Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas in Science and Inquiry

Feb 25, 2022 Larry rated it it was amazing

Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff

If you want to understand what the latest research shows about the peopling of the Americas, then Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff may be the book for you. Raff is an assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas and is the President of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics. How and when did the Native Americans of the Americas and the Inuit of the northern lands come to live in t Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff

If you want to understand what the latest research shows about the peopling of the Americas, then Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff may be the book for you. Raff is an assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas and is the President of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics. How and when did the Native Americans of the Americas and the Inuit of the northern lands come to live in the Western Hemisphere? She explains that the theory until recently that all the inhabitants came in three waves out of Asia isn鈥檛 quite supported by the most recent evidence and that there is strong evidence to support some earliest inhabitants actually came by water along the Pacific Coast.

A few minor criticisms. The writing is not elegant but it is clear. Usually, but not always. One case was the following sentence: 鈥淣ow imagine the temperature about twice as cold.鈥� What does that mean? If it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit, does it mean now imagine day when it was 20 degrees? Or is the measurement in Celsius? That would be different. But usually the meaning is clear throughout the book.

A bigger problem is the paucity of footnotes, even where they are definitely called for. I trust that she knows her material, but there are some issues like the evolution of the dogs who accompanied the first inhabitants where more footnotes are called for as she says the recent research has changed. This problem of fewer footnotes (or endnotes)鈥攊n some cases many fewer footnotes鈥攕eems to be an increasing problem in works of serious nonfiction.

She is very repetitive in her statements about lack of sensitivity in the treatment by researchers of the remains of Native Americans/First Peoples. But I鈥檓 not sure at all that that should be a criticism. I think that she is generally right to make this point on a number of occasions. And at the end of the book, when she recounts the why the Kennewick Man鈥檚 remains were handled and tested, she really tells this story as well as any account that I I have read. (The Kennewick Man refers to a skeleton found along the Columbia River. The remains were about 9,000 years old, and some who first examined those remains postulated that he was of European origin. The final results proved otherwise.)

She easily provides the best detailed description I鈥檝e ever read about DNA extraction and laboratory handling of ancient bones 鈥� she makes it methodical (she mentions that it can be so boring at times that listening to music or podcasts in the lab as she works is necessary) and fascinating at the same time. She does such a good job of reporting excitement shared with the need for cautious reporting of results.

She is clearly cognizant of the latest work going on in the lab of David Reich at Harvard. She cites it several times, and it is important work indeed. Reich鈥檚 Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past is probably the best work available on the overall peopling of the Earth. It is a more difficult read than Raff鈥檚 book but is still a work to read either before or after the book by Raff.

Finally, she is excellent about the state of play in what we know and what we believe we know about the peopling of the Americas. As an important case, she reports the latest research including the anomaly relating to a discovery in 2016 of possible Australasian ancestry in some native South American populations. And she explains how strange this result is. I鈥檒l just say that after much analysis it does not suggest a Transpacific migration. You can read the book to understand the two different possibilities that it does suggest. And if you have any interest at all how the Western Hemisphere came to be populated before Europeans arrived in 1492, that鈥檚 exactly what I recommend. Read the book.
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Mar 20, 2022 CatReader rated it liked it

Mixed feelings on this one. I make my living interpreting genetic testing in a clinical context -- i.e., identifying the mutations that drive a person's cancer or causing their genetic disease -- and so my field too is fraught with questions of ethics and proper use. Anyone who consents to submitting their data on 23andMe or another direct to consumer genetic testing service is also consenting, knowingly or not, to sharing the genetic data of their close DNA relatives, which in some cases can le ...more

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