SciAm Perspectives: Private, Historical and Genetic Truths; July 2008; Scientific American Magazine; by The Editors; 1 Page(s)

When our ancient ancestors migrated out of Africa and throughout the rest of the world, telltale variations in the DNA of the people who settled along the way marked their passage. Today anthropologists and molecular biologists of the Genographic Project, sponsored by the National Geographic Society and others, seek to reconstruct the forgotten migration routes by looking for those genetic ¿footprints,¿ as senior writer Gary Stix relates in his article ¿Traces of a Distant Past.¿

The unwillingness of many indigenous groups in Australia, the Americas and elsewhere to submit DNA samples has hindered progress, however. Some worry that industrialists will exploit a pharmaceutically useful detail of their genetic patrimony and pay them nothing for it. Still others worry, with good cause, that information emerging from the studies might contradict their cultural traditions about their origins (Native Americans who believe their people have always occupied certain lands do not welcome the suggestion that their ancestors came from Siberia 13,000 years ago). Given the long histories of oppression and insensitivity some of those groups have suffered, their desire for genetic privacy is understandable.