Genealogical Science - The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology

The search for genetic origins or"genealogy"has become something of an obsession with Americans of all ethnicities and family histories. Skip Gates s search for his origins in Africa, only to find out that his genome is largely European, is just one highly publicized example of a science in which everyone seems to have an interest and often a political stake. Knowing where one s ancestors came from and to whom one might be related can have life altering consequences. In this book anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj takes us inside the origins and practices of genealogy centering on a people for whom it has stakes of the highest order, the Jews. She shows that the discipline itself arose as Israeli scientists attempted to show that contemporary people calling themselves Jews are genetically related to the ancient tribes of Israel. What truth there may be to such claims is examined in detail, not to debunk the sciencethere are many living Jews who are genetically similar to their Biblical ancestorsbut rather to explain how political and nationalistic goals, not to mention more personal ones, are inextricably bound to the pursuit of knowledge."

About the author

Nadia Abu El-Haj is professor of anthropology at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is the author of Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Summary

Analyzes the scientific work and social implications of the flourishing field of genetic history. In this book, the author examines genetic history's working assumptions about culture and nature, identity and biology, and the individual and the collective.

Product details

• Authors: Nadia Abu El-Haj, Nadia Abu El-Haj
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.05.2014
• EAN: 9780226154701
• ISBN: 978-0-226-15470-1
• No. of pages: 328
• Series: Chicago Studies in Practices o; Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; HISTORY / Jewish, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, REFERENCE / Genealogy & Heraldry, Jewish Studies, Relating to Jewish people and groups, Genealogy, heraldry, names & honours, Genealogy, heraldry, names and honours, Social groups: religious groups and communities