The Definition of Ethnicity

Ethnicity is today a social assignment and a representation attributed to an individual, or to a human group, according to cultural criteria or their physical appearance (skin color in particular, hair color, eye color, eye shape…). It is similar to the notion of race, which is open to question, as it depends on subjective considerations, rather than on objective criteria.

Origin or ancestry attempts to determine a person’s roots or ethnic origin. However, the concept is somewhat ambiguous since it usually does not provide a point of reference. Since new ethnic groups may emerge over time, the respondent may have difficulty answering a question about origin.

Since a person has two parents, four grandparents and so on, it is understood that these ancestors may come from multiple ethnic groups. This makes the processing of the resulting data complex.

Conceptually, race may be somewhat less ambiguous than origin or ancestry, but it is not without its difficulties when it comes to measurement. The concept is based primarily on genetic characteristics, of which skin color is the primary, though not the only characteristic. A person can be of mixed races which makes the terminology more ambiguous. Researchers may prefer to use Caucasian instead of white, but many respondents may not fully understand this term.

Identity has some appeal because it attempts to measure people’s perceptions of themselves rather than their perceptions of their ancestors. However, it retains some dimensions not only of origin, but also of race. In addition, it may encompass some aspects of citizenship.

Knowing your origins through DNA

Although DNA makes a person unique, it also contains information that can be common between different individuals. These collective indications are the ethnic origins and the family ties of the latter.

Indeed, parents pass on a portion of their genetic information to their children. This transmitted DNA portion may be outwardly visible, such as the same skin color. It can also remain discrete.

In this case, DNA tests are used to determine whether there is a hereditary link between different individuals. Among other things, these tests make it possible to establish whether a person is the father, daughter or son of another.

To perform these tests, DNA samples from the individuals concerned must be compared. DNA is everywhere, in blood, skin, and even in sweat.

Many people today resort to DNA tests in order to get more information about their genealogy and trace their family origins. It is quite normal to want to know more about one’s geographical and ancestral origins. In the past it was extremely hard and expensive to conduct such tests but nowadays there are different options in the market.

Many companies provide DNA testing services, which will help you to not only determine you ethnic background but also discover people with similar genetic matches.

What are the different tests to do to know one’s origins?

A DNA test allows you to trace your origins, to know your parentage (grandparents, cousins, paternal line or maternal line), to discover your biological father and even diagnose certain diseases. Thanks to modern DNA kits, you will be able to establish your family tree easily.

These tests are easy to conduct; all you need to do is collect a DNA simple via cheek swabs or saliva. You send them back to the company for processing. They add your DNA results to their database and compare it with other users. This will come up with some matches that have similar results and that may be related to you.  Regarding ethnicity results, you receive the percentages of geographical areas where your ancestors lived and their movement throughout history.

Many people want to have an idea about the origin of their beautiful afro hair, green eyes or certain physical characteristics. DNA analysis is the easiest way to do this, via a DNA test kit. To find out your ancestry, there are two methods available to you:

-The most popular technique to find a person’s origins is to take a saliva sample. To do this, you need a cheek swab that you will rub in your mouth to collect the saliva.

-Another method is to spit directly into a sterile container. Then you will send the sample to a laboratory for genetic analysis.

How are the ethnic origins calculated?

All the labs say it and write it in black and white, even if it is often in small print, these are ‘estimates’. But it is also paradoxical because these are often the main promises in their advertisements and these are the first results they put forward after your test!

Several international scientific research groups have been working for years on the subject of genetic analysis of human populations, such as the Human Genome Diversity Project or the 1000 Genomes Project.

The commercial labs have all been inspired by the results of this research to establish their panels that are more or less representative of all the geographical origins of the world. But each lab has its own algorithm to compare your DNA to its panels of reference populations, and as they are private companies they do not communicate all the details of their “secret recipe”… And they do not have to open their back office to the scientific community which seriously questions the quality of their panels.