The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA

The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA
Author: Jeff Wheelwright
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2012-01-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 039308342X

A brilliant and emotionally resonant exploration of science and family history. A vibrant young Hispano woman, Shonnie Medina, inherits a breast-cancer mutation known as BRCA1.185delAG. It is a genetic variant characteristic of Jews. The Medinas knew they were descended from Native Americans and Spanish Catholics, but they did not know that they had Jewish ancestry as well. The mutation most likely sprang from Sephardic Jews hounded by the Spanish Inquisition. The discovery of the gene leads to a fascinating investigation of cultural history and modern genetics by Dr. Harry Ostrer and other experts on the DNA of Jewish populations. Set in the isolated San Luis Valley of Colorado, this beautiful and harrowing book tells of the Medina family’s five-hundred-year passage from medieval Spain to the American Southwest and of their surprising conversion from Catholicism to the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the 1980s. Rejecting conventional therapies in her struggle against cancer, Shonnie Medina died in 1999. Her life embodies a story that could change the way we think about race and faith.

Indian Traces in Korean Culture

Indian Traces in Korean Culture
Author: Renata Czekalska
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2024-10-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1040124437

Indian traces in Korean Culture examines the enduring cross-cultural discourse between India and Korea over the centuries, emphasizing the transformative power of cultural exchange beyond geographical and temporal constraints. The book analyses how symbols transcend sensory realms and embody spiritual content and suggests that Indian associations in Korean culture reflect a hybridized nature, seamlessly blending cultural elements. The author presents various facets of the cultural exchange between India and Korea, covering Princess Hŏ Hwang-ok's legendary Indian origins shaping Korean identity, Ilyŏn's strategic documentation of Buddhism's transmission, the influence of Indian figures such as Gandhi and Tagore, an exploration of literature from ancient Buddhist verse to modern poets like Kim Yang-shik and Shiva Ryu, and a study of cultural exchange in K-pop. Facilitating a possible alternative to Huntington’s theory of the clash of civilisations, this book provides evidence that the multifaceted encounters between cultures are a historical process that co-shapes civilisational change on a global scale. The first monograph solely dedicated to India-Korea cultural connection from antiquity to the present, this book offers a paradigm shift, inviting readers to explore fresh insights and reshape their understanding of cultural exchanges. It will be of interest to researchers in intercultural communication, Cultural Studies, Cultural History and Asian Studies, in particular Korea and India.

Royal Patronage, Power and Aesthetics in Princely India

Royal Patronage, Power and Aesthetics in Princely India
Author: Angma Dey Jhala
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317316576

Investigating the aesthetics of the zenana – the female quarters of the Indic home or palace – this study discusses the history of architecture, fashion, jewellery and cuisine in princely Indian states during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.