“Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Readers of this blog have seen frequent contributions exploring the intersection of location, genealogy, DNA, and physical geography. Today’s New York Times adds to the canon. An extract:
Tucked away on a steep street in this rough-hewn mountain town, an old woman found herself diapering her middle-age children. For generations, an illness has tormented these and thousands of others among a sprawling group of relatives: the world’s largest family to experience Alzheimer’s disease.
Most family members come from one Andes region, Antioquia. Geography, and Basque ancestry, have isolated people here. Over three centuries, many in this clan of 5,000 people have inherited a single genetic mutation guaranteeing that they will develop Alzheimer’s.
Like in the Cilento, scientists are working with the local population to help isolate genetic causes for the disease and try out new therapies that would benefit all of humankind. But once again the intersection of strong physical geography and cultural geography shows how the reduced pool of potential mates, large families, and intermarriage has accelerated the spread of the disease.
Sometimes cultural geography has an even stronger influence that physical geography on genealogy and DNA. A few years ago, the Deseret News reported that a birth defect was plaguing children in certain towns whose citizens were members of the FLDS Church.:
According to experts , the cause of the birth defect is clear: Intermarriage among close relatives is producing children who have two copies of a recessive gene for a debilitating condition called Fumarase Deficiency. Fumarase Deficiency is an enzyme irregularity that causes severe mental retardation, epileptic seizures and other cruel effects that leave children nearly helpless and unable to take care of themselves. Until a few years ago, scientists knew of only 13 cases of Fumarase Deficiency in the entire world. Tarby said he’s now aware of 20 more victims, all within a few blocks of each other on the Utah-Arizona border.
The children live in the polygamist community once known as Short Creek that is now incorporated as the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. It is believed that the recessive gene for Fumarase Deficiency was introduced to the community by one of its early polygamist founders. According to community historian Ben Bistline, most of the community’s 8,000 residents are in two major families descended from a handful of founders who settled there in the 1930s to live a polygamist lifestyle. “Ninety percent of the community is related to one side or the other,” Bistline said.
Two more examples of why it is important to understand the physical and cultural geography of your ancestral milieu.
For you too may discover your geographic destiny…
Good hunting,
Bernie
