Ancestors Identity and DNA in the Levant

Geneticist Zalloua tackles the complex topic of historical heritage in this enthralling debut study of the ancient Levant. Zalloua points to the recent rise of "genetic ancestry testing kits" as a catalyst for a surge of interest in the DNA component of human history, but laments that too often "origins, ethnicities... identities, and even race are being used interchangeably with genetic ancestry with little or no attention being given to the complexities... that underlie these concepts." Population genetics should not be confused with "cultural attributes," Zalloua argues, asserting that it is culture (rituals, languages, and beliefs), not genes, that "constitute the core of someone's heritage." What DNA can effectively do instead, Zalloua contends, is challenge modern understandings of identity with "novel and sometimes shocking" glimpses of "human mobility." He begins his narrative with the earliest waves of human migration out of Africa, tracking Stone Age groups that inhabited regions of the Levant for thousands of years, becoming genetically distinctive before mixing again. He concludes with the Bronze Age, by which time, he demonstrates, the peoples of the Levant had "become so amalgamated, it is very difficult to pick them apart." Zalloua brings urgency and humanism to the technical work of genetic analysis, arguing that genes offer a portrait of a past defined by constant change, and that 21st-century humans would do well to learn from such fluidity and connection. The result is a singular blend of science and history that makes a powerful argument against present-day sectarianism and nationalism. (May)

Exploring our complex genetic and cultural heritage. Zalloua, a Lebanese-born population geneticist, uses the ancient crossroads of the Levant as his touchstone, demonstrating not only how the world's arbitrary geographical divisions tell only a small part of humanity's origin story, but how the very concept of East versus West is equally artificial and misguided. "Do not look for DNA to tell you who you really are and where you belong. It is a fallacy!" says Zalloua, a scholar at Khalifa University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Zalloua skewers the commercial fad of genetic ancestry testing as grossly oversimplified, its purveyors using such terms as "origin," "ethnicity," "identity," "heritage," and "race" interchangeably, "with little or no attention given to the complexities and dynamics that underlie these concepts." Writing with economy and authority, Zalloua believes this disregards the vastly more important cultural attributes that constitute the core of someone's heritage. An identity is a "basket of memories and collectibles" continually added to and carried wherever one goes, an ever-evolving concept shaped by events, exposure, and interactions. There are no tests that can define "origin." The author argues that while we cannot ignore genetics, we must look beyond it to the forces of migration and the intermingling of cultures, among other factors at play. His intermittent forays into detailed genetic markers and terminology can get a bit heavy going for the layperson, but Zalloua can also be profoundly personal, writing with verve and feeling, even as he provides capsule histories of African and eastern Mediterranean communities and startling evidence that upends many of the most treasured assumptions about our cultural identities. A survey of population studies that is insightful, persuasive, and unfailingly humane. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.