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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/14/ethnicity-is-not-something-dictated-by-peoples-genes
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Ethnicity is not something dictated by people’s genes | Ethnicity is not something dictated by people’s genes |
| (6 days later) | |
| DNA testing to determine people’s origins (DNA uncovers villagers’ exotic heritage, 11 August) should come with a major health warning as interpretations are based on false scientific methodologies. | DNA testing to determine people’s origins (DNA uncovers villagers’ exotic heritage, 11 August) should come with a major health warning as interpretations are based on false scientific methodologies. |
| First, there is a confusion between two types of data. Our DNA is what we inherit from our parents and, until recently at least, could not be altered. Ethnic or “racial” terms like “English” are culturally constructed “imagined communities” and can be altered and redefined. Though genes may affect our perception of ethnicity (eg in skin colour) it is not dictated by them. | First, there is a confusion between two types of data. Our DNA is what we inherit from our parents and, until recently at least, could not be altered. Ethnic or “racial” terms like “English” are culturally constructed “imagined communities” and can be altered and redefined. Though genes may affect our perception of ethnicity (eg in skin colour) it is not dictated by them. |
| We have only a limited amount of information about the genetic makeup of earlier populations, and though this is improving, there will always be problems with small, biased sample sizes and big gaps in the archaeological record due to the skeletal evidence not surviving (destroyed by acidic soils, burial rites such as cremation, or many of the dead simply disappearing). | We have only a limited amount of information about the genetic makeup of earlier populations, and though this is improving, there will always be problems with small, biased sample sizes and big gaps in the archaeological record due to the skeletal evidence not surviving (destroyed by acidic soils, burial rites such as cremation, or many of the dead simply disappearing). |
| Reconstructions of past genetics are based on extrapolation from modern populations but this is highly dubious – the origin of a particular genetic mutation is not necessarily where it is most common today, so even assigning particular genetic combinations to a specific geographical area is problematic, let alone to an ethnic group. This is really the racial thinking of the 1930s with a new technology (see the confused Nazi definitions of who was a Jew, a Slav, or an Aryan).Prof Emeritus John CollisSheffield | Reconstructions of past genetics are based on extrapolation from modern populations but this is highly dubious – the origin of a particular genetic mutation is not necessarily where it is most common today, so even assigning particular genetic combinations to a specific geographical area is problematic, let alone to an ethnic group. This is really the racial thinking of the 1930s with a new technology (see the confused Nazi definitions of who was a Jew, a Slav, or an Aryan).Prof Emeritus John CollisSheffield |
| • A late Roman history claims that Clodius Albinus, the 2nd-century Roman governor of Britain and self-proclaimed emperor of Rome, was named Albinus on account of his extraordinary whiteness at birth (From Carlisle to Cairo: Romans could be from anywhere, 8 August). But it should be pointed out that the Romans could be a bit Jim Davidson when it came to naming prominent black people. When Martial addressed a famous prostitute named Chione (“snowy”) in epigram 3.34, he explicitly described her as black (“nigra”).Peter McKennaLiverpool | • A late Roman history claims that Clodius Albinus, the 2nd-century Roman governor of Britain and self-proclaimed emperor of Rome, was named Albinus on account of his extraordinary whiteness at birth (From Carlisle to Cairo: Romans could be from anywhere, 8 August). But it should be pointed out that the Romans could be a bit Jim Davidson when it came to naming prominent black people. When Martial addressed a famous prostitute named Chione (“snowy”) in epigram 3.34, he explicitly described her as black (“nigra”).Peter McKennaLiverpool |
| • When I began teaching history in the West Midlands in the late 1970s, from many sources, I was told that a cohort of black African auxiliaries had been left behind in the Wolverhampton area. | • When I began teaching history in the West Midlands in the late 1970s, from many sources, I was told that a cohort of black African auxiliaries had been left behind in the Wolverhampton area. |
| These were often the same sources who said that Wyatt Earp’s family were from West Bromwich and Walsall (the local press ran an article that the last direct relative had died in the early 1990s).Dr Alun ThomasCannock, Staffordshire | These were often the same sources who said that Wyatt Earp’s family were from West Bromwich and Walsall (the local press ran an article that the last direct relative had died in the early 1990s).Dr Alun ThomasCannock, Staffordshire |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |
| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |
| Genetics | Genetics |
| Race issues | Race issues |
| British identity and society | British identity and society |
| Heritage | Heritage |
| Biology | Biology |
| West Bromwich | West Bromwich |
| letters | letters |
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