ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as a general primer for understanding the science and statistics of genetic ancestry testing. While avoiding heavy use of jargon, we discuss the premises used by biological anthropologists and more generally, geneticists, to estimate unilineal and bi-parental ancestry testing. Following the description of the conceptual structure behind ancestry testing, we then provide a brief description of the primary analytical methods used to estimate genetic ancestry. While a section about the population genetics principles and statistical genetics underlying ancestry testing can be daunting even to the most dedicated reader, we think a basic understanding of how ancestry tests work provides an entryway in to thinking about the meanings and usefulness of ancestry testing in a variety of contexts. Equipped with a basic background on the mechanics of genetic ancestry testing, readers will be prepared to more fully engage with the multitude of ways that genetic ancestry is utilized and its potential to help test-takers to reimagine, or not, their pasts and shape the present. As anthropologists, we are fascinated with the ways that people experience and understand the world. For us, genetic ancestry is more than a tool for making biological connections between people, living and dead, near and far. Rather, this technology is a means to acknowledge and make sense of the stories that people create about themselves, their place in the world, and about others. For us, the ways that people engage, and equally important, disengage, with genetic ancestry testing is our way of learning about human experience. We finish this chapter with a discussion about the major limitations of genetic ancestry testing, including limitations of low-resolution unilineal testing and choice of reference populations.
