But the tests are flawed because, as Kim TallBear says in her book Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science, they rely on ideas about racial purity that have their roots in medieval Spain and the limpeza de sangre, a belief that intermarriage with non-Christians, or new converts, could taint the pure blood of those who had been Christian for many generations. This belief in pure blood eventually became racial purity, and TallBear questions how that purity gets measured from a genetic standpoint. For example, who are the “pure” tribal members who get
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