The First Americans: Race, Evolution and the Origin of Native Americans PDF
Preview The First Americans: Race, Evolution and the Origin of Native Americans
TheFirstAmericans Race,Evolution,andtheOriginofNativeAmericans WhowerethefirstAmericans?Whatistheirrelationshiptoliving nativepeoplesintheAmericas?Whatdotheirremainstellusofthe currentconceptsofracialvariation,andshort-termevolutionary changeandadaptation?TherecentdiscoveriesintheAmericasofthe 9000–12000-year-oldskeletonssuchas‘‘KennewickMan’’in WashingtonState,‘‘Luzia’’inBrazil,and‘‘PrinceofWalesIslandMan’’ inAlaska,havebeguntochallengeourunderstandingofwhofirst enteredtheAmericasattheendofthelasticeage.Newarchaeological andgeologicalresearchisbeginningtochangethehypothesisofland bridgecrossingsandtheextinctionofancientanimals.TheFirst Americansexploresthesequestionsbyusingracialclassificationsand microevolutionarytechniquestounderstandbetterwhocolonizedthe Americasandhow.Itwillberequiredreadingforallthoseinterestedin anthropology,andthehistoryandarchaeologyoftheearliest Americans. JOSEPH POWELL isAssociateProfessorintheDepartmentof AnthropologyattheUniversityofNewMexico.Hehaspublished extensivelyontheskeletalanddentalremainsofPaleoindianpeoples, andwasaleadscientistfortheUSFederalGovernmentinvestigationof the‘‘KennewickMan’’skeleton. The First Americans Race, Evolution, and the Origin of Native Americans . JOSEPH F POWELL UniversityofNewMexico PUBLISHEDBYTHEPRESSSYNDICATEOFTHEUNIVERSITYOFCAMBRIDGE ThePittBuilding,TrumpingtonStreet,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS TheEdinburghBuilding,CambridgeCB22RU,UK 40West20thStreet,NewYork,NY10011-4211,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia RuizdeAlarco´n13,28014Madrid,Spain DockHouse,TheWaterfront,CapeTown8001,SouthAfrica http://www.cambridge.org #J.Powell2005 Thisbookisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2005 PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge TypefaceSwift9/13pt. SystemAdvent3B28.07f[PND] AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationdata ISBN0521823501hardback ISBN0521530350paperback ThepublisherhasuseditsbestendeavorstoensurethatURLsforexternal websitesreferredtointhisbookarecorrectandactiveatthetimeofgoingto press.However,thepublisherhasnoresponsibilityforthewebsitesandcan makenoguaranteethatasitewillremainliveorthatthecontentisorwill remainappropriate. Dedication ToGentry,whopointedoutthepath, AndtoLeah,whohasbeenatmysidewhileItraveledalongit. Contents Acknowledgments page viii Prologue TheKennewickcontroversy 1 PARTI Raceandvariation 1 DebatingtheoriginsofNativeAmericans 17 2 Abriefhistoryofrace 29 3 Evolutionaryapproachestohumanvariation 58 4 RecentpopulationvariationintheAmericas 85 PARTII ThePleistocenepeoplingoftheAmericas 5 ThePleistoceneandice-ageenvironments 103 6 AncientculturesandmigrationtotheAmericas 114 7 KennewickManandhiscontemporaries 128 8 HumanvariationinthePleistocene 169 PARTIII TheFirstAmericans,raceandevolution 9 RacialmodelsofNativeAmericanorigins 187 10 EvolutionarymodelsofNativeAmericanorigins 214 11 TheFirstAmericans:NativeAmericanorigins 229 References 237 Index 265 vii Acknowledgments Several people helped to bring this book into being. My thanks to Dr. Tracey Sanderson and the rest of the Cambridge University Press Stafffortheireditorialskillsandpatience,throughthemanyincarna- tionsofthetextandfigures.ManythankstoChrisMillingtonandTom Windes,fortheirhelpinmakingandre-makingmanyoftheillustra- tions.Chris’shardworkanddedicationtothepre-productionprocess was critical for the completion of the finaltext and figures. Hishelp was invaluable and is much appreciated. I was fortunate to have the supportandhelpofmywonderfulwifeLeah,ourfamilies,friends,and colleagues,whohaveofferedadviceandloveininnumerableways. ThankstomycolleaguesinBrazil,especiallyDrs.WalterNeves andAndre´Prous,whohavegraciouslyinvolvedmeintheirresearchon the oldest South American remains. I thank Dr. James Chatter for access to the cast and photographs of the Kennewick Man skull, as wellasDr.FrankMcManamonandtheUSDepartmentoftheInterior forprovidingaccesstotheoriginalKennewickManskeleton.Thanks also to my colleagues who were a part of the government analysis team(s)fortheKennewickremainsandtothetriballeadersandelders whoallowedourstudytobecarriedoutaftertheconsultationprocess. IalsoappreciatethefundingandsupportoftheFundaca˜odeAmparoa` PerquisadoEstadodeSa˜oPaulo,Brasil,theWenner-GrenFoundation for Anthropological Research (Grant No. 5666), the L.S.B. Leakey FoundationandtheUniversityofNewMexico,forcontinuedresearch support.Severalofmystudentshavebeeninvolvedinthiswork.While many people and institutions provided support and encouragement, Ialoneamresponsibleforanyerrorsinthisbook. viii Prologue The Kennewick controversy As the curator of biological anthropology at the Maxwell Museum, I often passed through the exhibits in the biological anthropology area, on my way to the Museum office. One day, I encountered a group of second graders examining the displays of fossil hominids. I noticedthatonegroupofkidswasgatheredaroundadisplay,arepro- duction of a 17000-year-old human burial from a Pleistocene site in France.Ourreplicahadbeenarrangedintheexactstateofreposethat theoriginalskeletonheldfornearly18000years:legsandarmsflexed asifasleep,andsurroundedbygravegoods,includingstonetoolsand shellbeadsfromanecklace.Iapproachedthekidsandaskedwhatthey couldtellaboutthisperson.Mostsmiledandshrugged. ‘‘He’sdead,’’oneboysaidinaflatvoice. Iasked,‘‘Areyousureit’sa‘he’?’’afterthegigglesdieddown. ‘‘Howcanyoutell?’’anotherkidlookedtomeandasked. That was my opening to explain the differences in male and female skeletal anatomy and show them the features used to deter- minesexfromaskeleton.Severalhandswentup,andIcalledonagirl whoseemedparticularlyinterestedintheburialdisplay. ‘‘Whatwashername?’’thegirlasked. ‘‘Wedon’tknow–wecan’ttellthatfromthebones,’’Isaid. Iwentontousethewell-worn‘‘bookanalogy,’’explaininghowa skeleton was like a book, containing different kinds of information about the person to whom it belonged, provided you could read the informationcorrectly.Aboyraisedhishand, ‘‘Butyoudon’tknowwhoshewas?’’heasked. AsIthoughtabouthowbettertoexplainthis,Irealizedthatthese kids, like most Americans, were less interested in the what and why questionsandsimplywantedanswerstothewhoquestions. Whowas thisperson?Whowereherrelatives? 1 2 TheFirstAmericans In1996,thewhoquestionsweresoimportantthataskeletonwas dragged into federal court. American Indians (Native Americans) requested that a 9000-year-old skeleton be returned to them under federal law, while scholars demanded access to it for research pur- poses.Forthefirsttimesinceitsinception,NAGPRAbecamea(nearly) householdwordintheUSA. THE NATIVE AMERICAN GRAVES PROTECTION AND REPATRIATION ACT On November 16, 1990, the 101st US Congress passed Public Law 101–601(HR5237;104STAT.3050),apieceofhumanrightslegislation betterknownastheNativeAmericanGravesProtectionandRepatriationAct (NAGPRA).1Acoalitionoflawmakers,NativeAmericanactivists,tribal elders, and leaders from the museum, archaeology and physical anthropologycommunitieswrotetoNAGPRA,toregulatethedispos- itionofNativeAmericanremainsandassociatedgravegoods. Manymuseumscontainedlargeskeletalandartifactcollections derivedfromWorkProgressAdministration2(WPA)-eraandotherexcav- ations of prehistoric and historic archaeological sites in the USA. In addition to human remains, NAGPRA also pertained to ‘‘associated funerary objects,’’ ‘‘sacred objects,’’ as well as ‘‘objects of cultural patrimony.’’ What constituted an ‘‘object of cultural patrimony’’ was opentobroader interpretation, despite the two pages-worthofcircui- tousdefinitionswithinthedocument. Institutions,suchaspubliclyfundedmuseums,universities,and federal agencies, were required by NAGPRA to create a summary of humanremainsandartifactsandsendittoculturallyaffiliatedNative Americantribes,nolaterthanNovember2,1993.Theinstitutionswere required to make complete and detailed inventories of human remains,associatedfuneraryobjects,anditemsofculturalpatrimony bythisdate,andthentosendthesummariestofederallyrecognized Native American tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations to which thesecollectionswereculturallyaffiliated. ItisstatedinNAGPRAthat,forpurposesofrepatriation,‘‘cultural affiliation’’couldbeprovedbytribesusinga preponderanceoftheevidencebasedongeographical,kinship, biological,archaeological,anthropological,linguistic,folkloric,andoral traditional,historicalorotherrelevantinformationorexpertopinion. (PL101–601;USC3005.Sec.7)
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