Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge,from Twelve Books via Netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own.
From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story—and fascinating mystery—of how humans migrated to the Americas.
Synopsis:
ORIGIN is the story of who the first peoples in the Americas were, how and why they made the crossing, how they dispersed south, and how they lived based on a new and powerful kind of evidence: their complete genomes. ORIGIN provides an overview of these new histories throughout North and South America, and a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution.
20,000 years ago, people crossed a great land bridge from Siberia into Western Alaska and then dispersed southward into what is now called the Americas. Until we venture out to other worlds, this remains the last time our species has populated an entirely new place, and this event has been a subject of deep fascination and controversy. No written records—and scant archaeological evidence—exist to tell us what happened or how it took place. Many different models have been proposed to explain how the Americas were peopled and what happened in the thousands of years that followed. A study of both past and present, ORIGIN explores how genetics is currently being used to construct narratives that profoundly impact Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It serves as a primer for anyone interested in how genetics has become entangled with identity in the way that society addresses the question "Who is indigenous?"
Review:
This is an intriguing book, that takes a look at the idea of the descent of the native american population in our continent, and where could they have come from. More than the 'land bridge' theory you learned about in school, Raff takes on DNA evidence, and looks for shared dna and what that can tell both the scientist and layman. As one who does a lot of genealogy research, and looking at reports on dna, it was enlightening, but I wish there had charts to not only make the info more visual, but to make it easier to understand for those who aren't familiar with dna. Maybe on the next reprint, those can be added! Pictures of different sites discussed, and/or mapping of them would also help the non-history buff keep track of the different areas being discussed. RAFF does an excellent job in making the reader understand not only how LONG native americans have been on this continent before the European inviaders, but also how varied their dna shows they were. I think this book will become standard reading for college classes in btoh anthropolgy and history, to help better understand the actual world that was ineffably changed by those seeking riches in our continent.
About the Author:
Jennifer Raff is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas with a dual Ph.D. in anthropology and genetics and over fourteen years of experience in researching ancient and modern human DNA from the Americas. In addition to her research, she has been writing on issues of scientific literacy and anthropological research at her own website, Violent Metaphors, and for The Guardian, HuffPost and Evolution Institute blogs for several years. Since 2019 she has been writing a monthly column for Forbes on emerging research in genetics and archaeology.
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