DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America

DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404761
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Crisscrossing the continent, a renowned geneticist provides a groundbreaking examination of America through its DNA. The best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve now turns his sights on the United States, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world. From the blue-blooded pockets of old-WASP New England to the vast tribal lands of the Navajo, Bryan Sykes takes us on a historical genetic tour, interviewing genealogists, geneticists, anthropologists, and everyday Americans with compelling ancestral stories. His findings suggest: • Of Americans whose ancestors came as slaves, virtually all have some European DNA. • Racial intermixing appears least common among descendants of early New England colonists. • There is clear evidence of Jewish genes among descendants of southwestern Spanish Catholics. • Among white Americans, evidence of African DNA is most common in the South. • European genes appeared among Native Americans as early as ten thousand years ago. An unprecedented look into America's genetic mosaic and how we perceive race, DNA USA challenges the very notion of what we think it means to be American.

DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America

DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404761
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book

Book Description
Crisscrossing the continent, a renowned geneticist provides a groundbreaking examination of America through its DNA. The best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve now turns his sights on the United States, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world. From the blue-blooded pockets of old-WASP New England to the vast tribal lands of the Navajo, Bryan Sykes takes us on a historical genetic tour, interviewing genealogists, geneticists, anthropologists, and everyday Americans with compelling ancestral stories. His findings suggest: • Of Americans whose ancestors came as slaves, virtually all have some European DNA. • Racial intermixing appears least common among descendants of early New England colonists. • There is clear evidence of Jewish genes among descendants of southwestern Spanish Catholics. • Among white Americans, evidence of African DNA is most common in the South. • European genes appeared among Native Americans as early as ten thousand years ago. An unprecedented look into America's genetic mosaic and how we perceive race, DNA USA challenges the very notion of what we think it means to be American.

Dna Usa

Dna Usa PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0871403587
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Crisscrossing the continent, a renowned geneticist provides a groundbreaking examination of America through its DNA. Bryan Sykes, one of the world’s leading geneticists and best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, sets his sights on America, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world. Sykes embarks on a road trip—DNA testing kit in tow—interviewing genealogists, anthropologists, and everyday Americans, tracing America’s history along a double helix that stretches from the last Ice Age to the present day. What emerges is an unprecedented look into America’s genetic mosaic that challenges the very notion of how we perceive race and what it means to be an American.

Seven Daughters of Eve

Seven Daughters of Eve PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393323146
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This national bestseller, now in paperback, reveals how all humans are descended from seven prehistoric women--the Seven Daughters of Eve.

Trace Your Roots with DNA

Trace Your Roots with DNA PDF Author: Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
Publisher: Rodale Books
ISBN: 1609616162
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Written by two of the country's top genealogists, this is the first book to explain how new and groundbreaking genetic testing can help you research your ancestry According to American Demographics, 113 million Americans have begun to trace their roots, making genealogy the second most popular hobby in the country (after gardening). Enthusiasts clamor for new information from dozens of subscription-based websites, email newsletters, and magazines devoted to the subject. For these eager roots-seekers looking to take their searches to the next level, DNA testing is the answer. After a brief introduction to genealogy and genetics fundamentals, the authors explain the types of available testing, what kind of information the tests can provide, how to interpret the results, and how the tests work (it doesn't involve digging up your dead relatives). It's in expensive, easy to do, and the results are accurate: It's as simple as swabbing the inside of your cheek and popping a sample in the mail. Family lore has it that a branch of our family emigrated to Argentina and now I've found some people there with our name. Can testing tell us whether we're from the same family? My mother was adopted and doesn't know her ethnicity. Are there any tests available to help her learn about her heritage? I just discovered someone else with my highly unusual surname. How can we find out if we have a common ancestor? These are just a few of the types of genealogical scenarios readers can pursue. The authors reveal exactly what is possible-and what is not possible-with genetic testing. They include case studies of both famous historial mysteries and examples of ordinary folks whose exploration of genetic genealogy has enabled them to trace their roots.

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393079783
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
From the best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, a perfect book for anyone interested in the genetic history of Britain, Ireland, and America. One of the world's leading geneticists, Bryan Sykes has helped thousands find their ancestry in the British Isles. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts, which resulted from a systematic ten-year DNA survey of more than 10,000 volunteers, traces the true genetic makeup of the British Isles and its descendants, taking readers from the Pontnewydd cave in North Wales to the resting place of the Red Lady of Paviland and the tomb of King Arthur. This illuminating guide provides a much-needed introduction to the genetic history of the people of the British Isles and their descendants throughout the world.

The Human Inheritance

The Human Inheritance PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198502746
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Very little excites human curiosity quite so much as contemplating human origins. More than any other branch of science, evolution - and human evolution in particular - is fraught with controversy. Working from what is essentially the same data, schools of opinion have come to diametrically opposed conclusions. Are we adapted Neanderthals, or a new species altogether which wiped them out? Did the first Americans enter the continent 30,000 or 12,000 years ago? Did the Polynesians sail against wind and current to an unknown fate, or were they just blown across from South America while out fishing? Why do we speak different languages? Is it because language traces our biological history, or are the two things completely unrelated? Evolution, because it deals with a past that can never conclusively be known, was once ideal material for perpetual debate. Enter genetics with a completely new source of objective data. Surely these old questions would soon be settled one way or another. Or would they? Bryan Sykes brings together a world-class set of contributors to debate these questions. The result is eight lively essays, each of which offers a different opinion about what the links between genes, language, and the archaeological record can tell us about human evolution - and indeed, whether they can tell us anything conclusive at all. This stimulating and challenging book poses more questions than it offers answers, eschews jargon, and pursues controversy. Guaranteed to fascinate anyone who has ever wondered how the fossil record, the incredible diversity of human language, and our genetic inheritance might combine to give a glimpse of human origins. Edited by Bryan Sykes, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford. Publisher's note.

Adam's Curse

Adam's Curse PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393058963
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Examines the history and future of the Y chromosome and maintains that because it is unable to exchange genetic material or repair itself, the day will come when it will cease to exist.

Blood of the Isles

Blood of the Isles PDF Author: Bryan Sykes
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446438805
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Bryan Sykes, the world's first genetic archaeologist, takes us on a journey around the family tree of Britain and Ireland, to reveal how our tribal history still colours the country today. In 54BC Julius Caesar launched the first Roman invasion of Britain. His was the first detailed account of the Celtic tribes that inhabited the Isles. But where had they come from and how long had they been there? When the Romans eventually left five hundred years later, they were succeeded by invasions of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Did these successive invasions obliterate the genetic legacy of the Celts, or have very little effect? After two decades tracing the genetic origins of peoples from all over the world, Bryan Sykes has now turned the spotlight on his own back yard. In a major research programme, the first of its kind, he set out to test the DNA of over 10,000 volunteers from across Britain and Ireland with the specific aim of answering this very question: what is our modern genetic make-up and what does it tell us of our tribal past? Are the modern people of the Isles a delicious genetic cocktail? Or did the invaders keep mostly to themselves forming separate genetic layers within the Isles? As his findings came in, Bryan Sykes discovered that the genetic evidence revealed often very different stories to the conventional accounts coming from history and archaeology. Blood of the Isles reveals the nature of our genetic make-up as never before and what this says about our attitudes to ourselves, each other, and to our past. It is a gripping story that will fascinate and surprise with its conclusions.

The Lost Family

The Lost Family PDF Author: Libby Copeland
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1683358937
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
“A fascinating exploration of the mysteries ignited by DNA genealogy testing—from the intensely personal and concrete to the existential and unsolvable.” —Tana French, New York Times–bestselling author You swab your cheek or spit in a vial, then send it away to a lab somewhere. Weeks later you get a report that might tell you where your ancestors came from or if you carry certain genetic risks. Or, the report could reveal a long-buried family secret that upends your entire sense of identity. Soon a lark becomes an obsession, a relentless drive to find answers to questions at the core of your being, like “Who am I?” and “Where did I come from?” Welcome to the age of home genetic testing. In The Lost Family, journalist Libby Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. She explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story. Gripping and masterfully told, The Lost Family is a spectacular book on a big, timely subject. “An urgently necessary, powerful book that addresses one of the most complex social and bioethical issues of our time.” —Dani Shapiro, New York Times–bestselling author “Before you spit in that vial, read this book.” —The New York Times Book Review “Impeccably researched . . . up-to-the-minute science meets the philosophy of identity in a poignant, engaging debut.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Genetics and the Unsettled Past

Genetics and the Unsettled Past PDF Author: Keith Wailoo
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813553369
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Our genetic markers have come to be regarded as portals to the past. Analysis of these markers is increasingly used to tell the story of human migration; to investigate and judge issues of social membership and kinship; to rewrite history and collective memory; to right past wrongs and to arbitrate legal claims and human rights controversies; and to open new thinking about health and well-being. At the same time, in many societies genetic evidence is being called upon to perform a kind of racially charged cultural work: to repair the racial past and to transform scholarly and popular opinion about the “nature” of identity in the present. Genetics and the Unsettled Past considers the alignment of genetic science with commercial genealogy, with legal and forensic developments, and with pharmaceutical innovation to examine how these trends lend renewed authority to biological understandings of race and history. This unique collection brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines—biology, history, cultural studies, law, medicine, anthropology, ethnic studies, sociology—to explore the emerging and often contested connections among race, DNA, and history. Written for a general audience, the book’s essays touch upon a variety of topics, including the rise and implications of DNA in genealogy, law, and other fields; the cultural and political uses and misuses of genetic information; the way in which DNA testing is reshaping understandings of group identity for French Canadians, Native Americans, South Africans, and many others within and across cultural and national boundaries; and the sweeping implications of genetics for society today.