This isn't the sum total of your ancestry." But it is the DNA from the indigenous tribes that can potentially provide insight into the global movements of our early ancestors. By its very nature, the analysis can only tell us of one strand of our ancestry, and not the many dozens of other strands that have made us what we are. There is, however, a limit to what the genetic "markers" we carry in our DNA can tell us about our ancestry origins. This can give a person a rough idea of the geographical origins of their maternal or paternal ancestry. In addition, however, the project has sold some 360,000 kits to members of the public, who send off their tissue samples in the post and follow their subsequent laboratory analysis on-line through a unique, anonymised code. This is nevertheless some 30,000 samples short of the original target of 100,000 samples. The project has collected some 55,000 DNA samples from indigenous people, and is on track to hit 70,000 by the end of next year, when the first phase of the £25m project finishes. The indigenous people are aware of all this, and they understand the work that's being done," Wells explains. You agree to look at certain genetic markers and not look at others. All the DNA samples collected for the Genographic Project are held anonymously and the genetic analysis looks only at portions of the genome that tell of gross relationships between groups of people, rather than anything more specific to do with family relationships or medical problems. That's what ultimately killed the Human Diversity Project," says Wells. "It's certainly learning from past mistakes, particularly how you work with indigenous and traditional peoples. Meanwhile, the Genographic Project is having more success with other indigenous groups, reassuring participants that the goal is to understand their own ancestral origins. We've made contact with them and offered to make an ethical protocol, but nothing has really happened, unfortunately," Wells says. "They are afraid of the consequences, afraid of being exploited. Even today, some tribes, such as the North American Navajo Nation, have a blanket ban on such genetic sampling, believing it does nothing to help their plight. But some indigenous groups took great exception to what they saw as an attempt to raid their genetic resources. The earlier project was the brainchild of Wells' post-doctoral supervisor, the population biologist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, who believed it was imperative to collect and store DNA samples from the many indigenous tribes in the world before they disappear though the combined forces of disease, enforced migrations and intermarriage. The Genographic Project emerged from an idea Wells developed following the disintegration of an earlier study called the Human Diversity Project, which fell apart acrimoniously following criticisms of it being a neo-colonial attempt to exploit the genetic resources of indigenous peoples.
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