system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Trying to understand yourself through your ancestry is meaningless

Some people take a DNA test, find that they have some high percentage of an ethnicity that they know nothing about or maybe didn't even know existed, then suddenly they identify with its culture. I think that it's meaningless and just another type of horoscopes.

My main point is that culture is lived and experienced, not inherited. If you find a high percentage of Italian ancestry in your DNA but have never been to Italy then you have absolutely nothing to do with the Italian culture. Your DNA test revealed absolutely nothing about who you are as a person.

In this sense, giving someone the citizenship of a country just because some of his ancestors belonged to it is meaningless and arbitrary. Italy does this. I think that if your grandparent's father was Italian then that doesn't make you entitled to the Italian citizenship in any way.

I'm assuming that the citizenship means more than just a document. But it seems like most countries think the same, since many will require you to know their language and maybe do a history test before being eligible for it.

I'm also not saying that understanding yourself is the only reason people take DNA tests or research their genealogy, but I think that it's the main reason (especially when it comes to DNA tests).
gpt
For some people, it helps give them a sense of belonging, especially for people who don’t know their ancestral roots, it can help give them a direction for a culture to explore and adopt.

Sure, it’s not the end all be all, but can give people some direction.