HOT Topic: The Latest Genetic and Archaeological Evidence for the Peopling of the Americas

How⁠ and when⁠ did people first come to the American continents? In this video, Jennifer Raff, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kansas University, joins our HOT (Human Origins Today) Topic program to examine the latest genetic and archaeological evidence that provides a clearer picture of America’s first peoples. She pieces together a story told by fragments of DNA recovered from a tooth in Siberia, by a small broken knife found deep below the surface of a muddy pond in Florida, and the footprints of children left thousands of years ago on the banks of an ancient lake in New Mexico. She explores why the same pieces of evidence tell different stories to different groups of scholars, and the ethical directions that genetics and archaeological research need to move toward. This Zoom webinar aired December 15, 2022.

Moderator: Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist and educator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Human Origins Website: https://humanorigins.si.edu/