested in more specific details.
"It doesn't matter whether it's Igbo or Ewe, I know culturally my base is in Africa," said Hattie Carwell, director of the Museum of African American Technology Science Village in Oakland, Calif.
Carwell would rather know who passed on her personality and what diseases she might be predisposed to, but she also has concerns that genetic profiles could lead to new forms of discrimination.
"Society will take any kind of information and use it against you if they can," Royal said.