Jennifer RaffBesprekingen

The author is obviously comfortable with article-length topics and like others have already said, holy filler Batman... The first third of the book was obnoxiously preachy and it just hit home to me how much more valuable it is to read an actual indigenous person's point of view of things in tandem with scientific thought. There was some interesting stuff here in the second half of the book but... could have been 100+ pages shorter.½

Fascinating, in the information learned in the years since I've been in school, and more importantly in the discussion of the role of science in some really terrible wrongs, and the road forward in changing that. Refreshing to hear about research and respect in the same breath, instead of constantly treating them as opposing sides.
Also enjoyed the interview with Yvonne Russo. It's very clear this work was conducted in full collaboration with and support of indigenous communities.

Assuming that "woke" is a four-letter word for you, this might not be the book for you, since Raff is very concerned for compensating for the sins committed by Western Science against the First Nations of the Western Hemisphere; maybe a little too much. That position can be presumptuous in its own way. However, many are the sins that have been committed in the name of science and, on the whole, there's no denying that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit to be picked in terms building better relationships. The saving grace is that much of the collective tribal leadership appreciates that the scientific endeavor can help with their existential concerns about erasure.

As for that science, which is maybe buried a bit too deep in this book, Raff's position can be summarized broadly as that the "Clovis" culture were not the first modern humans in the Western Hemisphere, and that those people arrived sometime before 14000 years ago. The more interesting question is who exactly were those people, and what expands the imagination is that if you appreciate that there was a region the size of Texas that is now at the bottom of the Bering Strait (and adjacent seas) where these people likely lived, until rising water levels forced them to commit to either Asia or the Americas. Further, the genetic analysis suggests that there is a fairly large population that has not been identified with archaeological evidence, which is likely at the bottom of the sea.

Anyway, this is the sort of book you read as a snapshot of our current understanding of events, with the awareness that the next unearthed skeleton could represent the piece of information that puts a dent into current theories. There is nothing more disposable than a book on paleoanthropology.½

Good science book, about the original peopling of the Western Hemisphere based on archaeological and genetic research. I liked the first-person experiences doing field work and genetics lab work.

Could have been a better science book if the many discussions about the evils of one diverse group of people and the victimhood of another diverse group of people had been dialed down a little bit.

Very good book on new and old investigations into how the Americas were populated.

Jennifer Raff’s Origin hit the New York Times best seller list within a month of its publication in February of this year. It reached as high as number 11 on the Amazon nonfiction bestseller list that same month before the online seller reportedly ran out of stock. For a science book aimed at a general audience those are both big accomplishments.

Much of the explanation for that has to do with Raff herself. Her writing is easy to read. Even when she takes us along to peer over her shoulder as she extracts DNA from an ancient tooth, she somehow makes the science, and the process, sound fascinating.

The rest of the explanation has to do with the topic Raff writes about. If you are like many of us living in North (and I imagine South) America, you’ve probably wondered how long ago it really was that humanity came to the Americas.

Yes, There are ancient mounds in the US, and Mayan, Incan and Olmec ruins in Central and South America. But compared to Europe or Africa there is a sparsity of archeological finds the farther you go back in time.

There is no North American equivalent, for example, for the age and aesthetic quality of the cave paintings at Lascaux. Nor has there been any direct evidence that other human species such as the Neanderthal or the Denisovans ever made it to the Americas.

We’ve all heard the story that the Americas were peopled via the Bering Land Bridge (aka "Beringia") - a route across the top of the world between present day Alaska and Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula. That’s where Raff starts off her book. She details the archeological evidence for and against it, and delves into some of the other theories that compete with it (a route by sea rather than land, primarily).

From there Raff takes us through some of the history of the archeological pursuit for the answer to the question of the peopling of the Americas. That includes a good bit of what today would be considered unethical behavior in early archeological digs (including by Thomas Jefferson).

But Raff’s particular interest is genetics. She is a geneticist and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, and she has been active in researching Indigineous DNA. What really fascinated me about her account of the genetic research is the work that has been done to compare the evolution of human and dog DNA in the Americas. It's remarkable to see the parallels there are between the two. It would seem the first peoples brought their dogs along with them.

I will admit that some of Raff’s genetic discussion does become a bit complicated, especially when she breaks out the mitochondrial haplogroups. (If you have any experience with DNA testing by companies like Ancestry, you may have heard the term before. It is basically a tool that geneticists use to trace your ancestry through your mother’s line, and can show where your family likely “came from”, when compared against other DNA samples. In other words, it can put your family’s history on a map.)

But it’s through genetics that there is some certainty that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are descended through a family line that goes back to Siberia. Which brings us back to the Land Bridge, or Sea Route (the timing derived from the genetics research may or may align with the opening of the land bridge at the end of the last ice age).

But there are hints, both genetic and archaeological, that the arrival by way of Beringia may not be the complete answer. Raff is right to point out that what she tells us in this book is the current understanding, and that the full answer to the question of the peopling of the Americas is still waiting on more discoveries.

I have always been interested in archaeology and the study of ancient peoples. In recent years a new tool has been added to this study: genetics. In"Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas" the author explains current theories about how early populations came to the Americas. Also provided was a look at prevailing theories in the past as well as the history of archaeological exploration. It was an exploration that placed science above consultation with current affected peoples. The explanations in this book, brought complex theories down to the layperson’s level and provided hope that the science of archaeological study is moving in a more humane and collaborative direction.

32. Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff
reader: Tanis Parenteau
published: 2022
format: 9:12 audible audiobook (368 pages in hardcover)
acquired: June 11 listened: Jun 11-23
rating: 4
genre/style: Science theme: Random audio
locations: American hemisphere
about the author: an American geneticist and an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, and president of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics. She was born in Carbondale, Illinois in 1979 and grew up in Missouri and Indiana.

I sampled this audiobook based a recommendation by JoeB1934, a new CR member, and also because the title interested me. And I kept going because Raff writes engagingly and its well narrated. It's a little strange in that it focuses so much on the ethics of genetic research of American heritage, and in that it gives such a generalized light touch on the actual genetic insight into the pre-history of the Americas. But it was enjoyable to listen to and it provides an overview of the history, nature and state of the science. And I learned some cool stuff.

Recommended if that interests.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/342768#7884423

Raff describes what exactly a scientist like her does to find and extract DNA from ancient human remains, interesting in itself, but more interesting are her discussions of possible routes and times that people migrated from the Old World to the New World. More interesting yet to me are discussions of the racist assumptions that determined many of the stories we have been told about native Americans and their origin. Raff's book is consistently respectful and points the way to new stories and new collaborations between the descendants of European settlers and the first peoples of this land.

The peopling of the Americas, the arrival here of anatomically modern humans, and their development into the peoples I was originally taught to call American Indians and a little later Native Americans, is far more complicated than I was taught in school. It's pretty clear at this point that humans didn't first arrive here a mere ten to twelve thousand years ago. It also appears clear, based on genetic evidence, that they arrived in more than one wave.

And beyond that, it's really, really complicated. The reasons for the complexities are partly the fact that it's very difficult to recover ancient DNA, especially from bones that were buried in warm, wet environments. We also don't have a lot of tools much older than 12 to 15 thousand years ago that are clearly human-made tools. Some, but not enormous numbers.

There are indigenous oral traditions--that for a very long time, non-indigenous scientists and researchers ignored, that governments in the USA and Canada, as well as countries in the Americas tried to destroy along with indigenous languages. Now that there are researchers listening to the indigenous oral histories that do survive, they often provide information that matches up with genetic information with the result that the two information sources enhance each other. Of, as did make some real news in the last decade or so, useful information about the dangers of settling close to the shore (i.e., periodically there are major natural disasters that we can't deal with by having better building codes.) Raff doesn't mention that one (she's a geneticist, not an earth scientist), but I do remember when in it was in the news.

Further complicating things are not just the various major and obvious atrocities against indigenous peoples of the Americas, but specifically arrogance, disrespect, and deceit in conducting genetic research on indigenous peoples. Lying to people about what you're going to use their genetic material to research is a guaranteed way to miake people angry, and consequently hostile to future requests. Rebuilding relations with specific indigenous communities, to gain their cooperation and ensure respect and consideration to start to heal the rifts and continue to learn more, is both essential and difficult.

Raff tells the story very well, far better than I can describe it. It makes this an interesting and enlightening story.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

First rate distillation of the current understanding about where the first peoples of the American continents came from, but don't expect much in the way of conclusions, as the genetic evidence discussed raises more questions than answers. She also argues persuasively for a methodology more respectful of the rights and sensibilities of indigenous peoples, the past record of which has been a series of insults and atrocities. The only negative thing I can think of to say about the book, that the information will likely be out of date before the ink dries on the pages, is freely admitted by the author. As someone deeply interested in new world prehistory, I found this book to be a fine explanation of a rapidly changing and expanding science, and an honest and sensitive expression of how this kind of science ought to be done.

Heavily padded. Raff stresses that she is not an archaeologist, but the book would really have benefited from more archaeological detail. (And a little less hitting us over the head with cultural sensitivities. We get it.)

> Jefferson’s approach—direct testing by excavation and observation—previewed the best and worst of the scientific approaches in modern archaeology and physical anthropology by more than a century, and he is often referred to as the “Father of American archaeology.”

> The Clovis culture was swift to rise but short-lived. Clovis points disappear from the archaeological record about 200 years after they first appeared. The nomadic North American hunters were so skilled with the lethal Clovis points that just a millennium later all the megafauna—some 70 species—had been hunted to extinction

> to apply the term failed migrations to these cases is demeaning and highly problematic from an archaeological standpoint. “‘Failed migration’ is a phrase used to sweep (pre-Clovis sites) under the rug and not confront or think about (them),” archaeologist Michael Waters told me in an email. They were people with their own histories and stories that deserve to be acknowledged as more than “failures,” regardless of whether or not they contributed DNA to later generations.

> genetic studies of present-day dogs in the Americas show that the original dogs (First Dogs?) are all but extinct. Of all dogs sampled, only a few (including a chihuahua) showed any ancestry from the First Dogs. Population history models show that they were largely replaced by dogs brought over from Europe