RECONSTRUCTING AFRICA'S EVOLUTIONARY HISTORIES: DNA COLLECTION, CODING, ANALYSIS, and INTERPRETATION

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Winful, O. (2018). RECONSTRUCTING AFRICA'S EVOLUTIONARY HISTORIES: DNA COLLECTION, CODING, ANALYSIS, and INTERPRETATION. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Finding a way to successfully interpret African diversity is important in accurately reconstructing the evolutionary history of our species. By collecting high quality DNA, genealogical, and demographic data on a large cross section of African and African Americans a beginning bioculturally informed database was formed. By interpreting and contextualizing the data this database allows for further use in addressing health disparities among these communities. Africans and African Americans were the targeted population of this study. There was a wide range in both nationalities (26) and ethnicities (35) reported for the database. A majority of participants (56.2%) or about 260 participants self-reported their nationality as Black/African American. In total, there were 463 participants split up into four distinct databases based on sampling strategy that took ancestry into account.. 348 (75.2%) in AD (African Diasporic), 75 (16.2%) in AP Arabian Peninsula)(, 31 (6.7%) in CA (Continental African) and 9 (2.0%) in RA (Remote African). Gender, age, and geographical distributions were also examined. In conclusion, these databases have the potential to highlight the diversity of African and African American communities through contextualized bio histories, pave the way for precision medicine research and implementation, and lastly eliminate health disparities seen in these populations

Details
Author

Winful, Olawunmi

Title

RECONSTRUCTING AFRICA'S EVOLUTIONARY HISTORIES: DNA COLLECTION, CODING, ANALYSIS, and INTERPRETATION

Physical Description

1 online resource (44 pages) : PDF

Date

2018

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Finding a way to successfully interpret African diversity is important in accurately reconstructing the evolutionary history of our species. By collecting high quality DNA, genealogical, and demographic data on a large cross section of African and African Americans a beginning bioculturally informed database was formed. By interpreting and contextualizing the data this database allows for further use in addressing health disparities among these communities. Africans and African Americans were the targeted population of this study. There was a wide range in both nationalities (26) and ethnicities (35) reported for the database. A majority of participants (56.2%) or about 260 participants self-reported their nationality as Black/African American. In total, there were 463 participants split up into four distinct databases based on sampling strategy that took ancestry into account.. 348 (75.2%) in AD (African Diasporic), 75 (16.2%) in AP Arabian Peninsula)(, 31 (6.7%) in CA (Continental African) and 9 (2.0%) in RA (Remote African). Gender, age, and geographical distributions were also examined. In conclusion, these databases have the potential to highlight the diversity of African and African American communities through contextualized bio histories, pave the way for precision medicine research and implementation, and lastly eliminate health disparities seen in these populations

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Biology
Area studies
History

Subjects--Places

Africa

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

African Diversity
Bio Cultural Approaches
Database
Health Disparities
Hypertension

Subject Area

Anthropology

Advisor(s)

Marks, Jonathan

Committee Members

Light, Lydia
Jackson, Fatimah

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2018.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Winful_uncc_0694N_11727

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:477