{"id":8802,"date":"2010-01-07T12:06:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T16:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=8802"},"modified":"2011-05-31T11:41:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T15:41:39","slug":"finding-warrior-roots-for-martial-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/01\/finding-warrior-roots-for-martial-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Warrior Roots for Martial Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Staci<\/a>
Staci Anson at her home in New Jersey. Photo by Jordan Bender<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Anson \u201902 MA, \u201905 6th Year is a teacher, not a fighter. Yet when her husband Peter Delano co-founded a genetic testing company marketed toward the world of mixed martial arts, the high school history and anthropology teacher was intrigued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of fighting, but lots of fighters want their genetic profiles to see what their strengths and weakness are,\u201d says Anson.<\/p>\n

Warrior Roots<\/a> performs ancestral Y-DNA testing for genealogical purposes using samples collected by a cheek swab and kit. The results link an individual to a haplogroup \u2013 such as Native American, sub-Saharan African, or West Eurasian \u2013 which the company associates with a warrior culture. Going one step further, Warrior Roots provides a profile and information package on each warrior culture \u2013 including the warrior\u2019s battle cry, weapons, fighting style, clothing, and body type.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Anson comes in.<\/p>\n

As the company identified warrior cultures, Anson helped provide historical context. With countless civilizations and warriors throughout history, it is a considerable undertaking to research and write the historical profiles.<\/p>\n

Now that the profiles have all been written, Anson will bring the genetic test to her classroom for a month-long lesson on genetic genealogy. Working with a science professor, Anson is designing a course for high school students where they will analyze their own DNA results to determine their haplogroups. There will also be a mitochondrial test, since girls don\u2019t have a Y-chromosome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to do their mouth swabs, get their results, start analyzing,\u201d Anson says. \u201cThen, once they determine their haplogroups, they\u2019re going to research the corresponding cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

A section of the Warrior Roots website will be dedicated to teachers hoping to create \u201ca fun activity for kids and a way to learn something about your ancestry.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, more than 20 mixed martial arts fighters have taken the test, sometimes with surprising results \u2013 like the African-American fighter with Celtic DNA.<\/p>\n

As the family genealogist, Anson enjoys discovering her own past. \u201cOn my Jewish side, I\u2019m back to the early 1800s, on my Norwegian side, I can get back to the 1500s. It\u2019s an exciting little hobby that I do on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An alumna has researched the history of warrior cultures on behalf of martial arts enthusiasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[52],"class_list":["post-8802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 17:19:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8802"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9050,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions\/9050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8802"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=8802"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}