Origin

December 1, 2021
A stroll through the history of the early peopling of the Americas, blending ethnography, paleontology, and genetics. Raff, a geneticist and professor of anthropology, opens with the discovery of ancient human bones in a cave in the Pacific Northwest, a discovery that, not long ago, would have occasioned the descent of a swarm of archaeologists to excavate--never mind the wishes of the Indigenous people nearby. Now those Native people--in this case, Tlingit and Haida--are involved, deliberating how to approach the study of the bones. In this instance, the remains supported their beliefs "that their ancestors were a seafaring people who have lived in this region since the dawn of history." At least one wave, perhaps the earliest, of humans in the Americas was made up of people from northeastern Asia who traveled on open water well before most current chronologies begin. Such facts are adduced by archaeological fieldwork but also by ethnographers beginning to pay closer attention to Indigenous origin stories and by scientists working in labs to sequence DNA, extracting it from long-buried bone. Raff writes clearly and well, but sometimes we encounter knotty technical problems, as with her formulation, "X2a is of a comparable age to other indigenous American haplogroups (A, B, C, D), which would not be true if it were derived from a separate migration from Europe." Along the way, the author raises as many questions as she answers. So-called Kennewick Man, hailed by White supremacists a quarter-century ago as proof that Europeans got to the Americas first, is certainly ancestral to Native people, for one: "There is no conceivable scenario under which Kennewick Man could have inherited just his mitochondrial genome from Solutreans but the rest of his genome from Beringians." So where did he come from? Readers with a bent for human origin studies will enjoy puzzling out such things with Raff. A sturdy, readable contribution to the library of Indigenous origins and global migrations.

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Starred review from January 1, 2022

When did humans first arrive in the Americas? Who were they? Where did they come from? Raff (anthropology, Univ. of Kansas) tackles these questions using anthropological genetics, which she says offers a unique view of past populations that is inaccessible by other modes of historical and archaeological research. Mitochondrial and Y chromosome sequences show the unfolding of human expansion eastward across Eurasia and then Beringia (the region between Russia and Alaska, connected during the last glacial period). Raff traces these human movements across China and Siberia and into the Americas. Several maps in the book illustrate population movements and what's known of their chronology. The book summaries many past theories of human migration while proposing updated understandings. Raff buries unsubstantiated notions of Native American origins, including the Solutrean theory which argues for an early European migration into North America. The author integrates her biological findings with those from linguistics and archaeology, illustrating multiple waves of immigration from Asia into the Americas. Raff discusses complex issues but explains concepts in easy-to-understand text. VERDICT A thorough yet conversational outlining of the peopling of the Americas that will update any anthropology or world history collection.--Jeffrey Meyer

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Starred review from January 1, 2022
Raff's research focuses on the ancient, epic journeys into the Americas. The common theory is that 13,000 years ago, ice melts opened the Bering Land Bridge, allowing passage from Asia into North America. Drawing on her expertise in genetics and anthropology (Raff is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas), Raff reviews evidence showing that peopling of the Americas likely occurred much earlier. Radiocarbon dating of footprints in White Sands, New Mexico, for example, points to civilizations living in North America approximately 23,000 years ago (evidence in South America goes back even further). Details about artifacts are fascinating, but Raff's examination of genetics and the origins of the First Peoples truly shines. She also focuses on fostering positive collaborations between researchers and Indigenous peoples of America, given that past transgressions and racism have done great harm and reinforced cultural stereotypes leading, understandably, to extreme distrust. Because many descendants of the First Peoples view ancient remains (including DNA) and locations as sacred, Raff explains, great care must be taken to ensure "respect for the community's wishes over scientists' own research agendas." Ultimately, Raff observes that cooperation and recognition of "who speaks for the dead" must inform data gathering, which will better shape future understanding of the early migrations and the genetic history of the Americas.

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