Ancestral Narratives

Voluminous studies of genealogy and genetic inheritance reveal that the individual neuropsychological effects of extreme circumstances and traumatic events often manifest in subsequent generations of offspring. Additionally, the cultural identity and collective experience of discreet societal groups are apparently transmitted across generations by a little-understood form of genomic imprinting. Through such a transgenerational process, individuals of a present generation may revive patterns of sensation, thought, feeling, and behavior associated with the experiences of their distant ancestors. Furthermore, uncovering and investigating the temporal trajectory of family history, through introspection and evidential research, can cast the light of clarity upon cognitive and emotional subjectivities that might otherwise seem inexplicable and overwhelming. Such investigation involves formulating what we may call 'Ancestral Narratives', by which the individual traces a pathway of genomic connections through generations as far back in time as possible, identifying potential environmental and circumstantial influences upon each direct ancestor in the family tree. The Ancestral Narratives Project aims to facilitate this endeavor.