I am a Viking! DNA, popular culture and the construction of geneticized identity

In this article, we analyze how genetic genealogy reshapes popular notions of historical identity, as it facilitates a genetically informed understanding ethnicity and ancestry. Drawing on interviews with Swedish, British American individuals who have employed ancestry tests (GATs) to prove ancestral connections Vikings, explore the desire “be Viking” is articulated through convergence pre-existing discourses around Vikings DNA. By combining signs from science depictions our interviewees create new discourse geneticized Viking identity. discourse, socio-historically constructed ideas about are naturalized innate qualities possess certain composition. Images “the once created for political, cultural or commercial purposes revived in embodied forms can start circulate social contexts, where they, by association, appear be confirmed genetical science.