The search for genetic origins or"genealogy"has become something of an obsession with Americans of all ethnicities and family histories. Skip Gates s search for his origins in Africa, only to find out that his genome is largely European, is just one highly publicized example of a science in which everyone seems to have an interest and often a political stake. Knowing where one s ancestors came from and to whom one might be related can have life altering consequences. In this book anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj takes us inside the origins and practices of genealogy centering on a people for whom it has stakes of the highest order, the Jews. She shows that the discipline itself arose as Israeli scientists attempted to show that contemporary people calling themselves Jews are genetically related to the ancient tribes of Israel. What truth there may be to such claims is examined in detail, not to debunk the sciencethere are many living Jews who are genetically similar to their Biblical ancestorsbut rather to explain how political and nationalistic goals, not to mention more personal ones, are inextricably bound to the pursuit of knowledge."
