Publication details
„DNA and Iconology of Life — GENealogical myth of home“
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In 2003 was made a documentary The Journey of Man. A Genetic Odyssey by American anthropologist and geneticist Spencer Wells. The film deals with his project concerning the human migration of various populations around the whole world and search for original home of mankind. Spencer Wells called this genetically described ancestry project “time machine of human history in drop of blood”. The answers about immortal cell lines are sought in Africa, Australia, Japan, etc., within mapping and testing various people and their DNA samples. The main components of this biopolitical project are: to gather field research data in (problematic) collaboration with indigenous and traditional peoples around the world, then follows analysis and conservation of the data sets and databases of DNA samples. Spencer Wells with other scientists and IBM researchers, are using cutting-edge genetic and computational technologies to analyse historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world „to better understand our real human genetic roots“. This paper asks the consequences of these film activities which the use of genetic screening connected with concepts of “origin” or imagination of the embodiment for the construction of particular group solidarity iconology of the community and homelands have brought (Foucault, Appadurai, Mitchell, Nelkin and Lindee, etc.). The principal arguments are associated with analysis of the hegemonic representation and DNA as icon and mystique of the “authenticity” of the ethnic body, the roots and kinship imagination in the connecting with the legitimization and politics of homelands identification. |
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