Christine Scodari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817785
- eISBN:
- 9781496817822
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817785.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
For over two decades, the media have chronicled escalating participation in family history prompted by, among other things, the aging of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, the growing availability of ...
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For over two decades, the media have chronicled escalating participation in family history prompted by, among other things, the aging of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, the growing availability of digital genealogy sites and archives, and a burgeoning interest in racial and ethnic history and culture of the sort inspired by the airing of the historical drama miniseries Roots forty years ago.
Alternate Roots is the first book to critically address a wide array of media-related institutions, texts, technologies, and practices of family history readily encountered in the new millennium, including genealogy-themed television series, books, documentaries, websites, family photos and civil records, social media interactions, genealogical institutions, “roots” tourism, and genetic ancestry testing services capitalizing on the 2003 mapping of the human genome. These objects of inquiry present unique and pressing issues for critical investigation in terms of economic and privacy concerns as well as ethnicity, race, and hybrid identities.
Judiciously interweaving her own genealogical journey involving ethnic, racial, classed, and gendered identities pertinent to her southern Italian and Italian American family history throughout the multifaceted examination of critical objects, Christine Scodari unearths pivot points of thought and action in the performance and representation of family history that can be adapted by others and facilitated by digital media. This alternate roots strategy, an expansive approach to family history, enables practitioners to venture beyond genetic definitions of kinship, their own ancestral history, and the struggles of those sharing their affiliations, and to interrogate genealogical media and related commodities and activities accordingly.Less
For over two decades, the media have chronicled escalating participation in family history prompted by, among other things, the aging of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, the growing availability of digital genealogy sites and archives, and a burgeoning interest in racial and ethnic history and culture of the sort inspired by the airing of the historical drama miniseries Roots forty years ago.
Alternate Roots is the first book to critically address a wide array of media-related institutions, texts, technologies, and practices of family history readily encountered in the new millennium, including genealogy-themed television series, books, documentaries, websites, family photos and civil records, social media interactions, genealogical institutions, “roots” tourism, and genetic ancestry testing services capitalizing on the 2003 mapping of the human genome. These objects of inquiry present unique and pressing issues for critical investigation in terms of economic and privacy concerns as well as ethnicity, race, and hybrid identities.
Judiciously interweaving her own genealogical journey involving ethnic, racial, classed, and gendered identities pertinent to her southern Italian and Italian American family history throughout the multifaceted examination of critical objects, Christine Scodari unearths pivot points of thought and action in the performance and representation of family history that can be adapted by others and facilitated by digital media. This alternate roots strategy, an expansive approach to family history, enables practitioners to venture beyond genetic definitions of kinship, their own ancestral history, and the struggles of those sharing their affiliations, and to interrogate genealogical media and related commodities and activities accordingly.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
What might be wrong with genetic accounts of personal or shared ancestry and origins? Genetic studies are often presented as valuable ways of understanding where we come from and how people are ...
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What might be wrong with genetic accounts of personal or shared ancestry and origins? Genetic studies are often presented as valuable ways of understanding where we come from and how people are related. In Genetic Geographies, Catherine Nash pursues their troubling implications for our perception of sexual and national, as well as racial, difference. Bringing an incisive geographical focus to bear on new genetic histories and genetic genealogy, Nash explores the making of ideas of genetic ancestry, indigeneity, and origins; the global human family; and national genetic heritage. In particular, she engages with the science, culture, and commerce of ancestry in the United States and the United Kingdom, including National Geographic’s Genographic Project and the People of the British Isles project. Tracing the tensions and contradictions between the emphasis on human genetic similarity and shared ancestry, and the attention given to distinctive patterns of relatedness and different ancestral origins, Nash challenges the assumption that the concepts of shared ancestry are necessarily progressive. She extends this scrutiny to claims about the “natural” differences between the sexes and the “nature” of reproduction in studies of the geography of human genetic variation. Through its focus on sex, nation, and race, and its novel spatial lens, Genetic Geographies provides a timely critical guide to what happens when genetic science maps relatedness.Less
What might be wrong with genetic accounts of personal or shared ancestry and origins? Genetic studies are often presented as valuable ways of understanding where we come from and how people are related. In Genetic Geographies, Catherine Nash pursues their troubling implications for our perception of sexual and national, as well as racial, difference. Bringing an incisive geographical focus to bear on new genetic histories and genetic genealogy, Nash explores the making of ideas of genetic ancestry, indigeneity, and origins; the global human family; and national genetic heritage. In particular, she engages with the science, culture, and commerce of ancestry in the United States and the United Kingdom, including National Geographic’s Genographic Project and the People of the British Isles project. Tracing the tensions and contradictions between the emphasis on human genetic similarity and shared ancestry, and the attention given to distinctive patterns of relatedness and different ancestral origins, Nash challenges the assumption that the concepts of shared ancestry are necessarily progressive. She extends this scrutiny to claims about the “natural” differences between the sexes and the “nature” of reproduction in studies of the geography of human genetic variation. Through its focus on sex, nation, and race, and its novel spatial lens, Genetic Geographies provides a timely critical guide to what happens when genetic science maps relatedness.
Christine Scodari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817785
- eISBN:
- 9781496817822
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817785.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The introduction narrates the author’s experiences with and practices of family history that led to her decision to critically investigate genealogy media and culture from the perspective of race, ...
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The introduction narrates the author’s experiences with and practices of family history that led to her decision to critically investigate genealogy media and culture from the perspective of race, ethnicity, and intersected identities. It details the relevant research questions and critical objects, supplies theories and concepts appropriate to the task, outlines the methods used to examine associated institutions, media texts, and audiences/participatory cultures of genealogy, and previews upcoming chapters.Less
The introduction narrates the author’s experiences with and practices of family history that led to her decision to critically investigate genealogy media and culture from the perspective of race, ethnicity, and intersected identities. It details the relevant research questions and critical objects, supplies theories and concepts appropriate to the task, outlines the methods used to examine associated institutions, media texts, and audiences/participatory cultures of genealogy, and previews upcoming chapters.
Christine Scodari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817785
- eISBN:
- 9781496817822
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817785.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Chapter Five interrogates genetic ancestry texts and practices in terms of genealogy television portrayals and other traditional media treatments in such media as books and documentaries. It assesses ...
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Chapter Five interrogates genetic ancestry texts and practices in terms of genealogy television portrayals and other traditional media treatments in such media as books and documentaries. It assesses issues related to race/ethnicity and their intersected identities, hybridity, definitions of kinship, and racism and racialization. It also considers the unique “brick walls” facing descendants of slaves in tracing their genealogy, and how and genetic ancestry operates in these circumstances.Less
Chapter Five interrogates genetic ancestry texts and practices in terms of genealogy television portrayals and other traditional media treatments in such media as books and documentaries. It assesses issues related to race/ethnicity and their intersected identities, hybridity, definitions of kinship, and racism and racialization. It also considers the unique “brick walls” facing descendants of slaves in tracing their genealogy, and how and genetic ancestry operates in these circumstances.
Christine Scodari
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817785
- eISBN:
- 9781496817822
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817785.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Chapter Six explores digital media’s role in genetic ancestry discourses in terms of issues related to race/ethnicity and their intersected identities, hybridity, definitions of kinship, and racism ...
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Chapter Six explores digital media’s role in genetic ancestry discourses in terms of issues related to race/ethnicity and their intersected identities, hybridity, definitions of kinship, and racism and racialization. It addresses the rhetoric of testing service providers, YouTube videos, and the virtual interplay of participants. The author’s auto-ethnographic experiences with genetic ancestry are also provided, helping to reveal how connections can be made with genetic kin through social media, and how testing providers participate in the construction of racial categories as they present “ethnic ancestry” results to patrons.Less
Chapter Six explores digital media’s role in genetic ancestry discourses in terms of issues related to race/ethnicity and their intersected identities, hybridity, definitions of kinship, and racism and racialization. It addresses the rhetoric of testing service providers, YouTube videos, and the virtual interplay of participants. The author’s auto-ethnographic experiences with genetic ancestry are also provided, helping to reveal how connections can be made with genetic kin through social media, and how testing providers participate in the construction of racial categories as they present “ethnic ancestry” results to patrons.
Takiyah Nur Amin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Jazz dance, a uniquely American dance form, is rooted in and informed by African movement idioms and aesthetics that travelled to the United States with the trafficking of African peoples, commonly ...
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Jazz dance, a uniquely American dance form, is rooted in and informed by African movement idioms and aesthetics that travelled to the United States with the trafficking of African peoples, commonly referred to as The Middle Passage or the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the enslavement era, African dances were transformed to African-American dances with the addition of various movements derived from whites. Post-enslavement and throughout the 20th century, African-American dance evolved in several different directions, one of which was jazz dance. While the term “jazz dance” was not coined until the 1920s, the primary “ancestry” of jazz dance can be found by studying African dance forms and how they changed in the context of plantation life. By decentralizing the primacy of non-African cultural contributions, jazz dance can be more appropriately understood as an amalgamation of cultural influences that informed and created this uniquely American dance form, which remains persistently African at its core.Less
Jazz dance, a uniquely American dance form, is rooted in and informed by African movement idioms and aesthetics that travelled to the United States with the trafficking of African peoples, commonly referred to as The Middle Passage or the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the enslavement era, African dances were transformed to African-American dances with the addition of various movements derived from whites. Post-enslavement and throughout the 20th century, African-American dance evolved in several different directions, one of which was jazz dance. While the term “jazz dance” was not coined until the 1920s, the primary “ancestry” of jazz dance can be found by studying African dance forms and how they changed in the context of plantation life. By decentralizing the primacy of non-African cultural contributions, jazz dance can be more appropriately understood as an amalgamation of cultural influences that informed and created this uniquely American dance form, which remains persistently African at its core.
Fazia Aïtel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813049397
- eISBN:
- 9780813050164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049397.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The final chapter engages the work of the world renowned writer and filmmaker Assia Djebar, an Algerian woman of Berber origin known for tackling her complex relationship with the French language and ...
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The final chapter engages the work of the world renowned writer and filmmaker Assia Djebar, an Algerian woman of Berber origin known for tackling her complex relationship with the French language and the place and voice of women in Algerian history and Islam. For decades, Djebar focused on her relationship with the French language and with French culture, as an Algerian woman born and raised under the aegis of the French colonial regime. This chapter examines her relationship to the Berber language, which only emerges in her 1995 novel, Vaste est la prison. In order to arrive at this moment in her career this chapter starts with Djebar's earlier novels and her film, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, in order to discover a Berber presence, a kind of haunting that led to Vaste est la prisonand a shift in Djebar's awareness of her Berber ancestry.Less
The final chapter engages the work of the world renowned writer and filmmaker Assia Djebar, an Algerian woman of Berber origin known for tackling her complex relationship with the French language and the place and voice of women in Algerian history and Islam. For decades, Djebar focused on her relationship with the French language and with French culture, as an Algerian woman born and raised under the aegis of the French colonial regime. This chapter examines her relationship to the Berber language, which only emerges in her 1995 novel, Vaste est la prison. In order to arrive at this moment in her career this chapter starts with Djebar's earlier novels and her film, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, in order to discover a Berber presence, a kind of haunting that led to Vaste est la prisonand a shift in Djebar's awareness of her Berber ancestry.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.003.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
This sets out the focus of the book, the central issues it addresses, its substantive subject matter and the analytical framework it will apply.
This sets out the focus of the book, the central issues it addresses, its substantive subject matter and the analytical framework it will apply.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.003.0002
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
Chapter 1 addresses the production and meaning of geographical ancestry and origins and the relationships between ideas of cultural and genetic distinctiveness, genetic relatedness and geographical ...
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Chapter 1 addresses the production and meaning of geographical ancestry and origins and the relationships between ideas of cultural and genetic distinctiveness, genetic relatedness and geographical categorisation at different scales across biomedical genetics, anthropological genetics and genetic genealogy.Less
Chapter 1 addresses the production and meaning of geographical ancestry and origins and the relationships between ideas of cultural and genetic distinctiveness, genetic relatedness and geographical categorisation at different scales across biomedical genetics, anthropological genetics and genetic genealogy.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.003.0003
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
Chapter 2 turns to the specific case of the Genographic Project, idea of the “The Global Human Family”, and explores the tensions between its liberal multicultural celebration of diversity, discourse ...
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Chapter 2 turns to the specific case of the Genographic Project, idea of the “The Global Human Family”, and explores the tensions between its liberal multicultural celebration of diversity, discourse of global unity, and effort to reconstruct to a pre-modern geography of genetic variation.Less
Chapter 2 turns to the specific case of the Genographic Project, idea of the “The Global Human Family”, and explores the tensions between its liberal multicultural celebration of diversity, discourse of global unity, and effort to reconstruct to a pre-modern geography of genetic variation.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.003.0004
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
Chapter 3 explores the idea of “National genetic heritage” in studies of genetic variation in the UK especially the People of the British Isles project and considers how “genetic heritage” ...
More
Chapter 3 explores the idea of “National genetic heritage” in studies of genetic variation in the UK especially the People of the British Isles project and considers how “genetic heritage” differentiates between those that do and do not have a genetic and genealogical connection the ancient history of Britain.Less
Chapter 3 explores the idea of “National genetic heritage” in studies of genetic variation in the UK especially the People of the British Isles project and considers how “genetic heritage” differentiates between those that do and do not have a genetic and genealogical connection the ancient history of Britain.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.003.0005
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
Chapter 4 provides an original critical analysis of the ideas of sexual difference and human reproduction in the interpretation of geographies of human genetic variation and sex, gender and descent ...
More
Chapter 4 provides an original critical analysis of the ideas of sexual difference and human reproduction in the interpretation of geographies of human genetic variation and sex, gender and descent in genetic genealogy.Less
Chapter 4 provides an original critical analysis of the ideas of sexual difference and human reproduction in the interpretation of geographies of human genetic variation and sex, gender and descent in genetic genealogy.
Catherine Nash
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690633
- eISBN:
- 9781452950723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690633.003.0006
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
The conclusion reflects on the wider implications of the book’s arguments and conclusions and brings out the overall challenge that the book poses to assumptions or assertions of ideas of genetic ...
More
The conclusion reflects on the wider implications of the book’s arguments and conclusions and brings out the overall challenge that the book poses to assumptions or assertions of ideas of genetic relatedness as the basis of human relationships and as a model of humanity itself.Less
The conclusion reflects on the wider implications of the book’s arguments and conclusions and brings out the overall challenge that the book poses to assumptions or assertions of ideas of genetic relatedness as the basis of human relationships and as a model of humanity itself.
