The Pith: In this post I take a different tack at genetic data visualization. Instead of bar plots, I show how genetic relationships can be explored using two dimensional spaces.
Last week I suggested that in some ways I had hit a wall of sharply reduced diminishing returns when it came to understanding my family’s ancestry. It seems rather clear that we’re basically South Asians with a minority East Asian component of ancestry. That being said, I’m still happy to be involved with the Harappa Ancestry Project. I might have a good sense of my own family’s background, but Bengal remains extremely undersampled. An N = 2 is better than none. And, there is still something to be said for understanding how your own lineage is distinctive, or not, in its local geographic context. More specifically I am still curious as to the exact nature of the genetic origins of the Bengali people, especially those on the eastern “marches” (where my family comes from).
But there are still interesting things you can do with the genetic material which I have access to. I converted the autosomal SNPs of the raw 23andMe …