Where did modern humans come from and how important are the biological differences among us? Are we descended from Neanderthals? How many races of people are there? Were Native Americans the first settlers of the New World? How can we tell if Thomas Jefferson had a child with Sally Hemings? Through an engaging examination of issues such as these, and using non-technical language, Reflections of Our Past shows how anthropologists use genetic information to test theories and define possible answers to fundamental questions in human history. By looking at genetic variation in the world today, we can reconstruct the recent and remote events and processes that created the variation we see, providing a fascinating reflection of our genetic past. Reflections of Our Past is a W. W. Howells Book Prize Winner and Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
About the Author, John Relethford
John H. Relethford is Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Anthropology, SUNY College at Oneonta, where he has received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. His research interests include genetics and human history, human biological variation, and the origins of modern humans. He is currently President Elect of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Reflections of Our Past is a W. W. Howells Book Prize Winner and Choice Outstanding Academic Title. John Relethford lives in Oneonta, New York.
In this gem of a book, Relethford, an anthropologist at SUNY Oneonta, examines how members of his field use genetic information to shed light on human origins and prehistory, and he questions some orthodox views along the way. Through intuitive examples and friendly analogies, Relethford shows the lay reader why our closest living relatives are the African apes and how one's method of genetic classification depends on the questions one is trying to answer. Examining how our genetic variations inform us about our origins, he tentatively challenges current views by proposing that not all of our ancestors originated in Africa 150,000 years ago-some came from other continents. Then there is the question of what happened to the ill-fated Neanderthals: Relethford shows that differences between Neanderthal and present human DNA are not as great as we might think, and concludes that perhaps Neanderthals were bred out of existence by mixing with a numerically superior gene pool. The remainder of the book shows how genetic data from living human populations can be used to reconstruct the past. The author touches on the Kennewick Man controversy (the skeleton found in Washington state was dated at 9,600 years old yet appeared European), concluding that he was probably not Caucasian but in fact a precursor to Native Americans. There are also chapters on the origins of the Polynesians, the genetic history of Ireland and ever-interesting case studies of genetic admixture such as the Jewish diaspora and the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings affair. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
