Episode 31: Ancestry, DNA, and Biological Essentialism

In this episode hosts Astra, Fel, and Han explore ancestry, the importance of DNA in determining eligibility to participate in closed practices and other traditions alongside issues of biological essentialism. Do DNA tests such as 23 & Me actually give you accurate and useable data? If so, how, if at all, does that translate to occult practices? Or is a practice defined by the spirituality of location and not through biological inheritance?

Want to discuss these topics with us more? Join the discord here: https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBc

Resources:

Low Coverage of Whole Genome Sequencing: https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13073-019-0682-2

History and Current Approaches to Genome Sequencing: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2001037019303277?token=E13A38288C654F65E0304EA37B1108BF2348D197EC9AC225338DCF7E210A65FC87FC4D1588C854C5FD51884F7DFE04E1&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20211120003753

Personalised Medicine and Whole Genome Sequencing: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2019.00049/full

Ancestry: Understanding Genetics (good summary of science in English terms): https://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/same-dna-different-ancestry-results

Defining signal thresholds in DNA microarrays: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC117791/

Black Death Left a Mark on the Human Genome: https://www.science.org/content/article/black-death-left-mark-human-genome