What is Ethnicity?
Ethnicity is an important means through which people can identify themselves. The word Ethnicity is derived from the Greek word “ethnos” which normally translated as “people” or “tribe”. Ethnicity is a major factor affecting the health of individuals and communities.
Have you ever thought about your ethnic origin? Or do you know surely where all your ancestors were from and the history of which country make direct impact on the people who were responsible for you who you are?
To know the ethnic or our origin, we have to go thousand of years back in the past or we should have knowledge of history. But now science has made some inventions, which uses the DNA testing. If you wish to take an ancestry DNA test you can order a home test kit online or visit a laboratory that does DNA testing. The common procedure is to take a swab of the inside of the cheek which will give a good DNA sample for the laboratory to study.
Then the laboratory may look at maternal DNA or DNA from the paternal line. They should study about 400 dissimilar points on the DNA, where as for the paternal line only 25-37 are required, if they are looking at the maternal DNA.
The result will probably offer you a letter which corresponds to a definite ethnicity; it also may give you percentages of ethnicity – i.e. how much Indo-European, Native American, East Asian or African ancestry you have. If you get a letter from it then you can easily find a link to your main ancestry. The meaning of different letters gives you the main ancestry which is written in next paragraph.
If you get A, B, C, D, or X letter then your ancestry is either Native American or Asian.
Similarly if you get H, I, J, K, N, R, T, U, V, W, X then it is Indo-European.
Letter L for African, letter M, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, O, P, Q, or Z for East Asian, letter P, or Q are for Oceana, Pacific Islands, and Papua New Guinea and letter N for Australian ancestry.
The part of the DNA remains almost unchanged through the centuries. That is the reason why ancestry DNA testing useful in discovering one’s native roots. Mainly it is true with the Y chromosome and so paternal DNA testing necessitates fewer comparisons as the father’s DNA is passed down to his son without much considerable change.
But for the society, the topic of ethnicity is danger after some level. In a country or a nation, if there are mainly two ethnic people are living then the majority party can undergo for violence to rule on the nation and the minority people. So if you want to know your ethnicity for your personal purpose then its okay as it is for your curiosity or for your personal purpose. But if you give this topic a political view then it will be danger for society or nation.
