Origin

The book was a fascinating, nuanced summary of current genetics research into the peopling of the americas.The narrator had a hectoring, snarky tone that didn’t at all belong in this book and would turn off anyone reading only the first chapter. If you push on beyond that it’s competent, but a better narrator would have presented the social justice parts in a way that didn’t feeling like readers were being scolded.

This was interesting at times but unfocused and overflowing the margins with woke politics. I happen to agree with the author in principle, but she beats the reader over their head with the cultural sensitivity and ethical aspects of her profession to the point of distraction.

I thought this would be a story about how scientific evidence has changed our understanding of the earliest American history. Instead the dominant theme is the evils of colonialism and of the European historians who wrote the original version of that history.

The book provides an overview of what genetic archeology teaches us on the first people in the Americas with some insights on the work of researchers. The narration is highly unpleasant, sometimes. separating. every. word. with. a. long. pause. making it hard to listen.

What impressed me most about this book, beyond the fascinating information, were the narrative passages where she mused about how things might have happened. They were so detailed and vivid, it made me think that Dr. Raff would make an excellent fiction writer if she ever wants a second career.It is great to see someone in the scientific community own up to the way scientists have sometimes treated subjects of research as inhuman data sources. Dr. Raff weaves in ideas about how people should be treated without ever getting preachy or diverging far from the main point. Very well done.

If you’re looking to learn something, maybe keep looking. It was a lot of time spent without a lot of usable content.

Bought it after hearing author interviewed. She did NOT say that it is about archeology offending Native America, but that IS all she writes about. Waste of time and money. UNLESSyou want to wallow in castigation of everyone who ever failed to prostrate themselves to some Tribal Government before thinking about pre-Columbian America.

I looked for the book because I was interested in the science, turns out the book is mostly her sharing her moral code regarding research. Fair points, just not What I was the most interested in. So it’s not really about the genetic history of the americas as it is about the history of how researchers interacted with native Americans.

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