Origin Origin

Origin

A Genetic History of the Americas

    • 3.7 • 68 Ratings
    • $14.99
    • $14.99

Publisher Description

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story—and fascinating mystery—of how humans migrated to the Americas.


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?"

GENRE
Science & Nature
RELEASED
2022
February 8
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
352
Pages
PUBLISHER
Grand Central Publishing
SELLER
Hachette Digital, Inc.
SIZE
29.8
MB

Customer Reviews

Lowell Rules ,

Interesting Book

The author does good job of breaking down complex historical theories about the peopling of The Americas. Ultimately, this is a textbook, albeit one that is accessible to non students. A heavy read, but in an interesting way. If you’re interested in archeological history even a little bit, you’ll enjoy it enough.

Clancy’s Ghost ,

Meh

A lengthy treatise that doesn’t shed much light on how humans came to settle the Americas. The lack of novel findings coupled with a preachy, woke tone definitely made this a disappointing read.

suomynona441 ,

Mediocre

The book does have the necessary data and a handful of pictures, but the book is not well-written. It’s too bland and the details are too intricate—Wikipedia does a better job explaining nearly identical concepts.

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