[ssnistfajen]

Why do people assume ancestry results from these DNA tests are "accurate"? Human ethnicity is a continuum, not distinct pools of genes. We are applying labels conceived by modern nationalism to several thousands of years of migration and intermarriage. It would be great if people stopped treating ancestry results from these tests as authoritative reference.

There was a controversy about Korean & Japanese ancestry results from 23andMe where ethnic Koreans are sometimes classified as >30% Japanese. These two groups shared common ancestors since ancient humans migrated via the Korean Peninsula to the Japanese archipelago centuries before the modern nations of Korea and Japan came into existence. Slapping either one of these specific labels on shared ancestry is wildly inaccurate and short sighted.

[aeneasmackenzie]

Clumps appear in a principal component analysis, people just want to know how they look on one of those.

[acdha]

> Why do people assume ancestry results from these DNA tests are "accurate"?

Years of highly visible advertising by these companies which implies they're accurate? All of those “discovery your ancestry” posters they put up around here had specific countries and locations.

[lancesells]

Agreed. Just a quick look at the 23andme site doesn't show me anything that says they are "estimates" or "not accurate".

The landing page shows me this headline "This new year, commit to a healthier you - inspired by your DNA." I'm sure they have it legally covered somewhere in their TOS but it's still not good if these are inaccurate or estimates.