In Michael Crawford’s excellent The Origins of Native Americans, evidence
from anthropological genetics provides a densely packed survey of demographic,
genetic and morphological variation among Amerindians. The population crash
after European contact altered the genetics of surviving groups, complicating
attempts to reconstruct the pre-Columbian picture. Crawford’s view is that the
New World was first settled from Siberia between 30 000 and 40 000 years ago.
Published by Cambridge University Press, £40/$64.95, ISBN
0521592801.
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