Genetics, mass media, and identity

Description:

"This book, Genetics, Mass Media and Identity, looks at the effect of genetic research on the identity of the populations studied and is the first monograph devoted to the subject. The specific genetic research treated here was conducted in the 1990s on two quite different communities: the Lemba of southern Africa and the Bene Israel of western India. The genetic research had as its principal aim the solution of the mystery of the origin of the two groups. With the dissemination of the results of the tests in the mass media the Lemba became famous overnight as DNA analysis appeared to support their ambiguous historical traditions. These traditions which had hitherto been rejected by mainstream Jewish communities maintain that they are Jewish and came from a town called Sena 'somewhere in the far north'. In the case of the Bene Israel, another somewhat ambiguous Jewish group, the results were interpreted in a way which is embedded in local Indian traditions. This engaging and accessible study is based on extensive interviews with the members of the two communities and their neighbours and an analysis of a wide range of the mass media material devoted to them."--Jacket.

subjects: African Continental Ancestry Group,  Anthropometry,  Bene-Israel,  Blacks,  Blood Group Antigens,  Blood groups,  DNA fingerprinting,  Genetics,  Human population genetics,  Identity,  Jews,  Lemba (South African people),  Population Genetics,  Race identity,  Mass media,  Identity (philosophical concept),  Human genetics,  Blacks, race identity,  Jews, identity,  Jews, south africa,  Jews, india,  Black people,  Lemba (Peuple d'Afrique du Sud),  Anthropométrie,  Bené Israël,  Génétique des populations humaines,  Groupes sanguins,  Empreintes génétiques,  Juifs,  Identité,  Génétique des populations,  SOCIAL SCIENCE,  Essays,  Religious aspects,  Judaism

Places: India,  South Africa