Advancements and Challenges in Ancient DNA Research: Bridging the Global North-South Divide

Charting a landmark-driven path forward for population genetics and ancient DNA research in Africa

Population history-focused DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa has dramatically increased in the past decade, enabling increasingly fine-scale investigations into the continent's past. However, while international interest in human genomics research in Africa grows, major structural barriers limit the ability of African scholars to lead and engage in such research and impede local communities from partnering with researchers and benefitting from research outcomes. Because conversations about research on African people and their past are often held outside Africa and exclude African voices, an important step for African DNA and aDNA research is moving these conversations to the continent. In May 2023 we held the DNAirobi workshop in Nairobi, Kenya and here we synthesize what emerged most prominently in our discussions. We propose an ideal vision for population history-focused DNA and aDNA research in Africa in ten years' time and acknowledge that to realize this future, we need to chart a path connecting a series of "landmarks" that represent points of consensus in our discussions. These include effective communication across multiple audiences, reframed relationships and capacity building, and action toward structural changes that support science and beyond. We concluded there is no single path to creating an equitable and self-sustaining research ecosystem, but rather many possible routes linking these landmarks. Here we share our diverse perspectives as geneticists, anthropologists, archaeologists, museum curators, and educators to articulate challenges and opportunities for African DNA and aDNA research and share an initial map toward a more inclusive and equitable future.

No Bones About It: Sex Is Binary

Anthropologists have led the way in formulating techniques that reveal skeletal differences between males and females. Understanding of physical differences in the pelvis related to childbirth, hormonal impacts on bones, and extensive comparative studies have provided anthropologists with an array of traits and measurements that help them estimate sex using just bones. Forensic anthropologists and bioarcheologists are improving their ability to differentiate males and females by increasing research on a variety of postcranial bones and through the use of molecular data, especially new methods called proteomics, to identify sex in prepubescent juveniles. As remains from more cultures and time periods are studied, sex identification will continue to improve, because skeletal sex differences are in large part biologically determined. Yet, anthropologists have also been at the forefront of arguing that sex lies on a spectrum. Anthropologists who view sex as on a spectrum may deter sex identification progress; from their perspective, an individual of an undetermined sex may just be a nonbinary individual. Anthropologists who consider sex is on a spectrum are coming to this conclusion in part because they are looking for anatomical ideals, mistaking pathology for variation, and confusing independent variables with dependent variables. Nonetheless, anthropologists need to continue to improve sex identification techniques to reconstruct the past accurately, which may reveal less strict sex roles than previously presumed and help with the identification of crime victims. Forensic anthropologists should also increase their efforts to identify whether individuals have undergone medical procedures intended to change one's gender due to the current rise in transitioning individuals.