Colonialism, Ethnogenesis, and Biogeographic Ancestry in the US Southwest
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2021
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Differences between self-perceived biogeographic ancestry and estimates derived from DNA are potentially informative about the formation of ethnic identities in different sociohistorical contexts. Here, we compared self-estimates and DNA-estimates in New Mexico, where notions of shared ancestry and ethnic identity have been shaped by centuries of migration and admixture.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We asked 507 New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent (NMS) to list their ethnic identity and to estimate their percentages of European and Native American ancestry. We then compared self-estimates to estimates derived from 291,917 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and we examined how differences between the estimates varied by ethnic identity.
RESULTS: Most NMS (94%) predicted that they had non-zero percentages of European and Native American ancestry. Self-estimates and SNP-estimates were positively correlated (r
DISCUSSION: While NMS accurately predicted that they had European and Native American ancestry, they predicted ancestry percentages with only moderate accuracy. Differences between self-estimated and SNP-estimated ancestry were associated with ethnic identities that were shaped by migration to the region over the past 400 years. We connect ethnic identities and patterns of ancestry estimation to resistance to colonial hegemony and discuss the implications of our results for the construction of ethnic identities, now and in the past.
Recommended Citation
Hunley K, Moes E, Edgar H, Healy M, Mosley C, Dixon A. Colonialism, ethnogenesis, and biogeographic ancestry in the US Southwest. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2021 Dec;176(4):559-571. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24380. Epub 2021 Aug 2. PMID: 34338305.
