Laura Post #1

Something we as humans love to do is divide ourselves into groups and communities, into “us” and “others”. These groups can be based on anything, be it gender, race, sexuality, athletic prowess, culture, or geographical origins. Communities are practical and even important, but we see problems appear when people start defining themselves and others purely through their community. We start to place barriers between ourselves and others, destroying all interconnectivity. When faced with the question of how DNA/ Genetics tie into global interconnectivity, I thought about how complex DNA/ Genetics are. Genetics tell a complex story, but we only understand parts of that story during our everyday life. Without knowing the full story, the categories and communities we create make sense to us, but when we gain a deeper knowledge of ourselves and those around us, the barriers in place become harder to determine. Actually, this is true likely with any self-reflection, but the aspect I’m focusing on right now is genetic identity. Perhaps If we, as the DN@ndover project is attempting to do, acknowledge how complex our genetic stories are, it might increase a sense of global interconnectedness- seeing that however confident we feel in one aspect of our identity, others can be found in our genetics could prompt us to question our own sense of “us” and “others”. I personally look forward to seeing how my own self-identification compares with my genetic identity.