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Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'
Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton
1 review
knkoch's review
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
3.75
This complex, sprawling examination of the personal and universal act of ancestral exploration is a heavy undertaking. Maud Newton delves into her family genealogy, along with extensive research from diverse perspectives including neuroscience, Christianity, history, spirituality, and non-Western approaches to ancestral reverence. She fully acknowledges the darkness inherent in a white Southern woman’s genealogical research, and does not shy away from the connections she uncovers to racism, slavery, and dispossession of Native lands. That was what initially drew me to her book; I was interested in her reckoning with dark family history. Genealogy is usually presented as a fun or interesting personal history project, and I like that Newton does not duck away from painful findings.
I found this book a little unwieldy because it was so broad. It was harder to get through than I expected. I found the examination of DNA collection/genealogy site practices (23andMe, Ancestry.com) and personal family stories she uncovers most interesting. The neuroscience review was least interesting to me, and most of what I took from the chapters on epigenetics and intergenerational genetic influence was that the research into what exactly we inherit from our forebears is really mixed and rather inconclusive. But that could be due to inattentiveness on my part!
Overall, I did find myself significantly more interested in my own ancestral history, and the ways some traits, features, and habits replicate inevitably (if more anecdotally than statistically, at this point in the research we have) through many generations.
I found this book a little unwieldy because it was so broad. It was harder to get through than I expected. I found the examination of DNA collection/genealogy site practices (23andMe, Ancestry.com) and personal family stories she uncovers most interesting. The neuroscience review was least interesting to me, and most of what I took from the chapters on epigenetics and intergenerational genetic influence was that the research into what exactly we inherit from our forebears is really mixed and rather inconclusive. But that could be due to inattentiveness on my part!
Overall, I did find myself significantly more interested in my own ancestral history, and the ways some traits, features, and habits replicate inevitably (if more anecdotally than statistically, at this point in the research we have) through many generations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Physical abuse and Sexual assault
The author’s father is extremely racist, and though the author is no longer in contact with him, he features heavily through stories and reflections as the author grapples with her childhood experience.
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