Journal Description
Genealogy
Genealogy
is an international, scholarly, peer-reviewed, open access journal devoted to the analysis of genealogical narratives (with applications for family, race/ethnic, gender, migration and science studies) and scholarship that uses genealogical theory and methodologies to examine historical processes. The journal is published quarterly online by MDPI.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science), and many other databases.
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 29.9 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.9 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2024).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Impact Factor:
0.8 (2023)
Latest Articles
Beyond the Demands of Integration: African Refugee Resettlement in Contemporary Multicultural Australia
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010011 - 29 Jan 2025
Abstract
This paper uses the example of negatively racialised refugees from the African continent to reiterate the racialised nature of migrant and refugee experiences in Australia. This is a context that remains deeply influenced by a violent history of British colonisation and racist migration
[...] Read more.
This paper uses the example of negatively racialised refugees from the African continent to reiterate the racialised nature of migrant and refugee experiences in Australia. This is a context that remains deeply influenced by a violent history of British colonisation and racist migration laws, including the restrictive White Australia Policy (1901–1973). Drawing on the authors’ research and personal experiences of working with, and navigating, the Australian resettlement system this article examines the racialised violences inherent in expectations of ‘integration’ for (former) African refugees in a settler colonial country. This paper proffers a principle level re-imagining of refugee resettlement in Australia that challenges patriarchal white sovereignty. It proposes a meaningful consideration of resettlement practices that are community-led, localised, relational and that recognise the agency of refugees who settle in Australia. This paper disrupts dominant tropes of refugees as perpetually vulnerable and deficit, by centering the agency, needs and expectations of a good life as it is lived in community, rather than dictated by the state.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobilities and Precarities)
Open AccessCommentary
“Boys and Men”: The Making of Senegambian and Congolese Masculinity and Identities in Tropical Africa: A Reflection
by
Martha Judith Chinouya and Sarah Lewis-Newton
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010010 - 27 Jan 2025
Abstract
Our paper focuses on two white pioneering scientists, Dr Dutton, who was English, and Dr Todd, a Canadian, employed by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) to study sleeping sickness in colonial Senegambia, West Africa. We analysed photographs and some published personal
[...] Read more.
Our paper focuses on two white pioneering scientists, Dr Dutton, who was English, and Dr Todd, a Canadian, employed by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) to study sleeping sickness in colonial Senegambia, West Africa. We analysed photographs and some published personal letters to help us reflect on some of their constructions of Senegambian and Congolese male identities in tropical colonial Africa. In this paper, we connect with the history of tropical medicine, a precursor to public health. Public health was a research area that was central to Peter Aspinall’s work as he argued for shifts from simplistic hegemonic terminologies to refer to an incredibly diverse Black African population, as failure to do so impacts on service provisions. Within the context of tropical medicine, we reflect on the paternalistic terminology and use of the word ‘boy’ to refer to their unnamed male helpers who they photographed during these expeditions. We hope that by interpreting the photographs and reflecting on the literature and letters, exercises that are influenced by our positionality, we can obtain a glimpse into the past and obtain some insights that contribute to our understanding of the production of colonial masculinities, terminology, and race. As female authors employed by LSTM, we are aware that our positionalities influence the lenses through which we view and interpret the literature and the photos. Our paper contributes towards the ongoing debates on terminology, race, and whiteness in colonial tropical medicine.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seeing Ethnicity Otherwise: From History, Classification and Terminology to Identities, Health and Mixedness in the Work of Peter J. Aspinall)
►▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
Open AccessArticle
Valongo Wharf and Gadsden’s Wharf: A Comparative Approach to Two Sites of Memory of Atlantic Slavery (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Charleston, South Carolina)
by
Sergio Gardenghi Suiama
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010009 - 24 Jan 2025
Abstract
The article presents a comparative analysis between Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina, as sites of memory of the Atlantic slave trade. It examines how these sites, both integrated into the UNESCO “Routes of Enslaved
[...] Read more.
The article presents a comparative analysis between Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina, as sites of memory of the Atlantic slave trade. It examines how these sites, both integrated into the UNESCO “Routes of Enslaved Peoples” project, confront the legacy of slavery and its contemporary implications. The study investigates the prevailing narratives in these spaces, the privileged and silenced memories, and the connection established between past atrocities and present racism. From a comparative historical perspective, the article discusses the social construction of these sites of memory, considering the influences of different social actors, such as Black movements, scholars, and public authorities. The analysis reveals how Valongo and Gadsden’s Wharves have become spaces of dispute for recognition and ambiguities over the memory of slavery and its legacies.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Race and Memory: Perspectives from the U.S. and South Africa)
►▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
Open AccessBrief Report
We Not Like Them: Complex Economic Intergenerational Trauma (CEIT) and Black Women’s Economic Resistance
by
Tiffany N. Younger
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010008 - 22 Jan 2025
Abstract
Black women come from a lineage of survivors who have faced threats to their economic livelihoods since the emancipation of slavery. These threats are deeply rooted in the systemic expectation of free labor, which dates to the illegal enslavement of Black individuals beginning
[...] Read more.
Black women come from a lineage of survivors who have faced threats to their economic livelihoods since the emancipation of slavery. These threats are deeply rooted in the systemic expectation of free labor, which dates to the illegal enslavement of Black individuals beginning in 1619. A new emerging concept of complex economic intergenerational trauma (CEIT), grounded in Black feminist theory, examines the historical and contemporary economic exploitation of Black women at the intersection of gendered anti-Black racism. CEIT highlights ancestral capital—an essential form of wealth and survival—that has enabled Black women to succeed in a society built through their marginalization. Findings from an exploratory phenomenological study of thirteen Black women’s experiences with wealth accumulation reveal that Black women have thrived beyond the confines of the U.S. economy, despite its design to exploit their labor without providing them benefits. Ancestral capital, rooted in knowledge, values, cultural resilience, and community support, has been key to their survival and success. Today, Black women continue to face significant barriers to true economic security due to ongoing gendered anti-Black racism. However, they survive and adapt. A thematic analysis from the study shows that Black women approach economic security and wealth differently than others, placing a strong emphasis on community, collective organizing, and mutual aid. These approaches stem from a lack of access to traditional avenues of wealth accumulation available to others. Despite these ongoing challenges, Black women persist, drawing on both their inherited trauma and their unique forms of capital to navigate the economic system. This paper underscores the uniqueness of Black women by uplifting their resilience and survival, offering a testament to their ability to thrive beyond traditional financial means and continue their legacy of strength.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Shifting Structural Power and Advancing Transformational Changes Among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC): Elevating the Voices of the Community)
Open AccessArticle
Becoming, Writing Home: The Journey Towards Self for Community in Under the Udala Trees and the Binti Trilogy
by
Olaocha Nwadiuto Nwabara
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010007 - 20 Jan 2025
Abstract
This paper focuses on the process of being and becoming as represented in the novels Under the Udala Trees and Binti (series). It draws from Igbo and Kemetan notions of self, identity, becoming, and destiny (chi na eke, khepert) to center the protagonists’
[...] Read more.
This paper focuses on the process of being and becoming as represented in the novels Under the Udala Trees and Binti (series). It draws from Igbo and Kemetan notions of self, identity, becoming, and destiny (chi na eke, khepert) to center the protagonists’ self-determination considering their oppressive environments. The protagonists, Ijeoma and Binti respectively, contend with who they are and are becoming alongside their neocolonial family and community expectations of its daughters. As a result, they are driven into isolation to determine self on their own terms. This paper argues that while they moved in solitude, this process is ultimately beneficial to their families and communities, offering decolonized methods of healing, and of moving towards one’s purpose. Drawing from pre-colonial Igbo cultures and traditions—as the authors are Igbo—the paper positions Under the Udala Trees and Binti as pieces that offer contemporary solutions to the global erasure or suppression of African and Black cultures and ways of existing.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Africana Families and Kinship Formations in the Diaspora)
Open AccessArticle
Eurafrican Invisibility in Zambia’s Census as an Echo of Colonial Whiteness: The Case for a British Apology
by
Juliette Bridgette Milner-Thornton
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010006 - 17 Jan 2025
Abstract
In this article, I argue that Eurafricans’ invisibility in Zambia’s national census, history, and social framework is an echo of colonial whiteness stemming from the destructive legacy of illegitimacy perpetuated by British officials in Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) during the colonial era (1924–64),
[...] Read more.
In this article, I argue that Eurafricans’ invisibility in Zambia’s national census, history, and social framework is an echo of colonial whiteness stemming from the destructive legacy of illegitimacy perpetuated by British officials in Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) during the colonial era (1924–64), which continues to the present day. This is evidenced by the absence of Eurafricans in the Zambia national censuses. This contribution calls for the British government to apologise to the Eurafrican community for the legacy of illegitimacy and intergenerational racial trauma it bestowed on the community. Zambia’s tribal ‘ethnic’ and ‘linguistics’ census classification options prevent a comprehensive understanding of Zambia’s multi-racial history and the development of a hybrid space that embraces a ‘mixed-race’ Eurafrican (of European and African heritage) Zambian identity. Through an autoethnographic account of my Eurafrican uncle Aaron Milner, I reflect on Zambian Eurafricans’ historical racial positioning as ‘inferior interlopers’, which has contributed to their obscurity in Zambia’s national history and census. However, my reflection goes beyond Milner’s story in Zambia. It is my entryway to highlight how race and colonial whiteness interconnected and underpinned racial ideology in the wider British Empire, and to draw attention to its echoes in various contemporary sociopolitical contexts, including census terminology in Australia and Zambia and Western nations’ anti-Black immigration policies.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seeing Ethnicity Otherwise: From History, Classification and Terminology to Identities, Health and Mixedness in the Work of Peter J. Aspinall)
Open AccessReview
The Role of Fashion and Art in First Nations Healing, Decolonisation, and Cultural Practice
by
Treena Clark
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010005 - 14 Jan 2025
Abstract
This paper explores the intersection of art, fashion, and decolonisation within First Nations communities, focusing on how clothing and adornment are powerful tools for healing, cultural survival, and resistance. Through art programs, fashion workshops, and community-based projects, First Nations peoples reconnect with culture,
[...] Read more.
This paper explores the intersection of art, fashion, and decolonisation within First Nations communities, focusing on how clothing and adornment are powerful tools for healing, cultural survival, and resistance. Through art programs, fashion workshops, and community-based projects, First Nations peoples reconnect with culture, land, and history, fostering identity and continuity while addressing the traumas of colonisation. This paper examines how First Nations artists and designers engage with traditional garments, such as kangaroo skin cloaks and shell necklaces, to reclaim ancestral practices and challenge colonial traumas. By reinterpreting colonial clothes and creating new forms of fashion, artists engage in truth-telling, amplify resilience, and promote reconciliation. This paper highlights the role of art and fashion as an aesthetic expression and a strategy for cultural survival and resistance. It concludes by offering recommendations for policies and programs that support First Nations fashion initiatives, fostering economic opportunities, social well-being, and intergenerational healing. Ultimately, this paper advocates for the transformative power of art and fashion as pathways to decolonisation and empowerment for First Nations communities.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indigenous Well-Being: Connecting to Country and Culture)
►▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
Open AccessArticle
A Three-Generation Study of the Prevalence and Comorbidity of Posttraumatic Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Afghan Refugees
by
Alveera Habib and Najia Zulfiqar
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010004 - 13 Jan 2025
Abstract
Afghan refugees are at the forefront of international attention amidst the unfolding global refugee crisis. Having borne witnesses to the horrors of war, fled their homeland, and endured the tragic loss of loved ones, they suffered a psychological trauma that reshaped their cognitive
[...] Read more.
Afghan refugees are at the forefront of international attention amidst the unfolding global refugee crisis. Having borne witnesses to the horrors of war, fled their homeland, and endured the tragic loss of loved ones, they suffered a psychological trauma that reshaped their cognitive and emotional frameworks. This cross-sectional survey explores the prevalence and comorbidity of posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic obsessive-compulsive disorder among Afghan refugees living in Haripur, Pakistan, and the intergenerational transmission of PTSD across their three generations. Researchers collected data from 48 male participants representing three generations of 16 Afghan refugee families using the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised and the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5-TR. The findings revealed a significant positive correlation between posttraumatic obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, indicating a substantial co-occurrence of posttraumatic obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. About 79.20% of total participants were diagnosed with posttraumatic obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it was more prevalent among the first generation (87.5%) than in the second and third generations (75.0%) each—additionally, significant variability across generations in the prevalence of PTSD. The first-generation refugees experienced severe and very severe symptoms (12.5%), the second-generation experienced moderate symptoms, and the third-generation experienced mild symptoms (16.6%). These results emphasize the importance of addressing the comorbidity of both disorders in refugee communities to underscore their intergenerational adverse mental health outcomes.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Genealogical Communities: Community History, Myths, Cultures)
Open AccessArticle
Thina Curtis Amid Creative Disorders: Fanzines, Punk, Improvisation, and Critical Pedagogy
by
Paula Guerra
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010003 - 13 Jan 2025
Abstract
►▼
Show Figures
Thina Curtis, pedagogue and creator of fanzines in Brazil, has built a trajectory marked by resistance and the expression of a counter-hegemonic ethos that permeates all her production. From an early age, Thina became involved with punk culture, where she found in fanzines
[...] Read more.
Thina Curtis, pedagogue and creator of fanzines in Brazil, has built a trajectory marked by resistance and the expression of a counter-hegemonic ethos that permeates all her production. From an early age, Thina became involved with punk culture, where she found in fanzines a means to express and amplify marginalised voices, challenging sexism, discrimination, and inequalities. Her work and performance stand out for a visceral opposition to fascism and intolerance, while seeking to build a transformative and inclusive pedagogy. Fanzines, in Thina’s practice, are a means of critical and anti-neoliberal pedagogy that not only questions the traditional educational system but also promotes participatory education. This approach places Thina and other social agents—women, youth, prisoners, and disadvantaged communities—as co-creators of knowledge, breaking with the idea of one-way teaching. Through a qualitative and biographical methodology, centred on the life trajectory of Thina Curtis, we examine fanzines as adaptable pedagogical tools that challenge curricular rigidity and encourage critical and participatory training, essential for the decolonisation of knowledge and for social transformation.
Full article
Figure 1
Open AccessEssay
Healing Through Aloha ʻĀina: Reflections on Kahoʻolawe, Cultural Resilience, and the Power of Land Connection in Trauma Recovery
by
Kuʻuleialohaonālani Elizabeth Salzer
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010002 - 30 Dec 2024
Abstract
Once scarred by decades of military exploitation, Kahoʻolawe has become a symbol of resilience and cultural healing for the Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian. Through Kahoʻolaweʻs ongoing restoration, the island has emerged as a cultural kīpuka (an oasis of life within a barren
[...] Read more.
Once scarred by decades of military exploitation, Kahoʻolawe has become a symbol of resilience and cultural healing for the Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian. Through Kahoʻolaweʻs ongoing restoration, the island has emerged as a cultural kīpuka (an oasis of life within a barren landscape), offering pathways for Kanaka Maoli to reconnect with their ancestral roots and foster resilience in the face of historical and contemporary trauma. Grounded in personal experiences and cultural reflections, this essay explores how reconnecting with Kahoʻolawe as a place of cultural resurgence can deepen one’s understanding of the restorative power of land connection. Aloha ʻāina, a deeply held Kanaka Maoli worldview that emphasizes a sacred, reciprocal relationship with the land. By engaging in cultural protocols and land stewardship practices on Kahoʻolawe, practitioners of aloha ʻāina contribute to the healing of intergenerational trauma rooted in colonial dispossession and ecological degradation. Thus, traditional practices, such as oli (chant), mālama ʻāina (land care), and kūkākūkā (deep discussions/processing) on Kahoʻolawe facilitate a powerful process of healing that connects individuals with ancestral knowledge and cultivates resilience across generations. These practices serve as an alternative to Western trauma healing modalities by asserting a culturally specific framework that validates the inseparability of land and identity for Indigenous healing.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples)
►▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
Open AccessArticle
Adoption Agrafa, Parts “Unwritten” About Cold War Adoptions from Greece
by
Gonda A. H. Van Steen
Genealogy 2025, 9(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy9010001 - 24 Dec 2024
Abstract
►▼
Show Figures
This preliminary empirical study delves into the “agrafa”, the “unwritten” or “uncharted” parts of a Greek adoption phenomenon and Greek–American relations that may, however, still be accessed via archival investigations, mixed research methods, and efforts to hone life writing skills. At
[...] Read more.
This preliminary empirical study delves into the “agrafa”, the “unwritten” or “uncharted” parts of a Greek adoption phenomenon and Greek–American relations that may, however, still be accessed via archival investigations, mixed research methods, and efforts to hone life writing skills. At stake is the case of the post-WWII adoptions of some 4000 Greek children who were sent to the United States between the years 1950 and 1975. This study asks how the related negotiations were transacted, especially in the early years of the intercountry adoption phenomenon. It challenges the researcher today to create a life writing narrative out of scant snippets and dense allusions and to disclose the dynamics of overlooked interactions, such as the consumerist and occasionally racist attitudes of some, though certainly not all, prospective adoptive parents. Thus, this article highlights formerly dismissed interactions, not necessarily numerically representative interactions, given that the window of opportunity has passed to interview adoptive parents of Greek children who pursued these foreign adoptions in the 1950s–1960s and to quantify their actions and reactions more systematically. Many of the adoptive parents of the 1950s–1960s, however, left their impressions, demands, and frustrations in writing. Those writings have yet to be studied, and their more deliberate, explicit language must be acknowledged, even amid generally more positive depictions of postwar intercountry adoption. I show that the victorious post-WWII era saw a sense of American entitlement emerge among the prospective adoptive parents that has since been whitewashed. Waiving the banner of altruism or humanitarianism (as a couple or as a superpower, respectively), some adoptive parents embarked on adoptions from Greece from a position of cultural as well as political and economic superiority. Their expectation was that the “destitute” partner should comply, that the Greeks themselves should not “talk back” when “poor orphans” were about to be “saved” from “illegitimacy” and lack of prospects.
Full article
Figure 1
Open AccessArticle
Race, Labour, Law, and Capitalism: The Case of US Naturalization and Immigration Law from 1790 to 1965
by
Anita C. Butera
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 150; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040150 - 23 Dec 2024
Abstract
The relationship between race and labour has been analyzed from different theoretical perspectives. Some have focused on the connection between race and the extraction of surplus from people of colour, Black people in particular Others have integrated race within the context of capitalism
[...] Read more.
The relationship between race and labour has been analyzed from different theoretical perspectives. Some have focused on the connection between race and the extraction of surplus from people of colour, Black people in particular Others have integrated race within the context of capitalism as a world system or have focused on race as a category of exploitation that defines both feudalism and capitalism that is essential for the survival of capitalism. This paper argues that, to understand the relation between race and labour, race must be understood as legal status. Race is a set of legal rights given to or withheld from workers because of loosely defined and arbitrarily selected physical characteristics. By assigning different rights to workers based on race, their labour is racialized, and race becomes an important element to the functioning of capitalism because it defines the value of labour. As legal status, race is defined and enforced by the state. In addition, this paper analyses the development of US naturalization and immigration law from 1790 to 1964, selected as an example of the process of racialization of labour. Specifically, it discusses the process of racialization of labour by connecting it to the concept of Westphalian sovereignty and the differentiation between natural and political rights. It concludes that, between 1790 and 1965, race supported the development and stability of US capitalism through the development of three distinct highly racialized labour markets: the Northeast, mostly defined by the racialization of European workers along a scale of whiteness; the West, determined by the racialization of Asian and, later, Latino workers; and the South, characterized by the racialization of African Americans and selected southern European workers, Italians in particular, and, later, Latino workers. These three markets operated in symbiosis with each other and featured different forms of racialization of labour, as defined by different forms of enforcement of race as legal status, ranging from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 on the West Coast to the Jim Crow System that emerged in the southern states after the Compromise of 1877 and the Immigration Act of 1924 that dramatically limited immigration from southern and Eastern Europe.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Racialization, Racial /Ethnic Identity, and the Integration of Immigrants)
Open AccessArticle
Does Rhetoric Drive Conspiracy Theory Beliefs?
by
Casey Klofstad and Joseph Uscinski
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040149 - 23 Dec 2024
Abstract
What leads people to believe in conspiracy theories? While scholars have learned much about both the psychological, social, and political factors associated with individuals’ receptivity to conspiracy theories, and the rhetoric with which these ideas are communicated, these two lines of research have
[...] Read more.
What leads people to believe in conspiracy theories? While scholars have learned much about both the psychological, social, and political factors associated with individuals’ receptivity to conspiracy theories, and the rhetoric with which these ideas are communicated, these two lines of research have often proceeded in isolation, leaving scholars not fully understanding if rhetoric persuades audiences of conspiracy theories. Employing two U.S. national survey experiments, we test the effect of six rhetorical devices on respondents’ endorsements of eleven different conspiracy theories. Across both studies, we fail to find evidence showing that these rhetorical devices increased the endorsement of any of the eleven conspiracy theories. These findings suggest that conspiracy theory beliefs are more the product of worldviews and group identities than of leaders’ communication styles.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conspiracy Theories: Genealogies and Political Uses)
►▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
Open AccessArticle
Analyzing Multi-Generational Gathering and Dispersion to and from Ten 19th-Century American Cities
by
Samuel M. Otterstrom, Jane Selander and Rafael Deo
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040148 - 17 Dec 2024
Abstract
Genealogy, with its tying of people to places, allows for the study of migration over multiple generations. In this paper we use family history data from FamilySearch.org to analyze the migration of the ancestors of those born between 1865 and 1875 in ten
[...] Read more.
Genealogy, with its tying of people to places, allows for the study of migration over multiple generations. In this paper we use family history data from FamilySearch.org to analyze the migration of the ancestors of those born between 1865 and 1875 in ten United States cities followed by the migration of descendants of people born in the same city during that same decade. Other work has followed the ancestors for multiple generations, and we have added in an examination of the migration of descendants from city origins. We calculate a number of statistics and indices and use maps to illustrate the main spatial themes of these migrations and how they vary among the cities. We find that cities have their own unique mixes of migrants that lead to differences in how often the generations were stable in a community; that descendants of those born in our study cities tended to stay close to the city for some time; that the ancestors of migration funneling into a city were more spread out than the descendants of those born in the city; that migration generally proceeded from east to west from the great-great-grandparents to the children, but that the center of migration was more random for the descendants; and that the distance of migration between ancestral generations was highly affected by the share of European ancestors and the regional location of the city. The value of this approach is that genealogical migration research can examine a large number of historical migration questions within one unified framework, which has not been carried out in other studies.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tracing the History and Intergenerational Relations of Immigrant Families)
►▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
Open AccessArticle
Gukurahundi as a Cultural Event: Cultural Politics and the Culture of Violence in Matabeleland
by
Nkululeko Sibanda
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 147; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040147 - 17 Dec 2024
Abstract
The desire of Gukurahundi survivors for cultural platforms that enable them to discuss, mourn, and commemorate their loved ones is now very loud in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. While community-based organisations have provided platforms for Gukurahundi survivors, the children of survivors, and
[...] Read more.
The desire of Gukurahundi survivors for cultural platforms that enable them to discuss, mourn, and commemorate their loved ones is now very loud in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. While community-based organisations have provided platforms for Gukurahundi survivors, the children of survivors, and academics to interface and interact, the government’s gatekeeping processes remain a challenge for the community-wide memorialisation and documentation of the genocide. In this conceptual paper, I frame Gukurahundi as a meteorological event within a general Zimbabwean cultural context, foregrounding the desecration of the Ndebele people’s cultural practices, rituals, and ceremonies. Drawing from the documented legacies of this cultural violence within Matabeleland and south-western parts of the Midlands, through videos and the literature, I argue that this cultural violence resulted in the silencing of the remembrance of Gukurahundi, which remains critical to the resolution of the stand-off between the ZANU-PF government and the communities. In this paper, I further argue that this ecological symbolism provided a justification and legitimated direct brutal violence on presumed ZAPU and ex-ZPRA veterans who were largely Ndebele-speaking or of ethnic descent. Finally, I argue that it is not that the absence of alternative narratives but the sociopolitical and cultural environment that constrains these from being available and implemented.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Genealogical Communities: Community History, Myths, Cultures)
Open AccessViewpoint
The Navahoax
by
Cedar Sherbert
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040146 - 6 Dec 2024
Abstract
THE NAVAHOAX is a first-person account of ethnic fraud as told by an American Indian media professional whose tribal background was utilized by a presumed Native American author pursuing a film adaption of his work; it was later discovered the author was a
[...] Read more.
THE NAVAHOAX is a first-person account of ethnic fraud as told by an American Indian media professional whose tribal background was utilized by a presumed Native American author pursuing a film adaption of his work; it was later discovered the author was a white man masquerading as a Navajo citizen. A full narrative account will be given of the two-year ordeal and its aftermath as well as a contextualization within of the then-current socio-historical moment as it relates to the ongoing history of “playing Indian” as well as Native (in)visibility within the broader U.S. culture. This will be followed by an updated contextualization of this case in the wake of recent high-profile unmaskings of “pretendians” in the U.S. and Canada and the efforts of tribally-enrolled citizens in combatting such race-shifting.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue (Un)Settling Genealogies: Self-Indigenization in Media, Arts, Politics, and Academia)
Open AccessArticle
From Folklore to Conspiracy Beliefs: A Gramscian Approach to Conspiracy Theory Studies
by
Maria Chiara Pozzoni and Giuseppe Quattromini
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 145; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040145 - 3 Dec 2024
Abstract
This paper applies Antonio Gramsci’s theory of folklore—defined as the cultural expressions of subaltern groups reflecting their lived experiences of subalternity—to contemporary conspiracy beliefs, arguing that these beliefs function as a form of what he called “modern folklore”. Drawing on Gramsci’s insights into
[...] Read more.
This paper applies Antonio Gramsci’s theory of folklore—defined as the cultural expressions of subaltern groups reflecting their lived experiences of subalternity—to contemporary conspiracy beliefs, arguing that these beliefs function as a form of what he called “modern folklore”. Drawing on Gramsci’s insights into hegemony, it examines how subaltern beliefs emerge as both reflections of and responses to sociocultural conditions. The paper demonstrates that conspiracy mentality, akin to Gramscian folklore, inadequately encapsulates the issues and aspirations of those feeling marginalised and not represented within hegemonic systems. It outlines how distorted elements of modern scientific and political thought are integrated into folklore, resulting in inconsistent and fragmented worldviews. Key topics include the role of commercial literature in shaping subaltern consciousness and the political implications of conspiracy beliefs, particularly how they are utilised by reactionary movements to further their agendas. The analysis concludes with two case studies: one from Gramsci’s writings and another on contemporary conspiracy beliefs related to COVID-19, illustrating how these examples exemplify modern folklore. This approach offers a critical framework for understanding the social, cultural, and political origins and functions of conspiracy beliefs, highlighting the relevance of Gramsci’s thought to conspiracy theory studies.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conspiracy Theories: Genealogies and Political Uses)
Open AccessArticle
“What Kind of Migrant Are You?”—Iranian Migrants in the West, Racial Complexity and Myths of Belonging
by
Shima Shahbazi
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040144 - 3 Dec 2024
Abstract
In this article, I analyse the complexity of the status of “migrant” in relation to myths of belonging and what we call “home”. I look at status labels that Iranian border-crossers embrace after migrating to the Global North and the ways in which
[...] Read more.
In this article, I analyse the complexity of the status of “migrant” in relation to myths of belonging and what we call “home”. I look at status labels that Iranian border-crossers embrace after migrating to the Global North and the ways in which they practice adaptability in accordance with the systemic and structural meanings associated with their migration status and their racial complexity. Ethnic and Racial labels adopted by Iranian migrants can include “Persian”, “Iranian”, “Middle Eastern”, “White”, or “Aryan”, and migration status labels range from “migrant” to “refugees and asylum seekers”, “exiles”, “expats” etc. Using a mixed approach of digital ethnographies, autoethnography and textual analysis, together with an intersectional and decolonial lens, I investigate the ways in which migration status such as skilled categories are associated with not only “fitting” into the neoliberal and capitalist systems of border crossing but also “blending” into racial hierarchies and maintaining class status post migration within White contexts. This article takes an empathetic approach to the lived experiences of minority and racially complex migrants and emphasises the epistemic value of their narratives and the ways in which these stories can inform us about the covert systemic structural and racially loaded bias that exists within migration economies of the Global North.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mobilities and Precarities)
Open AccessArticle
In the Shadow of a Parent’s Genocidal Crimes in Rwanda: The Impact of Ambiguous Loss on the Everyday Life of Children of (Ex-)Prisoners
by
Theoneste Rutayisire and Annemiek Richters
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 143; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040143 - 19 Nov 2024
Abstract
In Rwanda, following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, many people were found guilty of genocide crimes and imprisoned. Their children ended up in a situation of ambiguous loss during and after a parent’s imprisonment. The article presents the multidimensional impact of this
[...] Read more.
In Rwanda, following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, many people were found guilty of genocide crimes and imprisoned. Their children ended up in a situation of ambiguous loss during and after a parent’s imprisonment. The article presents the multidimensional impact of this loss on the everyday lives of these children and their families according to key themes as they emerged from an ethnographic study in which 21 children and their family members participated. Themes include changed family dynamics and family stress, economic deprivation, incomprehension of a parent’s criminal past, the social stigma of being a child of a génocidaire, and strategies used to make the loss bearable. The uniqueness of the ambiguous loss as experienced by children of perpetrators of genocide in Rwanda compared to those of perpetrators of the Holocaust or other mass crimes relates to an amalgam of factors specific for the context of post-genocide Rwanda; major ones being the severity of genocidal crimes and gacaca courts Rwanda chose as its main form of transitional justice. The case study illustrates how using the prism of intergenerational relations helps to understand some of the transformative and enduring effects of a crisis that deeply affects a society.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Family, Generation and Change in the Context of Crisis)
Open AccessArticle
An Exploratory Pilot Qualitative Study That Explores the Influences on Mental Health and Well-Being in Indigenous Youth and Young Adults
by
Mona J. Zuffante
Genealogy 2024, 8(4), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8040142 - 18 Nov 2024
Abstract
Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among American Indian (AI) adolescents and young adults in the 15- to 24-year-old age group and is the third leading cause of death in the 10- to 14-year-old age group. Methods: Key
[...] Read more.
Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among American Indian (AI) adolescents and young adults in the 15- to 24-year-old age group and is the third leading cause of death in the 10- to 14-year-old age group. Methods: Key informant interviews were conducted with AI youth (n = 10) ages 12–18, and young AI adults (n = 10) ages 19–24 to gather input on activities and programs to decrease AI suicidal-related behaviors in Nebraska. These interviews were 45 min in length at maximum. Themes were created once the interviews were completed. Results: The overarching theme was creating and implementing more suicide prevention programs and cultural activities for these age groups. Respondents identified three important characteristics that they believe all programs should have: (1) positive reinforcement, (2) culturally-centered activities, and (3) strength-based approaches that are not from a negative or punitive viewpoint. Conclusion: The results from these interviews can be used to build strengths-based approaches to promoting positive mental health in Indigenous communities and can lead to other successful programs and activities.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples)
Highly Accessed Articles
Latest Books
E-Mail Alert
News
Topics
Conferences
Special Issues
Special Issue in
Genealogy
Exploring Family Ancestral Histories Through Genetic Genealogy
Guest Editor: LaKisha Tawanda DavidDeadline: 31 March 2025
Special Issue in
Genealogy
Post-COVID Politics of Displacement: Marginalization, Precarity and Identity
Guest Editor: Burcu Akan EllisDeadline: 1 April 2025
Special Issue in
Genealogy
Self Determination in First Peoples Child Protection
Guest Editors: Teresa Libesman, Paul Gray, Wendy HermestonDeadline: 10 April 2025
Special Issue in
Genealogy
Exploring Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Healthcare Settings and Medical Education Institutions: Lived Experiences, Interventions, Policies, Theories and Best Practices
Guest Editors: Alexander Montasem, Chukwuemeka IbeachuDeadline: 25 April 2025