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Babas revisited:
anthropological genetic testing in one Ukrainian-Canadian family
by
Elizabeth Sawchuk, MA student, Department of Anthropology
January 14, 2011
My MA research in anthropology involves analyzing human skeletal remains from a Later Stone Age site in southern Tanzania. However, last Christmas, I had my mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequenced which prompted me to study living people: my own family. Within 9 months, several of my direct relatives were also tested to find their mtDNA and Y chromosome haplogroups. Using this information, I have put together a complicated and unexpected picture of our family’s migratory past. Although I was surprised by the results (and they are surprising), I was more interested in the reaction of my family, friends, and other members of our Ukrainian-Canadian community. What started with one unexpected mtDNA sequence has since led to many discoveries pertaining to ethnicity, heritage, identity, and what it means to be Ukrainian.
Elizabeth is a physical anthropologist and bioarchaeologist who studies past societies by looking at their skeletal remains. Her current research focuses on the origins and lifeways of Homo sapiens in East Africa. She is a member of a University of Alberta based research team working in Iringa, Tanzania.
To see the presentation in pdf click here