So....getting started here is proving to be a little tricky. I'm going to go at this journal style, and just sketch some different ideas out. I have quite a few topics for discussion that I think will prove to be interesting.
The first thing -- one of the reasons I hit upon the name for "my mormon dna" is not because I believe in some cosmic, preexistence-determined genetic religious identity. I grew up on genealogy, as most faithful LDS do. Many hours were spent at the genealogy library, combing through microfiche for little tidbits of data about ancestry. At the time, I found this about as dull as the Book of Mormon, although for some reason my family and culture were in great earnest about it. It seemed to mean so much to be able to find out who these ancestors were. Yet the bulk of what we found, as far as I could see, was just names, dates and places. I suppose it was left to me to fill in the inspirational bits about how lucky we were to be guided to the great state of Zion, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It did not work that way, however. Mostly I just felt like I was reading a phone book and waiting for someone to call me.
Fast forward a bit. I became interested in science and biology in high school. The strong hold on reality provided through this medium was comforting. I think my interest was almost more cosmic, or mystical, however - in retrospect. Mostly because I didn't follow the field and make it a profession. I have always tended to view nature in a spiritual way, so any deeper understanding I could gain was that much more reassuring. So I've always flirted with the biological sciences and genetic theories, as well as evolution. I read Brian Syke's book -
seven daughters of eve- which even sounds like a melding of religion and science.
After having a child, genealogy suddenly became interesting again. My daughter is beautiful, and also some might even say exotic looking. Coming from such an anglophilic society, I wondered about her origins and mine, as well as those of her father. We tend to think of human 'races' or ethnicities as neatly definable by the country of origin. My exploration has proven that in so many ways, these definitions are limiting and the nomadic human likes to 'trespass' on geographic boundaries. The challenge to science and genealogists now, I think, is to put all the pieces together from all different fields - anthropology, genetics, history, language, culture, etc.
What I can offer is insight from my own history and culture, as well as insight from new services available to consumers through genetic testing. I used the testing services of 23andme, one of the leaders in DNA testing to find out more about my ancestral origins. The field is nascent and there is still a lot they are learning and piecing together, I think. Just because it is scientific, doesn't mean the answers are omnipotent or conclusive. But being there for new discoveries is what is so exciting.
Anyway, again, I never before would have coined a term like "my mormon dna" before going through this testing process. However, what I have had to accept is that the majority of my ancestors, as well as those of my husband, came from some similar background and mindset. The challenge is to find out those commonalities. (And, yes, there are still challenges -- to all those out there of a Mormon background who think all their genealogical trees are complete....)
There is an anthropological blog that is leading the way on these studies, led by a fellow named
Dienekes -- in these studies, a mysterious ethnic population is used as a reference -- "CEU". Come to find out, this stands for "Central European from Utah." Mormonism segregated a group of people for a long enough time, that their genes are now iterative of each other -- there is a signature there in the genes, enough to say you may be related to a Mormon, if only tangentially - if your genes match with these "CEU" samples.
