Genetic Research & Communal Narratives‪.‬

The risks and benefits of genetic research extend beyond individual subjects. Genetic research can also affect the communities to which the subjects belong, by rewriting the narratives and reconfiguring the identities that members of the community share and live by. These far-ranging effects raise special concerns for obtaining informed consent, for which there is no simple solution. Scholars and laypeople alike are fascinated by the study of people's origins. (1) Are today's Cohanim--Jews who identify themselves as descendants of the hereditary priesthood of Biblical times--really the genetic descendants of those early priests? Did all "indigenous" North Americans journey across the Bering Straits, and if so, when? Just as individuals "seeking their roots" have made family genealogy into a national craze, scholars have turned their attention to the family histories of ethnic and linguistic groups. Tudor Parfitt points out that the groups most likely to search for and invoke genetic evidence of their beginnings are those whose origins are somewhat ambiguous, and that societies whose ethnic borders are least crisp are the most likely to be fascinated with the search for "who they are." He claims, "The whole late twentieth century obsession with 'roots' was fomented in the all-too-reducible American melting pot." (2) One difference, however, is that Aunt Mabel is usually interested in researching only her own family tree, while scholars often train their spotlights on groups of which they are not members.