Based on an ethnographic study carried out in 2015–16 in a New York DNA testing centre, this article focuses on the different costs (economic, emotional, symbolic and political) of a paternity test result. Whether a mother is trying to defend her son’s interests, or a man wants to check the genetic authenticity of his parentage, the material drawn on here reveals the issues at stake in situations understood as enigmas that can be solved. What is the value of these enigmas, at the heart of family histories? In other words, what uncertainties do people want to resolve by identifying a biological father? Rather than taking a reductive approach framing the relationship to secrets as relating to a deep-seated or even imperative ‘need to know’, this article, instead, problematises the current preoccupation with ‘truth making’.

中文翻译：

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“你在为别人买单吗？” 在美国使用 DNA 亲子鉴定时保密的价值

基于 2015-16 年在纽约 DNA 检测中心进行的民族志研究，本文重点关注亲子鉴定结果的不同成本（经济、情感、象征和政治）。无论是母亲试图捍卫她儿子的利益，还是男人想要检查其出身的遗传真实性，这里提取的材料揭示了在被理解为可以解决的谜的情况下的利害关系。这些位于家族历史核心的谜团有什么价值？换句话说，人们想通过确定亲生父亲来解决哪些不确定性？这篇文章并没有采取简化的方法将与秘密的关系构建为与根深蒂固的甚至是必要的“需要知道”有关，而是将当前对“真相制造”的关注提出问题。