Out of Asia: peopling the Americas and the Pacific

Abstract

In the present volume Stephen Zegura paints the backdrop for discussion of the peopling of the Americas. He reviews the archaeological record and summarizes the palaeoclimatic data needed for deciding which were the most plausible routes which could have been followed by the first migrants to North America. He draws attention also to the long-standing dispute on the distinctiveness or otherwise of the American Indians and the Aleut-Eskimos, and concludes by presenting a speculative scenario for the origins of the diverse human groups among the aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas. Christy Turner lends support to Zegura's description, drawing on his own extensive studies of the structure of teeth recovered from crania of the Americas and from many parts of north and east Asia. The distinctive structure of the teeth of all native Americans places their biological relationship firmly in an east Asian setting.