Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project

[kevin leonard]

This Book was written by Spencer Wells who is currently working with National Geographic in an attempt to sample the DNA of as many people as possible. The book Deep ancestry revolves around this and some of the findings from the project as well. This book starts out with brief explanations into DNA mtDNA and the Y chromosome. These are all important for understanding the rest of the book. The second through sixth chapter are about the results of individuals ranging from people who would like to solidify their belief that they have ties dating back to Africa, people who already know their genetic origins and just ordinary people who want to find out. I consider this book a very interesting read, it was very enlightening. It is accessible to all readers because even if one misses something during the reading then all you have to do is go to the glossary in the back and look up the question you have. Also in the last section there are pages dedicated to the individual path that each genetic marker has taken to get where it is today. This book is good for beyond war, as with Spencer Wells other book it is also a great example of the fact that we are all one on this planet. It does this by showing our ties to the African continent and the mitochondrial eve and the y chromosome traced Adam .
1) Would you want to be able to take a look at your genes?
2) How would your opinion about races change if you found that you were closely related with a certain people?
3) Is the ability to trace our lineages through genetics going to have an effect on how we view ourselves
4) Spencer Wells denies the idea that there are individual races. How do you feel about this?
5) Can people have religious beliefs and still believe in the topics spoken of in this book?