A New Perspective on Later Migration(s)

Abstract

■ Productive as the recent collaboration between genetics and anthropology has been, additional insights are within reach. Molecular DNA evidence has been beneficial to the study of the peopling of the Americas, but the interpretation of this very complex dataset has been constrained by longstanding assumptions. The use of DNA evidence to test lesser-known historical hypotheses may reveal a more complicated picture of demography in American antiquity. Scholars debate the details of the initial colonization of America, but few have investigated claims of later historical migrations from Asia to America. This is an effort to address the paradoxical sustained similarity between Native American and East Central Asian cultures and gene pools, in the face of turbulent East—West admixture throughout Eurasian history. Though inconclusive, these data may nonetheless be consistent with the possibility of modest Asian—American ties within historical timeframes.