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DANIEL STRAND, ANNA KÄLLÉN, AND CHARLOTTE MULCARE, eds. 2024. Critical 

Perspectives on Ancient DNA, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 206 pp., ISBN 978-0-262-54809-

0. 

Abstract: As the first comprehensive inquiry of its kind, Critical Perspectives on Ancient DNA 

critically interrogates the practices, narratives, and sociocultural effects of archaeogenetics. 

Bringing together scholars from anthropology, archaeology, genetics, cultural history, media 

studies, and science and technology studies, the collection examines the epistemological and 

ontological challenges of ancient DNA (aDNA) research. Key themes include the fallibility of 

aDNA as incontrovertible evidence, the epistemic dominance of genetic frameworks over 

alternative knowledge systems, the risks of scientific racism and political instrumentalization, and 

the role of media in shaping public imaginaries of the past. Through case studies ranging from 

Neanderthal DNA to the “female Viking warrior” and genetic mapping in contemporary China, 

the chapters demonstrate that aDNA knowledge emerges not solely from laboratory analysis but 

from complex interactions between science, culture, and society. The volume ultimately challenges 

DNA essentialism and calls for interdisciplinary collaboration to resist molecular chauvinism, 

foregrounding the cultural contingencies and interpretive dimensions of archaeogenetics. 

Keywords: aDNA, paleogenetics, epistemic dominance, molecular chauvinism, social power. 

  

This edited volume offers the first comprehensive and critical examination of the practices and 

impacts of archaeogenetics, foregrounding its sociocultural as well as scientific implications 

within broader societal contexts. Structured around an introduction and eight chapters, the 

collection addresses a central concern: the fallibility of ancient DNA (aDNA) as incontrovertible 

archaeological evidence and the imperative to remain critical of the ways in which ancient DNA 

findings are produced, interpreted, and mobilized. 



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In the Introduction, D. Strand and A. Källén provide a clear and accessible entry point into the 

field. They trace the exponential growth of aDNA research over the past fifteen years, enabled by 

advances in bioinformatics and innovations such as next-generation sequencing, and situate this 

trajectory within the broader recognition paleogenetics has received in both scientific and public 

arenas—culminating in the awarding of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine to Svante Pääbo for his 

groundbreaking work. Crucially, the introduction underscores how the discourse and practice of 

archaeogenetics have evolved in continuous interaction with popular imagination. 

This framing establishes the book’s core argument: that aDNA research, shaped by contextual 

demands, scientific and social pressures, and expectations of revolutionary discovery, has often 

been misapplied. In this process, it has acquired qualities of what the editors call “sensational 

science” (p. xi)—empirically speculative and affectively charged (p. 114). 

This volume foregrounds the epistemological and ontological challenges that define the field of 

archaeogenetics. Epistemologically, the lack of genuine interdisciplinarity, coupled with the 

shaping effects of knowledge-production and visualization technologies, profoundly influences 

how raw data are analyzed and interpreted. In Chapter 1, geneticists C. Mulcare and M. Pruvost 

address these challenges from a personal perspective, emphasizing the need to recognize the 

fundamental epistemological distinctions between genomic sciences and the humanities and social 

sciences. Rather than seeking to collapse these differences, they call for acknowledging them and 

engaging in acts of translation across disciplinary boundaries. 

These epistemological issues have direct consequences for the ontological dimensions of the field. 

The portrayal of aDNA as incontrovertible proof, combined with a lack of cultural awareness—

arguably a symptom of interdisciplinary shortcomings—raises pressing concerns. Chief among 

these is the narrow, biologically reductionist definition of ancestry that dominates genetic science. 

In Chapter 4, Hopi tribe member S. Koyiyumptewa and anthropologist C. Colwell interrogate this 

limitation by contrasting the strictly biological conception of ancestry in archaeogenetics with 

Hopi understandings, which conceive ancestry as an intricate tapestry of humans, nonhumans, 

material objects, places, and historical events. Their analysis reveals the inadequacy of genetic 

frameworks for capturing the complexity of social identity and highlights the epistemic dominance 

of genomic perspectives. The chapter ultimately underscores the need for collaborative approaches 



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capable of negotiating and reconciling divergent conceptualizations of ancestry within 

archaeogenetics. 

Also within the epistemological realm, Chapter 2 by cultural scholars M. Sommer and R. Amstutz 

demonstrates how software programs—often presented as neutral, data-driven tools—are in fact 

generative, producing divergent research outcomes depending on the decisions of programmers 

and researchers. Such technologies not only structure scientific results but also risk perpetuating 

traditions of scientific racism. 

Whether advertently or not, racism and racial politics emerge as central by-products of 

contemporary aDNA research, as illustrated in Chapters 5 and 7. In Chapter 5, anthropologist A. 

M’charek interrogates the cultural meaning-making surrounding concepts of race and identity by 

examining how archaeogenetics informs popular imagination. Drawing on personal memories and 

fieldnotes from her leadership of a laboratory working with Neanderthal DNA, M’charek argues 

that the recent “whitening” and cultural assimilation of the Neanderthal stem from the discovery 

of genetic relatedness between Neanderthals and modern humans. This reframing has reshaped 

both scientific and popular understandings of human evolution, with profound implications for the 

conceptualization of sameness and otherness. She warns of the dangers inherent in using aDNA to 

construct singular evolutionary narratives—in this case, a whitewashed account of the 

Neanderthal—that reinforce racialized imaginaries with significant consequences for racial 

politics in Europe and beyond. 

In a parallel critique, anthropologist M. Fiskesjö (Chapter 7) highlights the political stakes of 

genetic racism. He exposes the ways in which archaeogenetics, through the classificatory power 

of naming in genetic mappings of past and present populations, becomes complicit in the 

politicized manipulation of ethnicity. His analysis of contemporary China reveals how genetic 

research can be mobilized to serve state agendas, thereby contributing to violations of human 

rights. This case underscores the broader potential of archaeogenetics to be harnessed for political 

ambitions with severe consequences. 

These chapters also illuminate the pivotal role of language: the terminology used to frame, 

interpret, and communicate aDNA research not only constrains scholarly discourse but also 

powerfully shapes public understandings. Media historian A. Nyblom emphasizes the importance 

of attending to the “mechanisms of closure” (p. 133)—the rhetorical strategies employed in 



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archaeological research to obscure necessary and ethically important ambiguities in historical 

interpretation. 

Nyblom develops this argument further in Chapter 6, where he explores the mediatization of 

science and the social power of DNA through the widely publicized case of the so-called “female 

Viking warrior.” He demonstrates that archaeogeneticists who conducted genomic analysis of the 

remains interred with weapons in Birka (present-day Sweden) misused the symbolic authority of 

DNA as a truth-confirming device. Although genomic analysis played only a marginal role in 

determining the biological sex of the individual, genetics was invoked as the ultimate authority to 

affirm both the identification of the skeleton as female and the existence of professional, high-

ranking female warriors in the Viking Age. In reality, the figure of the female warrior emerged not 

directly from genomic evidence but from complex interpretive processes involving archaeology, 

mythology, and contemporary fiction, shaped by interactions among archaeologists, academic 

journals, popular culture, news outlets, and social media. This social power of DNA is also 

examined in Chapter 3, where science scholar V. Oikkonen analyzes cultural representations of 

ancient pathogens preserved in permafrost. The author situates these narratives within broader 

anxieties about climate change, highlighting fears that dormant pathogens might be revived and 

pose new threats to human health. This chapter underscores that aDNA research concerns not only 

reconstructions of the past but also speculative futures. 

The volume concludes with Chapter 8, a commentary that returns to the central claim set out in 

the introduction: archaeogenomics does not represent a scientific revolution in the Kuhnian sense, 

but rather a “hyperbolic euphemism” (p. xii). As molecular anthropologist A. Horsburgh observes, 

“despite the grandiose claims to the contrary, aDNA data have not, and will not, revolutionize 

reconstructions of the past” (p.173). Drawing on her own experiences with aDNA research, 

Horsburgh argues that genetic data only become meaningful when interpreted in relation to other 

forms of evidence, particularly social and historical contexts. Her reflections highlight the 

necessity of sustained interdisciplinary collaboration to resist “molecular chauvinism”—the 

treatment of genetic data as inherently pure or privileged—and instead embrace the 

epistemological complexity of aDNA studies. 

In sum, this volume makes a significant contribution by interrogating the epistemological, 

ontological, and political dimensions of archaeogenetics, demonstrating how aDNA research is 



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entangled with media, cultural imaginaries, and disciplinary power relations. By exposing the risks 

of molecular chauvinism and epistemic dominance, while also pointing to the possibilities of 

genuine interdisciplinary collaboration, the book provides both a cautionary and constructive 

framework for future work. It should be considered essential reading for scholars across the 

humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences who are invested in critically assessing the 

promises and perils of aDNA. 

  

Author bio: 

Dr. Irene Martí Gil is the Educational Outreach Coordinator and Anthropology Collections 

Manager at the LSU Museum of Natural Science in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She obtained a Ph.D. 

in Anthropology from Louisiana State University in 2023, which Fulbright sponsored. Previously, 

she earned her master’s degree in Cultural Heritage from University College London (London), a 

bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona-Université Paris-

Sorbonne IV (Barcelona-Paris), and a degree in Liberal Arts from Escuela de Liderazgo 

Universitario-Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid). Her field of research encompasses a 

broad range of topics including archaeological looting and antiquities trafficking, southeastern US 

anthropology, museology, and digital anthropology, among others. 

 

 

© 2025 Irene Martí Gil 

 


