That actually is the case, according to ancient DNA studies. Not even just the scarcity of population in the Bronze Age; post-plague Europe had also diminished greatly in terms of population.
When I took one of those tests, I confirmed that I'm mostly Northern European, but found out that my racist, Mexican-hating Spanish grandmother was actually self-hating and more indigenous American than Spanish. I think knowing your biological ancestry is a good thing, but misusing that to make yourself feel better than others is ignorant and egotistical. People are too disconnected from their ancestors nowadays.
The scientific method behind the test is sound. I've worked on population genetics of an insect species and ultimately the methodology is exactly the same. However, it's definitely questionable how the results are interpreted, marketed, and used to capitalize on people's wantings
A much needed message many need to hear. It's true that these DNA tests foment racist ideas, but it's also amusing when neo-nazis take these tests and they actually have Jewish and African ancestry, and the look on their faces is beyond priceless. I've also taken a DNA test and I've learned that I am Danish af lol, I had no idea. But does the knowledge of my ancestry changes who I am? No, I don't think so. In my opinion it's not what's in the blood that truly makes who you are, but rather the contents of your thoughts, your own mind, personality and most importantly one's individuality. Thank you for this video! :D
Exactly. I would consider a charismatic Mongolian or a Jew as my brother, rather than an actual bigotic brother. I don't care how stupid that sounds. All human beings are related more or less.
I have a relative who was obsessed with finding royal blood in the family. She just knew it was there. Impressively she traced some lines of the ancestry back to the 9th century, where she found we were descended from some royalty. I don't remember which. Having read history for a long time and being aware of all the royal individuals spreading their seed all over, I was unsurprised that this ancestry existed somewhere, especially needing to go back over 1000 years to find it, what does it even mean at this point? 😄 Safe to say the vast majority of my ancestors were farmers, I was raised on a family homestead. I am good with that ancestral identity.
I used DNA testing as my last course of action to find my father. After finding him, I realised the very scant information I had, I would never have found him without the test. This is the only thing they are valid for, in my opinion.
In the bronze age, the pot was already stirred; the notion of pure Germanics is just nonsense. We were Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, farmers from Middle-East and Indo-Europeans already in the Antique - before the expansion of Huns and Slavs. Therefore is the idea of the "unique ancestry" invalid. My point is - racism thrives in the minds of shallow. And this "legendary ancestor" is a shallow thinking too (created by the same corrupted machinations of human brain, as the the need to differentiate between humans.
I took an ancestry DNA test because I knew almost nothing about a couple of my grandparents' lineage. I have since learned a good amount. Using the information I was able to get from the DNA matches helped me progress my search. A few of them had common ancestors that I was able to use to break through walls that I hit. As for the 23 and me, I did it because of the health information it offered. My grandma on my mom's side died of amyloidosis at an early age, and Alzheimer's runs in my grandma's line on my father's side. It tests for both of those genes. I was definitely happy to see that I don't have either of them. Tracking my lineage has lead to some very interesting finds, but that's for another discussion.
Such a good narrative. "We're of the trees" and honouring who your soul resonates with - frees me from worrying about who my ancestor was in 950. Do I feel connected to Ram Dass, or Rolo's immigration to France from Norway? Yes, but I don't need proof to form my sense of identity.
This makes me think of something Jackson Crawford said in one of his videos, about how in the norsemens world an adopted child would be as valued if not more than a biological child.
you may be interested in an article called "Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans". here's a quote from the abstract: "These analyses suggest that the genealogies of all living humans overlap in remarkable ways in the recent past. In particular, the MRCA of all present-day humans lived just a few thousand years ago in these models. Moreover, among all individuals living more than just a few thousand years earlier than the MRCA [most recent common ancestor], each present-day human has exactly the same set of genealogical ancestors."
Thank you for putting forward this subject of DNA-testing for identity purpose, ancestral roots and belonging. It is a subject I my selves have been struggling with a lot. Since I do not know even my very near ancestors, - who am I when I meet a native saying, t.ex in workshop declarations,: "I am in the direct line, on my mothers side, to my great great great grandmother who was a great healer/ shaman/ seer."? In my work with transpersonal psychology, it is my direct experience,, that we are all able to connect , on a personal, emotional and spiritual level , with a multitude of cultural spiritual experiences. A phenomenon so well well explained by Dr. Stan Grof and the antropologist Joseph Cambell.
I also wanna add, that this kind of video should be promoted by youtube anytime one of these ethnostate people put up their bs to combat the spread of those awful ideas. Earned a sub
I did a DNA test because I had really really extensive family tree records and I was curious to see how accurate they were. It was mostly accurate except there was 0 German which is pretty different from what I was led to believe by my family tree
I'm an adoptee and I did a DNA test. I loved finding out the results. I was adopted as a baby at 2 weeks old. My biological mother had an affair with a man who was seperated from his wife at the time. My biological father and mother didn't end up together after their encounter and went their seperate ways. My mother adopted me out, but she never told my father she was pregnant with me. Fast forward 47 years and I'm doing the DNA ancestry test. I got the results back and discovered that I had 1st cousins that I never knew existed. It was because of one of those cousins, that 1 week later after receiving my test results, I spoke to my biological father for the first time in my life. And we still talk every so often. It was an incredible experience for me. One that I had wanted to have all my life. People who have been raised in their biological families, and already know a large part of their ancestral origins, will never understand what it is like to be raised as an adoptee. For adoptees there is a very significant part of their lives that is missing because they do not know their own true origins. This missing information can also lead to very complicated, and sometimes very negative consequences in an adopted persons life. A DNA test can help a person find answers to very significant questions. I don't agree that these tests are bullshit. They can be very helpful to people in a similar situation to myself, who are trying to discover members of their biological family and ancestral heritage, and also find some peace and healing. Please don't be so quick to judge.
Then Kandiaronk is our ancestor- the Wendat Native American statesman who toured Europe and inspired the notion that Freedom was, in fact, an essential human value
I'm agreeing with so much of what you are saying. I've been very sceptical of DNA testing kits and find it concerning to see so many of our peers using them. Ultimately they are just so full of BS. I saw a documentary where identical twins took every test on the market and they got varying results... that should say it all. On another note, I'm very happy to have found your brilliant channel - you are teaching me a lot and I'm really enjoying this dive into your archive. I'm Finnish/Filandssvensk myself and have been wanting to learn more about Nordic animism. Bless you for creating so much educational material and for the integrity with which you do it!
The only gene testing I've ever had done was for comparing to medications to see which are more likely to be very effective to cut down on the amount of trial and error that needs to be done for treating my chronic health conditions. I'm happy with the percentages of my ethnicities my parents gave me based on what they knew of where their parents' parents and potentially those ancestor's parents migrated from.
Americans also have these early books of "pedigree" where poor/laboring/middle class families can imagine former glory. It's bogus. On another note, the DNA tests have been fun for our family because we discovered that our Swedish great-grandmother left an infant in Sweden before being sent to Denmark to be a kitchen maid... Where she gave birth to more children out of wedlock: twins. Then, after three babies by two papas, she was finally asked to be married by great-grandad 🤣. That. Was an adventure in genealogy research. But finding out this history, who's origins begin with great grandmother's birth in 1869, and the decisions that brought her to Minnesota with part of her brood... all of this story explains so much of how things happened the way they did and how the American branch of our family still dwells in this experience of fracturing; abandoned children, multiple partners, dislocation from home. The DNA tests have been useful CLUES which point us in a direction of the story of our family. And that has been healing and illuminating.
Great rant! For an accessible discussion of the scientific & social problems with this DNA testing, I recommend the book "Fatal Invention" by Dorothy Roberts. I am a PhD cancer researcher and this book was enormously helpful in my thinking about the use of DNA in biomedical research! None of it was covered in my schooling and confusion on this subject persists, so I recommend this book to all my scientific colleagues
Well here is the thing. I did the DNA testing and actaully found out a Family secret by doing so. You see here in America when my Grandparents were children they were treated very horribly in school and in general by society for being Native American. My Grandfather died in my teen years and Grandmma always claimed decent from Spain (to her credit it is in there) but I was in my 50's before I found out the truth. And only by doing my DNA. And then other Family members were like "Oh yeah thought you knew." Turns out about ¼ Native. The Family Tree is interesting but it wasn't done to try and draw some cosmic connection with an Ancestor from the 9th century. My Ancestor Worship is mostly my Grandparents. Though I do give thanks to all that came before without knowledge of exactly who that means.
The otherness. I totally get. I find it interesting so many Americans look at European places as someplace exotic. Yet, I watch many European shows, and the big exotic place portrayed on those shows is The States. I have never been to the British Isles, but when I look at the scenery, especially the streets and rolling his with bothys, I get a sense of "home'. I did take my test because I am adopted and always had a sense of wonder. I have my Scandinavian and Germanic bits, but a large part came back as "English". Which really, what does it mean to be English. So many genetic footprints have been left there, that could mean you are about anything. So, I do pretty much take those results with a grain of salt, but I did actually find some birth family, so that's pretty cool.
The movie Ladyhawke is about a knight on a quest to kill an evil bishop who put a curse on him and his lover. At one point, the knight and a thief helping him encounter a couple of insane charcoal makers. I knew those nutty charcoal makers had to be ancestors the moment I saw them. Folks using these tests want royalty or some kind of cool factor to their ancestry but never the nondescript like those crazy charcoal makers in spite of the fact that such people were most of our ancestry. They built the world we have today just as much as Plato or Queen Elizabeth.
I hate when people use the DNA test to show "race" or "culture". I did mine to ensure that the 20 years of ancestry research going back to the 1600s in some lines was correct, and it's helped me connect to others in Scandinavia, & Finland to find out about my ancestors. This is why I did DNA, not to say oh look, I'm a Viking! I wanted to know, who my great grandparents were in these countries, and find out their stories, as to why they left these countries to come to America. I love knowing my ancestors and believe it's important to know who they were. They're never forgotten as long as my sons and I live. And I'm most definitely from peasants! I love how people just buy into being related to nobility (really not something boastful imo) p.s. your screensaver is amazing where do I get one and can you customize what it says?
I do the DNA test as just one of many ways to study human migration. I have seen a trend though where people are confusing dna haplogroup markers as ethnic, national, or racial proof. They aren't and have never been. Ethnic groups and the like are culture and culture is not your genetic makeup. Your halpogroup marker might pop up in a big cluster in one place but that doesn't mean that it might not pop up somewhere else in lower amounts for various reasons.
I had my DNA tested and while only a slimmer compared to european genes I found out I'm part Native American. I now cherish my heritage, and I'm waiting for my parents to take the test so I can better located by ancestry
I don't think it is all pseudo-science as it is pretty amazing that they could determine from saliva that I am about a quarter Italian (which my mom's mom was), one quarter a mix of Irish, Scottish, French, and a tiny bit of Norwegian, which my mom's dad was, one quarter (Baltic with a little bit of Ukrainian) which my father's father was, and one quarter Finnish (which my dad's mom was). It is a good confirmation of what they have said. I also have been able to confirm family history going back several generations done through genealogy with DNA matches. People also have been able to find lost family members. It can be upsetting if there are family secrets such as a parent not biologically being a parent, luckily everything matches with what I was told. It has been very helpful to back up family history research. Maybe if you live in Europe you already know all your family history going back hundreds of years so it wouldn't matter to you. It also has been very helpful for African Americans as they were forcibly removed from Africa and lost their identities. They have been able to find where their ancestors came from. I am not saying it is an absolute precise science but it is pretty amazing that they could figure out the amount of information about myself just from saliva and it matches what I have been told. It also matches pre-existing family trees so I think there is something to it. Also, I don't think it reinforces racism as the National Geographic Study shows how we all migrated out of Kenya. They have scientific evidence showing certain groups having different mutations. They can show your path out of Africa so we are all actually cousins.
I had mine done and found my biological family. So that was amazing…. I didn’t care which country my ancestors came from I just found it interesting where my ancestors did come from.
I confess as an Anglo Canadian Maritimer, I’ve had these tests not because I want to claim to be the descendent of royalty but because I want to feel a connection to the old world in some way. I do try to remain aware of their limitations, however.
You can feel a connection to the "old world" (pls stop calling it that, that's an echo of colonial thinking) by researching the cultures, mythologies, histories, folklore, traditions etc. DNA mumbo jumbo cannot and will not give you that
Just watched this video. Agreed on the pinpointing race, etc. DNA is good for following the footsteps of where your family may have passed. Due to genetic collapse, or what you are talking about when talking about the lack of so many people being alive at some point, eventually, there are a number of overlapping relationships, etc. Also, the number of human migrations that have happened throughout recorded and unrecorded history, mass and small is impossible to tell. I mean, just in regards to Scandinavian history, we hear and believe there was a mass migration due to Viking raids and settling but we are pretty sure they were trading with the British Isles before the Viking Age and you can't tell me they were not mixing then. Also, Rome had been in the British Isles at one point and they had such a large territory and citizenship that their Legions and others included peoples from everywhere. What I do enjoy though is DNA to see the genetic relationship with ancient samples. Doesn't create an identity but does show a relationship.
I like to listen to all your videos, but this one touched me in a special way. I ove the idea that we should see ourselves as descendants of all great people in history who left us their heritage like law, philosophy, poetry and all the thought of humankind. And BTW its so hard these days to not to get into a trap of stupidity. I guess we all find ourselves falling into this pit full of shit. 😂 I wanted to do the test for a long time, jist simple curiosity but now I am happy that i didn't exchange my money and my code for a bullshit. 😂 More anthropology please. Always happy to listen. X
I am lucky enough to have a family tree traced patriarcally back to tge 1400s, abd from there we can go back further by following the royal genitor's documented ancestry. But there is no record of the matriarcal line. And on mom's side, we'll never know, as all archives were burned in northern France in 1945 ... nuff said. Could be a lot of Celtic, some Spanish from shipwrecked Armada crew, Flemish ... who knows. I know who I am, based on my upbringing and family traditions. That's enough. My family is the only one I know that uses kale soup with meatballs during Jul in Norway. I know my gr-gr-great grandfather brought that with him from Sweden where he was from - only documented non-Norwegian in the family until mom - and my kids are keeping that soup even though they don't much care for it, because "det hører med" it belongs to our Juletradisjoner. That, to me, is ancestry.
LOL, my grand-dad bought one of those bullshit family books back in the 70s too. He was such a sucker for anything direct-marketed to him by name. But I understand why DNA is meaningful. At least to people in the New World, most of who have only the vaguest idea who our ancestors were or where they came from. I mean, learning something like you have the Cohen haplotype and some of your ancestors were Spanish crypto-Jews, is very meaningful. Oe which African nation your people came from. It gives people an idea where to look. The people who came to the New World were looking for a new start, or were brought unwillingly. So they didn't tend to talk about the past much, I imagine. So the stories were lost.
I ended up paying for DNA testing because I was so interested in the places I may have came from. As an American, a hodgepodge of cultures are surrounding me. I heard stories of where our ancestors were from by my family, but I wanted to know. I tried to do genealogy but dna testing just seemed quicker, ya know? I wanted to feel a part of something, as Ive always been somewhat ostracized even within my own culture (im autistic, and was always told I was different and other). Ive always sought out a sense of belonging because of this, but dna testing did nothing for me but confuse me more. I know, from my researching my family tree, that a majority of my ancestors are from places such as Switzerland, Scotland, Denmark, and England. There are more of course but now Ive decided its not WHERE im from that matters. I want to know stories about my ancestry, who these people were and what they were like! I think more than anything that might make me feel a bit more connected than just an overall view of a culture, though it is still interesting.
The business concept you describe sounds realistic and it can actually work that way. But you have absolutely no idea about genetics and its possibilities.
My mother's Irish with. Strawberry blonde hair and a little bit of French mixed in there. Her father is Scottish and it doesn't even show up in her DNA.
the only thing these tests might be interesting for is the migration of your genes to where you are geographically ...... and that's about it ....and even then the database will always grow and change.... much is not settled in the DNA to history world .... I tend to think people put too much stock in these test also.
Good video! I agree with most of what you said. Of course this “blood thing” open some ground for racist conceptions, but the ancestrality cult is one of the very basic concepts of paganism. And, it seems somehow ridiculous to say that, but we are here because of them (of course there are other factors involved but they are pretty important, don’t you all think?) All my genuine respect for my (and your) ancestrals. I just don’t feel it is fair to simply take this for granted.
The ancestry cultus in ancient paganisms and modern paganism is very broad and multi-faceted though, that's the point this video makes. "Blood" ancestry is just one strand of many. That is what is a basic concept of paganism, that "blood" is just one small part of it.
Lol, what a moronic take on dna tests.. Interest in our ancestors and their route to where we ended up isn't racist. I can see how racists could use it for purity reasons, but seeing as we are all migrants ina historical perspective, I guess they would be disappointed. In which case dna kits would be awesome in debunking racists notions.. This just seems like a personal hatorate snobbish video on Dna kits..
I have indeed become aware that these gene tests doesn't exclusively enforce racist notions, but they can in fact also undermine them. At the time I made the video I admit that my reflection on the motivation was pretty much loose logical thought - i.e. perhaps it could acused of being somewhat conspiracy'ish. However, since then I have gotten confirmation from the absolute elite of international scholarship on human dna that the motivation for selling dna-tests is in fact EXACTLY what I speculated back in 2020. The motivation behind selling people dna-tests IS to lure people into giving up their genome for the commercial purposes of the companies selling the tests. Its a fact, - sic!
With the scarcity of bronze age Europe population, it is very likely, that thousands of Europeans have the same ancestor.
That actually is the case, according to ancient DNA studies. Not even just the scarcity of population in the Bronze Age; post-plague Europe had also diminished greatly in terms of population.
When I took one of those tests, I confirmed that I'm mostly Northern European, but found out that my racist, Mexican-hating Spanish grandmother was actually self-hating and more indigenous American than Spanish. I think knowing your biological ancestry is a good thing, but misusing that to make yourself feel better than others is ignorant and egotistical. People are too disconnected from their ancestors nowadays.
The scientific method behind the test is sound. I've worked on population genetics of an insect species and ultimately the methodology is exactly the same. However, it's definitely questionable how the results are interpreted, marketed, and used to capitalize on people's wantings
A much needed message many need to hear. It's true that these DNA tests foment racist ideas, but it's also amusing when neo-nazis take these tests and they actually have Jewish and African ancestry, and the look on their faces is beyond priceless. I've also taken a DNA test and I've learned that I am Danish af lol, I had no idea. But does the knowledge of my ancestry changes who I am? No, I don't think so. In my opinion it's not what's in the blood that truly makes who you are, but rather the contents of your thoughts, your own mind, personality and most importantly one's individuality. Thank you for this video! :D
Exactly. I would consider a charismatic Mongolian or a Jew as my brother, rather than an actual bigotic brother. I don't care how stupid that sounds. All human beings are related more or less.
Arith - thanks exactly!
Hey arith you are danish af but i forgive you. 🗿
Varg!
I have a relative who was obsessed with finding royal blood in the family. She just knew it was there. Impressively she traced some lines of the ancestry back to the 9th century, where she found we were descended from some royalty. I don't remember which. Having read history for a long time and being aware of all the royal individuals spreading their seed all over, I was unsurprised that this ancestry existed somewhere, especially needing to go back over 1000 years to find it, what does it even mean at this point? 😄 Safe to say the vast majority of my ancestors were farmers, I was raised on a family homestead. I am good with that ancestral identity.
I used DNA testing as my last course of action to find my father. After finding him, I realised the very scant information I had, I would never have found him without the test. This is the only thing they are valid for, in my opinion.
very good point !!
In the bronze age, the pot was already stirred; the notion of pure Germanics is just nonsense. We were Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, farmers from Middle-East and Indo-Europeans already in the Antique - before the expansion of Huns and Slavs. Therefore is the idea of the "unique ancestry" invalid. My point is - racism thrives in the minds of shallow. And this "legendary ancestor" is a shallow thinking too (created by the same corrupted machinations of human brain, as the the need to differentiate between humans.
I lost it as soon as the Matrix thing popped up on your PC screen. Jajajajajajajajajaja Good video, man.
Powerful rant man. 14.6 percent of finns approve.
:-D
I took an ancestry DNA test because I knew almost nothing about a couple of my grandparents' lineage. I have since learned a good amount. Using the information I was able to get from the DNA matches helped me progress my search. A few of them had common ancestors that I was able to use to break through walls that I hit. As for the 23 and me, I did it because of the health information it offered. My grandma on my mom's side died of amyloidosis at an early age, and Alzheimer's runs in my grandma's line on my father's side. It tests for both of those genes. I was definitely happy to see that I don't have either of them.
Tracking my lineage has lead to some very interesting finds, but that's for another discussion.
Such a good narrative. "We're of the trees" and honouring who your soul resonates with - frees me from worrying about who my ancestor was in 950. Do I feel connected to Ram Dass, or Rolo's immigration to France from Norway? Yes, but I don't need proof to form my sense of identity.
Excellent. I'm glad someone as eloquent as you has put this to bed.
This makes me think of something Jackson Crawford said in one of his videos, about how in the norsemens world an adopted child would be as valued if not more than a biological child.
you may be interested in an article called "Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans". here's a quote from the abstract: "These analyses suggest that the genealogies of all living humans overlap in remarkable ways in the recent past. In particular, the MRCA of all present-day humans lived just a few thousand years ago in these models. Moreover, among all individuals living more than just a few thousand years earlier than the MRCA [most recent common ancestor], each present-day human has exactly the same set of genealogical ancestors."
Thank you for putting forward this subject of DNA-testing for identity purpose, ancestral roots and belonging. It is a subject I my selves have been struggling with a lot. Since I do not know even my very near ancestors, - who am I when I meet a native saying, t.ex in workshop declarations,: "I am in the direct line, on my mothers side, to my great great great grandmother who was a great healer/ shaman/ seer."? In my work with transpersonal psychology, it is my direct experience,, that we are all able to connect , on a personal, emotional and spiritual level , with a multitude of cultural spiritual experiences. A phenomenon so well well explained by Dr. Stan Grof and the antropologist Joseph Cambell.
this is the single best video I've seen on this subject
big ups. keep at it 👍
I also wanna add, that this kind of video should be promoted by youtube anytime one of these ethnostate people put up their bs to combat the spread of those awful ideas. Earned a sub
I did a DNA test because I had really really extensive family tree records and I was curious to see how accurate they were. It was mostly accurate except there was 0 German which is pretty different from what I was led to believe by my family tree
I'm an adoptee and I did a DNA test. I loved finding out the results. I was adopted as a baby at 2 weeks old. My biological mother had an affair with a man who was seperated from his wife at the time. My biological father and mother didn't end up together after their encounter and went their seperate ways. My mother adopted me out, but she never told my father she was pregnant with me.
Fast forward 47 years and I'm doing the DNA ancestry test. I got the results back and discovered that I had 1st cousins that I never knew existed. It was because of one of those cousins, that 1 week later after receiving my test results, I spoke to my biological father for the first time in my life. And we still talk every so often. It was an incredible experience for me. One that I had wanted to have all my life. People who have been raised in their biological families, and already know a large part of their ancestral origins, will never understand what it is like to be raised as an adoptee. For adoptees there is a very significant part of their lives that is missing because they do not know their own true origins. This missing information can also lead to very complicated, and sometimes very negative consequences in an adopted persons life. A DNA test can help a person find answers to very significant questions.
I don't agree that these tests are bullshit. They can be very helpful to people in a similar situation to myself, who are trying to discover members of their biological family and ancestral heritage, and also find some peace and healing. Please don't be so quick to judge.
Thanks a lot for this perspective! Since I made this video, I have had other feedbacks similarly challenging and modifying my criticism.
I love your skepticism on this issue.
I loved this video so much. Wish millions could view it. Thank you dear man.
Then Kandiaronk is our ancestor- the Wendat Native American statesman who toured Europe and inspired the notion that Freedom was, in fact, an essential human value
I'm agreeing with so much of what you are saying. I've been very sceptical of DNA testing kits and find it concerning to see so many of our peers using them. Ultimately they are just so full of BS. I saw a documentary where identical twins took every test on the market and they got varying results... that should say it all.
On another note, I'm very happy to have found your brilliant channel - you are teaching me a lot and I'm really enjoying this dive into your archive. I'm Finnish/Filandssvensk myself and have been wanting to learn more about Nordic animism. Bless you for creating so much educational material and for the integrity with which you do it!
The only gene testing I've ever had done was for comparing to medications to see which are more likely to be very effective to cut down on the amount of trial and error that needs to be done for treating my chronic health conditions. I'm happy with the percentages of my ethnicities my parents gave me based on what they knew of where their parents' parents and potentially those ancestor's parents migrated from.
Americans also have these early books of "pedigree" where poor/laboring/middle class families can imagine former glory. It's bogus. On another note, the DNA tests have been fun for our family because we discovered that our Swedish great-grandmother left an infant in Sweden before being sent to Denmark to be a kitchen maid... Where she gave birth to more children out of wedlock: twins. Then, after three babies by two papas, she was finally asked to be married by great-grandad 🤣. That. Was an adventure in genealogy research. But finding out this history, who's origins begin with great grandmother's birth in 1869, and the decisions that brought her to Minnesota with part of her brood... all of this story explains so much of how things happened the way they did and how the American branch of our family still dwells in this experience of fracturing; abandoned children, multiple partners, dislocation from home. The DNA tests have been useful CLUES which point us in a direction of the story of our family. And that has been healing and illuminating.
Great rant! For an accessible discussion of the scientific & social problems with this DNA testing, I recommend the book "Fatal Invention" by Dorothy Roberts. I am a PhD cancer researcher and this book was enormously helpful in my thinking about the use of DNA in biomedical research! None of it was covered in my schooling and confusion on this subject persists, so I recommend this book to all my scientific colleagues
Just in case it's needed, the long title is "Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century"
Well here is the thing. I did the DNA testing and actaully found out a Family secret by doing so. You see here in America when my Grandparents were children they were treated very horribly in school and in general by society for being Native American. My Grandfather died in my teen years and Grandmma always claimed decent from Spain (to her credit it is in there) but I was in my 50's before I found out the truth. And only by doing my DNA. And then other Family members were like "Oh yeah thought you knew." Turns out about ¼ Native. The Family Tree is interesting but it wasn't done to try and draw some cosmic connection with an Ancestor from the 9th century. My Ancestor Worship is mostly my Grandparents. Though I do give thanks to all that came before without knowledge of exactly who that means.
The otherness. I totally get. I find it interesting so many Americans look at European places as someplace exotic. Yet, I watch many European shows, and the big exotic place portrayed on those shows is The States. I have never been to the British Isles, but when I look at the scenery, especially the streets and rolling his with bothys, I get a sense of "home'. I did take my test because I am adopted and always had a sense of wonder. I have my Scandinavian and Germanic bits, but a large part came back as "English". Which really, what does it mean to be English. So many genetic footprints have been left there, that could mean you are about anything. So, I do pretty much take those results with a grain of salt, but I did actually find some birth family, so that's pretty cool.
The movie Ladyhawke is about a knight on a quest to kill an evil bishop who put a curse on him and his lover. At one point, the knight and a thief helping him encounter a couple of insane charcoal makers. I knew those nutty charcoal makers had to be ancestors the moment I saw them. Folks using these tests want royalty or some kind of cool factor to their ancestry but never the nondescript like those crazy charcoal makers in spite of the fact that such people were most of our ancestry. They built the world we have today just as much as Plato or Queen Elizabeth.
Brilliant!
I hate when people use the DNA test to show "race" or "culture". I did mine to ensure that the 20 years of ancestry research going back to the 1600s in some lines was correct, and it's helped me connect to others in Scandinavia, & Finland to find out about my ancestors. This is why I did DNA, not to say oh look, I'm a Viking! I wanted to know, who my great grandparents were in these countries, and find out their stories, as to why they left these countries to come to America. I love knowing my ancestors and believe it's important to know who they were. They're never forgotten as long as my sons and I live. And I'm most definitely from peasants! I love how people just buy into being related to nobility (really not something boastful imo)
p.s. your screensaver is amazing where do I get one and can you customize what it says?
You made me laugh and kind of happy. Gostei da idéia pensar nos ancestrais desse jeito.
I do the DNA test as just one of many ways to study human migration. I have seen a trend though where people are confusing dna haplogroup markers as ethnic, national, or racial proof. They aren't and have never been. Ethnic groups and the like are culture and culture is not your genetic makeup. Your halpogroup marker might pop up in a big cluster in one place but that doesn't mean that it might not pop up somewhere else in lower amounts for various reasons.
I had my DNA tested and while only a slimmer compared to european genes I found out I'm part Native American. I now cherish my heritage, and I'm waiting for my parents to take the test so I can better located by ancestry
I don't think it is all pseudo-science as it is pretty amazing that they could determine from saliva that I am about a quarter Italian (which my mom's mom was), one quarter a mix of Irish, Scottish, French, and a tiny bit of Norwegian, which my mom's dad was, one quarter (Baltic with a little bit of Ukrainian) which my father's father was, and one quarter Finnish (which my dad's mom was). It is a good confirmation of what they have said. I also have been able to confirm family history going back several generations done through genealogy with DNA matches. People also have been able to find lost family members. It can be upsetting if there are family secrets such as a parent not biologically being a parent, luckily everything matches with what I was told. It has been very helpful to back up family history research. Maybe if you live in Europe you already know all your family history going back hundreds of years so it wouldn't matter to you. It also has been very helpful for African Americans as they were forcibly removed from Africa and lost their identities. They have been able to find where their ancestors came from. I am not saying it is an absolute precise science but it is pretty amazing that they could figure out the amount of information about myself just from saliva and it matches what I have been told. It also matches pre-existing family trees so I think there is something to it. Also, I don't think it reinforces racism as the National Geographic Study shows how we all migrated out of Kenya. They have scientific evidence showing certain groups having different mutations. They can show your path out of Africa so we are all actually cousins.
I had mine done and found my biological family. So that was amazing…. I didn’t care which country my ancestors came from I just found it interesting where my ancestors did come from.
I confess as an Anglo Canadian Maritimer, I’ve had these tests not because I want to claim to be the descendent of royalty but because I want to feel a connection to the old world in some way. I do try to remain aware of their limitations, however.
You can feel a connection to the "old world" (pls stop calling it that, that's an echo of colonial thinking) by researching the cultures, mythologies, histories, folklore, traditions etc. DNA mumbo jumbo cannot and will not give you that
Just watched this video. Agreed on the pinpointing race, etc. DNA is good for following the footsteps of where your family may have passed. Due to genetic collapse, or what you are talking about when talking about the lack of so many people being alive at some point, eventually, there are a number of overlapping relationships, etc. Also, the number of human migrations that have happened throughout recorded and unrecorded history, mass and small is impossible to tell. I mean, just in regards to Scandinavian history, we hear and believe there was a mass migration due to Viking raids and settling but we are pretty sure they were trading with the British Isles before the Viking Age and you can't tell me they were not mixing then. Also, Rome had been in the British Isles at one point and they had such a large territory and citizenship that their Legions and others included peoples from everywhere. What I do enjoy though is DNA to see the genetic relationship with ancient samples. Doesn't create an identity but does show a relationship.
I like to listen to all your videos, but this one touched me in a special way. I ove the idea that we should see ourselves as descendants of all great people in history who left us their heritage like law, philosophy, poetry and all the thought of humankind. And BTW its so hard these days to not to get into a trap of stupidity. I guess we all find ourselves falling into this pit full of shit. 😂 I wanted to do the test for a long time, jist simple curiosity but now I am happy that i didn't exchange my money and my code for a bullshit. 😂 More anthropology please. Always happy to listen. X
Is there a place we can download wallpapers like that from the Nordic Wheel you made?
No, but hopefully there will be a physical tapestry available in the webshop in not too long
I am lucky enough to have a family tree traced patriarcally back to tge 1400s, abd from there we can go back further by following the royal genitor's documented ancestry.
But there is no record of the matriarcal line.
And on mom's side, we'll never know, as all archives were burned in northern France in 1945 ... nuff said. Could be a lot of Celtic, some Spanish from shipwrecked Armada crew, Flemish ... who knows.
I know who I am, based on my upbringing and family traditions. That's enough. My family is the only one I know that uses kale soup with meatballs during Jul in Norway. I know my gr-gr-great grandfather brought that with him from Sweden where he was from - only documented non-Norwegian in the family until mom - and my kids are keeping that soup even though they don't much care for it, because "det hører med" it belongs to our Juletradisjoner.
That, to me, is ancestry.
That is lucky, I've so far only managed to get as far as the 1600s.
@@bearcat4310 wdym only 1600s! I can get max 6 generations back!
Well ranted!
LOL, my grand-dad bought one of those bullshit family books back in the 70s too. He was such a sucker for anything direct-marketed to him by name.
But I understand why DNA is meaningful. At least to people in the New World, most of who have only the vaguest idea who our ancestors were or where they came from. I mean, learning something like you have the Cohen haplotype and some of your ancestors were Spanish crypto-Jews, is very meaningful. Oe which African nation your people came from. It gives people an idea where to look.
The people who came to the New World were looking for a new start, or were brought unwillingly. So they didn't tend to talk about the past much, I imagine. So the stories were lost.
I ended up paying for DNA testing because I was so interested in the places I may have came from. As an American, a hodgepodge of cultures are surrounding me. I heard stories of where our ancestors were from by my family, but I wanted to know. I tried to do genealogy but dna testing just seemed quicker, ya know? I wanted to feel a part of something, as Ive always been somewhat ostracized even within my own culture (im autistic, and was always told I was different and other). Ive always sought out a sense of belonging because of this, but dna testing did nothing for me but confuse me more. I know, from my researching my family tree, that a majority of my ancestors are from places such as Switzerland, Scotland, Denmark, and England. There are more of course but now Ive decided its not WHERE im from that matters. I want to know stories about my ancestry, who these people were and what they were like! I think more than anything that might make me feel a bit more connected than just an overall view of a culture, though it is still interesting.
or.... have an PCR test or you dont get the greenpass .
they get the info they wanted or you become a second class citizen,like me.
The business concept you describe sounds realistic and it can actually work that way. But you have absolutely no idea about genetics and its possibilities.
Thank god for my Íslendingabók :DD
My mother's Irish with. Strawberry blonde hair and a little bit of French mixed in there. Her father is Scottish and it doesn't even show up in her DNA.
the only thing these tests might be interesting for is the migration of your genes to where you are geographically ...... and that's about it ....and even then the database will always grow and change.... much is not settled in the DNA to history world .... I tend to think people put too much stock in these test also.
Good video! I agree with most of what you said. Of course this “blood thing” open some ground for racist conceptions, but the ancestrality cult is one of the very basic concepts of paganism. And, it seems somehow ridiculous to say that, but we are here because of them (of course there are other factors involved but they are pretty important, don’t you all think?) All my genuine respect for my (and your) ancestrals. I just don’t feel it is fair to simply take this for granted.
The ancestry cultus in ancient paganisms and modern paganism is very broad and multi-faceted though, that's the point this video makes. "Blood" ancestry is just one strand of many. That is what is a basic concept of paganism, that "blood" is just one small part of it.
"I'm 1/56th Swedish and 2/56th Danish!" -Every Amerimutt ever
Lol, what a moronic take on dna tests..
Interest in our ancestors and their route to where we ended up isn't racist. I can see how racists could use it for purity reasons, but seeing as we are all migrants ina historical perspective, I guess they would be disappointed. In which case dna kits would be awesome in debunking racists notions..
This just seems like a personal hatorate snobbish video on Dna kits..
I have indeed become aware that these gene tests doesn't exclusively enforce racist notions, but they can in fact also undermine them.
At the time I made the video I admit that my reflection on the motivation was pretty much loose logical thought - i.e. perhaps it could acused of being somewhat conspiracy'ish. However, since then I have gotten confirmation from the absolute elite of international scholarship on human dna that the motivation for selling dna-tests is in fact EXACTLY what I speculated back in 2020. The motivation behind selling people dna-tests IS to lure people into giving up their genome for the commercial purposes of the companies selling the tests. Its a fact, - sic!