Reflections of Our Past: How Human History Is Revealed in Our Genes

The rise of the multi-billion dollar ancestry testing industry points to one immutable truth about us as human beings: we want to know where we come from and who our ancestors were. John H. Relethford and Deborah A. Bolnick explore this topic and many more in this second edition of Reflections of Our Past.

Where did modern humans come from and how important are the biological differences among us? Are we descended from Neandertals? How should we understand the connections between genetic ancestry, race, and identity? Were Native Americans the first to inhabit the Americas? Can we see evidence of the Viking invasions of Ireland a millennium ago even in the Irish of today? Through engaging examination of issues such as these, and using non-technical language, Reflections of Our Past shows how anthropologists use genetic information to suggest answers to fundamental questions about human history. By looking at genetic variation in the world today and in the past, we can reconstruct the recent and remote events and processes that have created the variation we see, providing a fascinating reflection of our genetic past.

John H. Relethford is Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Anthropology, SUNY College at Oneonta. He has published extensively on human population genetics, biological variation, and the origin of modern humans. Dr. Relethford has served as President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and as Chair of Section H (Anthropology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Deborah A. Bolnick is Associate Professor of Anthropology, currently at the University of Texas at Austin but moving to the University of Connecticut in Fall 2018. She has served as President, Past-President, and Vice President of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics,and is a co-organizer of the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING) program. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of anthropology and genetics.