[ExI] it's your choice

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
Keith Henson via extropy-chat

<spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

> I do take the notion lightly, for I am watching a time when the 
> concept of race is being stretched beyond recognition.  It used to be
pretty simple.  But now, it really isn't...



Clarification of my earlier comment please, regarding the 60 dollar DNA
tests.

There is plenty of guesswork and wishful thinking in the genealogy game.
What those DNA tests are really good for is connecting you with 3rd and 4th
cousins who you really can verify are actual genetic relatives with these
cheapy tests.  If you have a group of those, often 300 to 1000 people,
someone or some-many in that group are going to know one hell of a lot about
your common ancestor.  They might have inherited the actual documentation,
or live near where the old timers lived and know the family stories from a
loooong time ago, in some cases know right where the family originated in
the old country.

Wishful thinking: we were discussing how people somehow identify with a
particular culture, perhaps they just dig their style there, even if there
is no genetic component.  Example: Japan.  I like theirs: clean, orderly,
high tech, all the stuff I like and admire in a society, but I can assure
you I have no Japanese ancestors.

Consider the American, such as my mother, who went on a tour of Europe when
she was about 50.  She knew nothing of her ancestry, just went with a tour
group, was there four weeks, did all the tourist stuff, had fun, went to the
art museums and the castles and all the usual things, but there was one
standout experience: the group was in Germany and they went somewhere and
had a big party completely had a blast.  They loved it.  My mother
considered it the highlight of the trip.

20 yrs went by, cheap DNA tests became available, we did them, part of our
DNA traced back to a region in Germany, not all that far from where they had
the big German party on the tour.  She learned of the German connection for
the first time, after the DNA test.  But as far as my mother is concerned,
she is German now (Jewish at that.)  Well OK then.

I can show her that I am more German than she is, and that we are both more
Scotch than German, but I just play along.

There is wishful thinking mixed with the science if you go in for that sorta
thing.  

Still I am looking forward to going to Germany in the next few years and
finding the ancestral homeland.  I have a 3rd cousin who has been there and
verified the stories.  I'll take my yarmulke.  Might go to Scotland and find
the other homeland as well.

spike