DNA Ancestry Project

[avax]

Anyone heard about this? I just tuned into the radio for the first time in years and heard this being advertised as a christmas gift.


www.dnaancestryproject.com/

So would you? Do it? Be a part of the "project".
Would you give it as a christmas gift?

And,

"
Trace your Ancestry with DNA
Search!
Learn interesting facts about your ancestry, discover your global family and more.

* Who are your ancestors?
* Where did your ancestors originate from?
* Are you related to other people who have your surname?
* How did your family branch?

"

Could this be the new MySpace or Facebook?

"Hey man, can I add you cuz you're second closest to neanderthal, like me?"

[Mr Brad Pitt]

This project has been up for some years already, but I dunno if it's gained popularity yet.
It looks funny to actually see a map of your own venue, but still, it's about race... not everybody wants to be into race things like this one.

[avax]

No, I think you just made it about race. It doesn't seem to be advertised a such. It's described as finding your "ancestry" and how your ethnic strains or whatever they called it spread out over the globe. I have a suspicion that everyone from the racial nuts to adopted children have a yearning to know where they have originated from.

I'm wondering what they do with the collections for the database. Do they map the diaspora of many people?

What's interesting is that they promote the "project" by banking on the "shared ancestry" technique. "We all originated from Africa, let's join in, and find out how we all 'diversified'". I still can't find out WHAT the site is about, or what the "project" is really about. To whom are we contributing to with our "participation"? Who gets to see the larger picture and the product of all the dna testing going on from individuals "participating" internationally?

The parts about exhanging your dna for finding your own personal history sounds like a lure into contributing to a larger picture that is obscured from the public.

[Mr Brad Pitt]

From a scientific basis it's interesting, in that you can compare say genetic flux with ethnographic ones. As such, I saw they have a "DNA SURNAME Project".
The prospect of making a widescale family tree is also appealing for the commoners, not only the scientists: "where are we from? lulz".

But this concept, in its present form we're talking about, seems to be despisable. Quote from Genebase.com, the mother company:
"You are responsible for making the decision to upload your personal information to the Genebase website. Once you upload your information to Genebase's public database, it becomes accessible by all persons accessing Genebase for comparison. Genebase will not have any liability or obligation in connection with the publishing of any information by you."
This sentence proves that this DNA Scientific Project has not been made for scientific purposes, it smells commercial sh.it.

[EA Observer]

It just so happens that in the U.S. the popular TV magazine 60 Minutes did a segment on this topic:

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/05/60minutes/main3334427.shtml

And the New York Times also published an article about it:

www.nytimes.com/2006/04/12/us/12genes.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

However, both stories cautioned that the current DNA methods are too imprecise as to be pretty much useless for tracing a specific family's ancestry. The following quote is from the NYT article above:

"Many scientists criticize the ethnic ancestry tests as promising more than they can deliver. The legacy of an ancestor several generations back may be too diluted to show up. And the tests have a margin of error, so results showing a small amount of ancestry from one continent may not actually mean someone has any." - NYT, 04/12/2006.

[Hogan]

Cel you listening to the beat

[avax]

Okay. It's not even the beat anymore. It's called the crave. I'm so out of it I'm in it. I remember a time when z95 was cool. Where you been?

[attilathehun513]

Potentially this could be the new identification method for the government in tracking all your activities, too, which is anything but miscelleneous.

[Altan]

I did it a couple years back. Thinks it's the same test.
I did a cotton swab and sent it in and logged in to find the results.
It was pretty cool.
Found out my whole trail to almost modern nations states. One Haplogroup went out of Africa up into Arabia into Shams(politically correct for both Palestinians and Israelis) into Anatolia(Indo -European homeland) and than stopped in the heart of the Balkans.

Other Haplogroup went from Africa up into Shams up into Kavkaz(Caucasus Mtns) and into Central Asia and the Mountians of Northern China(Ural/Altaic playground) crossed eastward into Northern Asia.

That is both the x and Y historical paths.
That's like 35K to 45K back.

[avax]

Thanks, EA O.

I would give it as a christmas or birthday gift. Particularly to anyone who had a chip on their shoulder regarding ancestry. ;D

[Altan]

What's pretty interesting is my Haplogroup on my Caucasian side resided in Turkey where the Indo-Europeans grouped to become the Caucasian race. Maybe that's the reason Italians or Ancient Romans called Turkey Anatolia.....land of the Mother. They were right!

[Szymon Von Zalyn]

My elder sister did hers a couple of years ago and it seems that the female ancestry seems to have originally come from Mongolia and eastern europe whilst the male side has its origins in northern Italy.