There are 64 family lines back then and we're still in America. I could have relatives all over Africa as well as South America, Europe and Native Americans. Kittles' project is, of course, part of a larger social phenomenon, a genealogical craze driven by equal parts Internet and genome project, with a smattering of social disintegration thrown in. Scientists in England have begun offering similar services, including one that offers to link people, via mitochondrial DNA, to one of 12 offspring of the original Eve. There are lots of people interested in constructing for themselves some sort of genealogical lineage.
Some cultural anthropologists are even more dismissive of the genetic approach.
In Rwanda, he notes, it was only during the colonial era that the Hutus and Tutsis developed the ironclad sense of difference that contributed to the slaughter of 2 million people a few years ago. Everyone wants to find the king in their ancestry, or the big chief. And it's only one branch of my family. But I'm looking for something that gives me some idea of where I come, any idea. This research has a scientific basis.