GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-03 > 1174537378


From:
Subject: Re: [DNA] [DNA} mtDNA of H in Native American
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:22:58 EDT


>All of us need to be careful about interpreting results for others.

I think you are right. I should have said my issue was more with how to
educate and deal with a person after I had already dealt a blow to her
identity. At the time, I was surprised that someone who knew about
the mtDNA results would be so resistant to being told the scientific
interpretation as most of us would see it. As soon as I got an
extreme reaction, I realized I made a big mistake so wanted to then
soft pedal it. The mtDNA test was actually done by her son
who may not have understood the implications either when he
put me in touch with his mother who is a wonderful genealogical
researcher, by the way. Who wants to burn bridges?

It kind of reminds me of the reaction Spencer Wells got from some
Native Americans who weren't quite willing to buy the idea that they
did not originate from the land where they had lived for centuries.
In the documentary, Spencer was gentle, yet firm in his own beliefs.
It would be interesting to know if he ever convinced them that we are
all one connected family or if he decided to just let it go. Scientists
have a hard time with the belief systems of people. Evolution just
makes so much darn sense, and who can argue with DNA? That is
not to say that you can't have spirituality and believe in science at
the same time. Even I can't believe that we are just made up of nucleotides,
some basic elements, and there is not much else out there. I look at a
full genomic sequence of a mitochondrion at GenBank and I have to
ask "Is that ALL there is to running the energy mechanism in a cell?
I don't think so!"

Kathy J.



************************************** AOL now offers free email to everyone.
Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.

This thread: