Abstract
Forty years since the publication of Alex Haley’s Roots, we find ourselves in an era of self-discovery around race, identity, and history. As James Baldwin ([1976] 1985:556) wrote of Haley’s epic tome, “[Roots] suggests, with great power, how each of us, however unconsciously, can’t but be the vehicle of the history which has produced us. Well, we can perish in this vehicle, children, or we can move on up the road.”
Alondra Nelson’s The Social Life of DNA examines the catapulting of ancestry, once again, to the forefront of societal discourse by scientific innovations situating DNA as “the final arbiter of truth of identity” (p. 4), increasingly used in reconciliation projects to build bridges destroyed by horrific eras. Further, the importance of incorporating the social context of genetics to understand its revitalized and growing centrality around social issues is provided for readers to comprehend possible ramifications of integrating genetics into discussions of history and identity. Nelson discusses how people of African descent are embracing the power of their own bodies as vehicles of history, identity, and possibility using genetic genealogy to take back the pen and more fully write their diasporic community histories and push for social justice. Ultimately, Nelson’s ethnography documents how scientists and everyday people alike struggle with identities as they work to construct an “authentic self” (p. 7) and expand the prospects for future generations using the purported power of genetics as they move on up the road in the twenty-first century.
The volume is a decade-long ethnography combining multiple data and contextual information to describe how reconciliation projects use genetic ancestry testing. Nelson coalesces her own genetic genealogical journey to trace her ancestry in addition to interviews with scientists such as Rick Kittles, co-founder of the genetic genealogy company African Ancestry, and amateur genealogists. Also included are observations during genealogical conferences and events, including ancestry “reveals,” academic and public talks, and a “virtual ethnography” whereby she engaged with online communities of people working to trace their African ancestry.
Despite a seemingly dizzying array of scientific techniques and terminology, Nelson provides straightforward descriptions of how genetic analyses relate to tracing one’s ancestry. Importantly, these discussions include coverage of the genetic politics surrounding reconciliation projects using ancestry testing. These projects include identifying orphaned and disappeared family members in Argentina and South Africa, uncovering dismissed or hidden family members of historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson, and rebuilding community connections between African Americans and their ancestors from across Africa lost during transatlantic slavery in the pursuit of atonement for such histories.
The Social Life of DNA clarifies how DNA has both a social power and social life that intersect around race, history, and identity. The social power of DNA situates genetic materials as the “true origin” of identity accessible only by scientists. The human and social context of DNA provides the social life, attributing meanings and import to why genetic materials and testing are used to solidify identities and histories over other genealogical and historical approaches. Nelson pinpoints the African Burial Ground Project (ABGP) as producing critical “recontextualization” work that developed genetic genealogy and ancestry testing, giving DNA its revived social power and codifying people’s reliance on DNA to relay historical and ancestral information. Scholars across the biomedical and social sciences shifted from descriptive approaches of racial classification to analytical approaches of ethnicity and ancestry. This shift also marked the development of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, which divided scientists and social activists given ethical concerns of earning profits from people searching for history and identity in a past marked by destruction.
During and since the ABGP, Nelson documents black communities empowering themselves through history and innovation to reconcile shattered and imprisoned identities with activism and research. Through this quest, genetic genealogy is asserted by scientists and families as a more authoritative approach to constructing identities than conventional genealogical work. However, these efforts are not always successful. As Nelson shows, the melding of DNA’s social power with its social life can cause people to experience “genealogical disorientation” as they rely heavily on the tests results to construct specific histories and identities. In these situations, ancestry testing may not fully satisfy a person’s search for identity because it can lack specificity with the use of vague groupings such as “West African” or override other genealogical information held tightly by families such as information pointing to familial origins in modern-day Ghana but tests results that negate this information.
A critical theme of the volume is the somewhat perplexing reality surrounding reconciliation projects and the “DNA mystique” that considers race a significant component of life at the molecular level while these efforts simultaneously exist in a society that eschews discussions of racial inequality, favoring colorblindness. This is prominently found in the volume’s coverage of the ongoing pursuit for and denial of reparations in Farmer-Paellmann v. FleetBoston as descendants of slavery seek reparations using genetic genealogy not simply for financial assets but to “[address] a loss of fundamental humanity” (p. 125). When paired with the importance of the “reveal” in pursuit of ancestry and identity, readers find that African Americans can have their ancestries unveiled by genetic genealogy and even make successful cases for dual citizenship as, for example, “DNA Sierra Leoneans,” but scientific analyses and documentation of slavery connections is still not enough in a society that attempts to move beyond its past without recognizing that such a dehumanizing past exists and continues to influence the present and future.
Overall, The Social Life of DNA is an important contribution to many literatures and will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for academic and public discussion of the intertwined relationships among race, science, and policy in the coming years.