Description
The combination of genetic science and ancestry services marks the new and rapidly growing field of genetic genealogy that builds off an ongoing colonial legacy of perpetuating notions of difference based on biological/ scientific logics. In this field, companies such as Ancestry, 23andMe, African Ancestry, MyHeritage DNA, and more have become popular and profitable pieces of Western culture, creating a web of different services, products, and media productions. I pull from Michael Foucault’s genealogical method to shape my discourse analysis of the genetic genealogical series Finding Your Roots (FYR.) My research is shaped by a queer, feminist, and decolonial theoretical framework that drives me to be curious about the unspoken white supremacist, settler colonial, and heteropatriarchal logics that constitute what FYR takes to be “real” and “verifiable” family. This series, as a reflection of others, increasingly suggests that DNA testing or rather, genomic relation is an integral component of ancestral lineage. This drives my investigation into the role of DNA testing in shaping the bounds of “real” family and kinship bonds in FYR and I argue that the series (re)produces heteronormativity as the single legible way to conceptualize “real” family structures and kinship bonds. Further, I challenge FYR’s claim that genetic science lends validity to the traditional genealogical methods focused on storytelling. While the series suggests that DNA testing is the ultimate proof of how counts as “real” family and thus, who we should create/foster kinship bonds with, I argue that the science only becomes legible within heteronormative logics/ stories. In (re)producing such white, settler state logics as “natural”, I explore what alternative familial structures and kinship bonds are erased within genetic genealogy and, taking inspiration from queer and technofeminist theories, I ask how we can seek to reclaim them.
