The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World

The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World

The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World.
Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 27.
Jablonski, N.G., ed. 2002.

As modern humans spread around the globe, the Americas represented the final continental frontier. These first colonists were modern in appearance and technology, but who were they and when did they arrive? Traditional answers to these questions have come under increasing scrutiny in the face of new findings from artifacts, skeletal remains, genes, and languages. The peopling of the Americas has become one of archeology's most compelling and contentious subjects, as these new lines of inquiry and evidence reveal a more complex picture. In The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World, distinguished scientists from the fields of archeology, physical anthropology, paleoecology, genetics, and linguistics assess the latest evidence from Siberia to Chile and other provocative ideas for how, when, and where humans entered the Americas.

331 pages. Soft cover $35; Hard cover $65.


CONTRIBUTORS

Bruce Bradley
Linda Brown
Tom D. Dillehay
John Douglas
Scott A. Elias
Jon M. Erlandson
Nina G. Jablonski
David J. Meltzer
D. Andrew Merriwether
Johanna Nichols
Joseph F. Powell
A.C. Roosevelt
Jack Rossen
Dennis Stanford
D. Gentry Steele
Christie G. Turner II


CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Introduction: Changing Perspectives of the First Americans: Insights Gained and Paradigms Lost
Nina G. Jablonski

Chapter 2 Setting the Stage: Environmental Conditions in Beringia as People Entered the New World
Scott A. Elias

Chapter 3 What Do You Do When No One's Been There Before? Thoughts on the Exploration and Colonization of New Lands
David J. Meltzer

Chapter 4 Anatomically Modern Humans, Maritime Voyaging, and the Pleistocene Colonization of the Americas
Jon M. Erlandson

Chapter 5 Facing the Past: A View of the North American Human Fossil Record
D. Gentry Steele & Joseph F. Powell

Chapter 6 Teeth, Needles, Dogs, and Siberia: Bioarcheological Evidence for the Colonization of the New World
Christie G. Turner II

Chapter 7 The Migrations and Adaptations of the First Americans: Clovis and Pre-Clovis Viewed from South America
A.C. Roosevelt, John Douglas & Linda Brown

Chapter 8 Plant Food and its Implications for the Peopling of the New World: A View from South America
Tom D. Dillehay & Jack Rossen

Chapter 9 Ocean trails and prairie Paths: Thoughts about Clovis Origins
Dennis Stanford & Bruce Bradley

Chapter 10 The First American Languages
Johanna Nichols

Chapter 11 A Mitochondrial Perspective on the Peopling of the New World
D. Andrew Merriwether

 

Ordering information: CAS Scientific Publications or UC Press

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