Tribalism and Culture

I was at a Christmas party the other night with a bunch of people I barely know. Someone mentioned the currently fashionable trend of DNA testing to establish one's ancestry. In a moment of indiscretion, a lapse of judgement, a wine-induced madness, I said what I think about it: despicable. I was rebuked by a very nice couple who pointed out that people were finding out that their ancestry was more diverse than they imagined and that that was a good thing. I could feel myself building up a head of steam. I was brought up to believe that argument is a contact sport and what better way to celebrate the solstice than to count dialectic coup. But the indiscretion was, indeed, momentary. I have come to believe, to understand, really, that no one needs to hear my opinion, including me. But I've been thinking about it.

On the one hand we have Morgan Freeman sleuthing out that Gwyneth Paltrow is 80% Martian or whatever, tearing down any inclinations to give in to interplanetary exclusionism, right? On the other hand we have all those television commercials where some sad sack finds out that he or she is 25% Scythian so now they get to wear pig-blossom arm bands. Either way it smells like tribalism!

I am a Human Being from Earth. Isn't that enough? No? My species first appeared in Africa. How about now?

If my grandparents' great-grandparents' grandparents were from someplace other than Trostinietz, does that mean that my grandmother didn't cook the food I associate with my childhood? Does it mean I shouldn't love kneidlach? Does it, perhaps, explain why I don't like gefilte fish? Just because there is no Hellenic component to my ancestry, must I appreciate mousaka less? Am I, as a human person from this planet, not entitled to be curious about life in a yurt, or what fermented mare's milk tastes like, or how do you say, "I want some more of that!" in Kyrgyz if I have no central Asian genes? I call bullshit.

What do we get from knowing which of the thousands of migratory paths out of Africa led specifically to each individual? Do we need that indisputably personal connection to be interested, curious, appreciative? Sure, I admit I have taken pride in some ambiguous connection I have with Albert Einstein and Groucho Marx but I think I would be just as happy to have Douglas Adams and Ming Tsai on my team. Anyway, it's not something I'm proud of. It's tribalism. However big I find my tribe is, even caring about it in the first place is an indication that I don't get it.

Tribalism is just racism's slightly more genteel older brother and the brat is only ever a short goose-step away.