Peopling the Americas

Question 1

What is the “clovis theory”

Answer 1

Comes from a distinctive spear point, dated 12 000 YBP in Clovis, NM in 1933. Similar points then found at other sites across NA, seen as marker of earliest inhabitants of the continent. Related theory that ppl crossed a “land bridge” circa 12 000 YBP.

Question 2

What are some fringe theories of the peopling of the americas

Answer 2

1) Solutrean hypothesis: claiming link b/w Clovis point and Solutrean culture of ancient Europe- crossed the Atlantic…
2) Kennewick Man: 9000YBP skeleton found in Washington, archeologists claims that his face is “caucasoid”. DNA testing confirms ancestral relationship to local Indigenous population.

Question 3

What does recent research in “peopling the americas” demonstrate?

Answer 3

Much earlier than we thought, pre-clovis sites

• Chile 15 000 YBP (and down south…)
• Yukon bones : 24 000 YBP
• increasing evidence of rapid movement down Pacific Coast
• new views on global human migration (Americas = integrated, simoultaneous)

Question 4

Why was there a global human migration?

Answer 4

• climate: Last glacial period
• force movement of animals = mvmt of humans
• large mammals attract hunters to frigid tundra of NE siberia

Question 5

What is Beringia?

Answer 5

• Ice Age lowered sea levels, produced a quasi-continent

- glacier-free bc of dry climate, grasses and bushes support large mammals

Question 6

what is the Beringia Standstill theory

Answer 6

Genome research suggests that a small population remained isolated from Asia and America for 5000 years. Emergence of distinctive indigenous genetic markers that would later spread across N and S america.

Question 7

What happens in America with the end of glaciation

Answer 7

• extinction of large mammals
• SA: more reliance on plant foods
• waterways stabilize; regionally rooted societies appear
• hunting-gathering lifeways emerge: small, seasonal villages