GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2008-05 > 1212109176


From: "Peter A. Kincaid" <>
Subject: [DNA] DNA objectivity was Re: A rose is a rose is a rose
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 21:59:36 -0300
References: <C465785F.F001%bobhay@optusnet.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <C465785F.F001%bobhay@optusnet.com.au>


> (2) One of the things important to most humans is a sense of continuity
> with
> our past, both collectively and individually. The boom in family history
> services is commercial testament to this need. Now genetic genealogy has
> moved into this niche. I found it disturbing when EA said I was S28+ and
> therefore not of Pictish/Scots origin as I had been brought up to believe.

I think that there is too much buying into some sort of "racial purity"
with DNA testing. Just because you are S28+, S21+, or whatever;
does not diminish the possibility that you are of Pictish or Scots in
origin. There is no evidence that any culture in Europe, at any
point in time, was comprised of a single haplogroup. There is great
debate about the actual age of many of the haplogroups we see
in today's population. Only when universal agreement is reached
about 1) the age of a particular haplogroup and 2) the origin of
that particular haplogroup, can we begin to speculate as to whether
it was part of a population in a certain locale. Regardless, the people
we identify as Picts or Scots post date any current age estimates
for the European haplogroups and its subclades. S28+, S21+. etc.
could have been established in Scotland in significant numbers by that
time. This testing will not determine whether your line is Pictish or
Scots.

This parallels with the Greenland story. Determining the
haplogroup of a single sample of hair does not prove who the original
settlers of Greenland were. This person could have wandered into
the area and been killed by the natives of Greenland whose ancestors
lived there for many years before. Many more samples from the same
timeframe would be needed first. In the mad rush to assign racially
pure populations to an area using DNA, objectivity seems to be
taking a backseat.

Peter

This thread: