![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
After a lifetime's fascination with history and anthropology, I'm about to realize a dream. I sent off for the National Geographic's Genographic testing kit and it arrived yesterday. I'll be sending them my DNA, via two cheek scrapings, and adding my information to the gigantic database they are building, tracing the lineage of every person on the planet back to our shared distant ancestors. The "family of mankind" is not a poetic metaphor, it's true.
Since the 1970's researchers have been taking DNA samples from people around the globe, and reading the genetic markers. They have traced all human life on Earth back to a single, still existing tribe in Africa, the San bushmen. That's right; deep down inside, we're all black.
I don't expect this information to change our global prejudices, but maybe it will help.
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/gen
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOS05GU
- Mood:
excited
Comments
Remember to rinse your mouth out before you do the scrapings, or lettuce DNA will wind up in the database (yes, it has happened).
I am curious - do you also fill out a form indicating what you know of your own heritage? I actually know quite little about this specific project.
The only form I was sent seems to be the consent form, which also asks me to specify which test, which in my case can only be the maternal.