Matt55 wrote:
There is all this talk within the scientific community about Autism being geneticly linked. What geneticists are looking for are genes specifically responsible for the Autism/Asperger's itself and not taking a more broad approach, such as measuring the prevelance of Autism/Asperger's among SPECIFIC ethnicities and nationalities. For example; when statistical reports give the rate of Autism among Hispanic children is X percent, it is in my opinion, a very vauge and misleading statement. There are many different ethnic groups in Latin America and to lump them all into one catagory is foolish! For instance, epidemiologists should take into account which regions of the world an Autistic individual's family originated from. So the next time they measure the rate of Autism among the hispanic population, they will then ask the question which part of Latin America did your family come from? Argentina, Paraguay, Mexico, Chile, Guatemala? I believe that by carefully examing and scrutinizing national and ethnic backgrounds of people on the spectrum, we will discover commonalities that could possibly further our understanding of the origins of Autism.
To get started here's my ethnic profile:
25% Swedish
25% English
25% Lithuanian
12.5% Spanish (Possibly Argentinian or Chilean)
12.5% Scot-Irish
A lot of Americans don't seem to understand that Hispanic is not really a race, it is a culture. There are actually several different races of people living in the Latin American countries. Some are descended from the native people that lived there before the colonists arrived, some are descended from the colonists that came over from European countries like Spain and Portugal, and some are descended from the African people who were brought over during the slave trade.
Personally I think that when you get down to it, it really isn't too different from the United States because they are a melting pot of different ethnicities just like we are.
Anyways here is what I know of my ancestry.
My Mom's Side:
Irish for sure.
German for sure.
A little bit of Native American (don't remember if it was Creek or Cherokee)
Possible Jewish but not sure
My Dad's Side:
Hawaiian for sure
Filipino for sure
British for sure (from his mother's side)
21 May 2011, 9:41 pm
