The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA

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$26.65 - $35.48
UPC:
9780393081916
Maximum Purchase:
2 units
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication Date:
1/16/2012
Release Date:
1/16/2012
Author:
Jeff Wheelwright
Language:
english
Edition:
First Edition, 1st Printing

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Product Overview

A brilliant and emotionally resonant exploration of science and family history.

A vibrant young Hispano woman, Shonnie Medina, inherits a breast-cancer mutation known as BRCA1.185delAG. It is a genetic variant characteristic of Jews. The Medinas knew they were descended from Native Americans and Spanish Catholics, but they did not know that they had Jewish ancestry as well. The mutation most likely sprang from Sephardic Jews hounded by the Spanish Inquisition. The discovery of the gene leads to a fascinating investigation of cultural history and modern genetics by Dr. Harry Ostrer and other experts on the DNA of Jewish populations.

Set in the isolated San Luis Valley of Colorado, this beautiful and harrowing book tells of the Medina familys five-hundred-year passage from medieval Spain to the American Southwest and of their surprising conversion from Catholicism to the Jehovahs Witnesses in the 1980s. Rejecting conventional therapies in her struggle against cancer, Shonnie Medina died in 1999. Her life embodies a story that could change the way we think about race and faith.

10 black-and-white illustrations

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