This article explores how the competitive quest for bone samples used in genomic analyses of ancient DNA (aDNA) creates a pressing concern for anthropological research. It investigates the premises and effects of this phenomenon—a global hunt for petrous bones as treasured sources of DNA resembling a gold fever—from the situated perspectives of archaeologists and curators of ancient human remains. We present findings from an anonymous questionnaire involving 60 archaeologists and curators from major museums and research projects across the world, complemented with 16 semistructured interviews, providing a unique empirical basis to analyze professional relations and structural issues in this expansive sector of anthropology. Through a thematic analysis, we discuss how industrial-scale ambitions and competition among large laboratories promote colonial attitudes and the hoarding of samples. Comparing our results with recent discussions within the field, we identify a gap between the ideal practices advocated by researchers invested in archaeogenomic research and the actual practices of aDNA research fostered by the tangled incentives of high-impact publications and research grants. This gap between ideal and actual practices unveils a fundamentally asymmetrical academic landscape that engenders conflict and ethical dilemmas.

A middle-aged white man raises his sword to the skies and roars to the gods. The results of his genetic ancestry test have just arrived in his suburban mailbox. His eyes fill with tears as he learns that he is “0.012% Viking”. These are the scenes from a video advertisement for the TV-series Vikings.

This man is certainly not the only one yearning for a genetic test to confirm his Viking ancestry. A plethora of companies around the world market DNA-tests that promise to provide scientific facts about your identity. These companies often claim to provide a complete view of your ancestry, even though they in reality only compare your DNA with other customers in their database.

According to recent estimates, over 26 million people from across the world have purchased a genetic ancestry test. In the wake of this hype, researchers have begun to investigate how the tests affect our perceptions of ourselves. How do people make sense of a test result stating that they are, for instance, “35% Ashkenazi Jewish”, “27% British” or “4% western Asian”?

Some researchers have concluded that such tests make customers believe that humanity can be divided into biological races, and that customers see the tests as a way of discovering their “true” identities. Other researchers have argued that people use their test results selectively, “picking and choosing” the genetic data they find compatible with their personal desires and aspirations. From this perspective, taking a genetic ancestry test involves some level of creative interpretation.

In the 1950s, scholars in Europe and the United States announced the end of political ideology in the West. With the rise of affluent welfare states, they argued, ideological movements which sought to overthrow prevailing liberal democracy would disappear. While these arguments were questioned in the 1960s, similar ideas were presented after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Scholars now claimed that the end of the Cold War meant the end of mankind’s “ideological development,” that globalization would undermine the left/right distinction and that politics would be shaped by cultural affiliations rather than ideological alignments.

The purpose of No alternatives is to compare the end of ideology discussion of the 1950s with some of the post-Cold War theories launched at the time of, or in the years following, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Juxtaposing monographs, essays and papers between 1950 and 2000, the dissertation focuses on three aspects of these theories. First, it analyzes their concepts of history, demonstrating that they tended to portray the existing society as an order which had resolved the conflicts and antagonisms of earlier history. Second, the investigation scrutinizes the processes of post-politicization at work in these theories, showing how they sought to transcend, contain or externalize social conflict, and at times dismiss politics altogether. Third, it demonstrates how the theories can be understood as legitimizing or mobilizing narratives which aimed to defend Western liberal democracy and to rally its citizens against internal threats and external enemies. As the title of the dissertation implies, the end of ideology discussion of the 1950s and the post-Cold War theories of the 1990s sought to highlight the historical or political impossibility of any alternatives to the present society.