Lineage Matters: DNA, Race, and Gene Talk in Judaism and Messianic Judaism

Abstract

Based on ethnographic and archival research conducted on North American Judaism and Messianic Judaism, this article argues that each group uses DNA in what appear to be sociologically similar ways but that actually differ profoundly at the theological level. Our analysis moves beyond DNA testing per se to focus on what anthropologist Kim Tallbear calls “gene talk,” referring to “the idea that essential truths about identity inhere in sequences of DNA.” Contrasting Jews and Messianic Jews, we demonstrate clearly what scholars have only begun to recognize: how theological commitments may drive investments in genetic science and interpretations of it. Further, we show how religiously significant identities associated with race, ethnicity, or lineage interact with DNA science, coming to be viewed as inalienable qualities that reside in the self but move beyond phenotype alone. Finally, we argue that gene talk in these contexts is a religiously inflected practice, which serves to binds communities and (implicitly or explicitly) authorize existing theological ideals.

A lineage in land: the transmission of Palestinian Christianity

“…It claimed, moreover, that Jews who immigrated from Arab and African countries were ethnically closer to European Jews than they were to Arabs and Africans (Abu El‐Haj 2012: 17‐18; cf. Imhoff & Kaell 2017). In other words, this is a descent for which blood transcends bonds of language or land.…”

“…Many of the people making such claims come from Catholic and Orthodox traditions, but not exclusively. A recent study, for example, describes American evangelicals who test their DNA for traces of Jewish blood linking them to the Early Church (Imhoff & Kaell 2017). Nevertheless, for much of Western history, and for many Protestants today, Christianity is a religion of individuals seeking to break with the past.…”

“…66See Couroucli (2003) on the genos in Greek Orthodoxy. Several scholars have also written about Christian descent more recently, including Cannell (2013 c ) and Imhoff & Kaell (2017). …”

“…Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic, and Syriac Orthodox), which do not have the same ethno-national division between their hierarchy and laity.4 SeeDemirtzoglou (2018) for audio in Greek, and OS (2018) for an English transcript.5 SeeLivanios (2007) on the term genos.6 SeeCouroucli (2003) on the genos in Greek Orthodoxy. Several scholars have also written about Christian descent more recently, includingCannell (2013c) andImhoff & Kaell (2017).7 The same is true for Jews and Muslims; the contrast is not between religions but the experience of descent and statist methods of freezing it in time.8 Oriental Orthodox also use the language of Orthodox descent. Even Catholics (and some Protestants) speak of descent, but as Palestinians only started converting to Catholicism in large numbers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they typically speak about their heritage as Palestinian Christians rather than as Catholics.9 But seeAppadurai (1988) on how the concept of 'the native' confines people to the land, orBowen (2000) on the concept of indigeneity being used to justify violence against 'foreign' minority groups.10 Israeli scholars have argued that the Palestinian Bedouin cannot claim exclusive rights over land partly because they are no longer truly Bedouin(Yahel, Kark & Frantzman 2012).…”

From discursive resistance to new genealogies: rethinking Israelite identities in Africa through the case of Nuer Christian Zionists

“…Besides the access to resources and legitimacy, however, discussions about DNA reflect a deeper set of ideas about identity and genealogy. In a recent paper, Imhoff and Kaell (2017) refer to the discourses around genetic testing and DNA among Messianic Jews in the USA as 'gene talk', a phrase they borrow from Kim TallBear. TallBear, writing on the politics of DNA science and Native American identity, describes gene talk as 'the idea that essential truths about identity inhere in sequences of DNA' (2013: 4).…”