Embedded Files
By Sochima Muoneke
Scientists studying epigenetics are beginning to uncover how trauma may change gene expression not just for yourself, but for your children and grandchildren. The question of whether and how the effects of cultural trauma can be transmitted intergenerationally from parents to offspring, or even to later generations, has sparked interest and controversy in both academic and popular forums, according to Cambridge University Press.
But before going more in depth, what is epigenetics?
Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression that occur without altering the underlying DNA sequence or, in simpler terms, how things like stress, trauma, or environment can affect how your genes work. These changes can be passed down to future generations.
In fact, according to an essay by Natan Kellermann, the Holocaust left not only visible and invisible marks on the survivors, but also on their children. The most obvious explanation is environmental: the stress experienced by survivors was often absorbed by their children. But new studies suggest that trauma may also have been transmitted epigenetically.
Many children of survivors have reported terrible nightmares being chased, persecuted, tortured, or even annihilated as if they were reliving the trauma themselves.
But the idea of intergenerational trauma doesn’t stop with Holocaust survivors. In a study called Passing Down History by Alexandra Vegso and Jessica Mundie, researchers explain how external modifications to our DNA, called epigenetic changes, may play a role in passing trauma from one generation to the next.
From the 1870s to the 1990s, thousands of children in Canada were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to Indian residential schools. These schools were designed to assimilate Indigenous children into colonial society and to make them ashamed of their culture and beliefs. Most of these children were exposed to frequent physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, according to the First Nations Centre.
Decades after the last school closed, the trauma of the survivors still continues to negatively affect their offspring. Dr. Kim Matheson, a neuroscience professor at Carleton University who studies the social determinants of health in Indigenous populations, states:
“Even though the next generation didn’t actually experience the trauma, they show many of the same behaviours, emotions, and mental wellness challenges that one would see in someone who has experienced trauma firsthand.”
The science of epigenetics offers a powerful insight: healing isn’t just personal, it’s generational. When we begin to process and heal our own pain, we may be rewriting the emotional legacy for those who come after us. Understanding how trauma is passed down doesn’t mean we’re doomed to repeat it, it means we have the tools to transform it.
Sources
Sources
Lehrner, Amy, and Rachel Yehuda. “Cultural Trauma and Epigenetic Inheritance.”
Development and Psychopathology, vol. 30, no. 5, 28 Sept. 2018, pp. 1763–1777,
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579418001153.
Kellermann, Natan P.F. EPIGENETIC TRANSMISSION Epigenetic Transmission of
Holocaust Trauma: Can Nightmares Be Inherited? 2011.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse