Tropes of the Times

Science Times triumphantly announced, in a March 6 piece by Nicholas Wade, that genetics tops history: “Most of history aside, DNA evidence suggests that the English and the Irish have much more in common than they once thought.” Wade, the paper’s mouthpiece for the Central Dogma of biological reductionism and determinism, reports with faux astonishment that despite historians’ claims that the Irish descend from the Celts and the English from “Anglo-Saxons,” genetics finds them highly similar. Of course, Wade himself has 99.9% of his genes identical to those of an Eskimo (no less a Brit or an Irishman) and almost 99% identical to those of a chimpanzee. He ignores the facts that the antagonisms between these two island peoples have clear links to their different languages, contending relgions, patterns of class domination, and the like–none of which can possibly be claimed to be genetic in nature.

Turning to anthropological history, Wade relates successive waves of invaders coming to the islands from the European continent. Misleading and ambiguous statistical phrases in his text (eg, “DNA from invaders accounts for 20% of the gene pool in Wales”) and an accompanying map with arrows of different widths and colors [unfortunately, not shown by the link] are offered to indicate “where British and Irish genes come from”.

Genetic variations amoung humans can only be found in 0.1% of our genome. We are overwhelmingly identical–regardless of skin color, hair texture, height, etc. While subtle tiny variations within this small portion of our genetic material can be used for historical studies, DNA forensics, and paternity disputes, there is probably as much variation within the “Irish” genepool as there is between it and the “British” one.

Trope of the Times: Biology is Destiny (as well as History)