First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America First Edition

It holds my interest for some reason. Tiny print and it do go on some. Scholarly, I think. Considering that no one really knows the answer to the subject. Any book on the first peoples in the Americas (and there are quite a few) comes to the same general conclusion... no one knows for certain. Only a few basics seem to hold true amongst them all. I won't tell you. Don't want to spoil the one or two generally accepted theories. Not sure I needed a chart of DNA amongst presumed inhabitants. Just mentioning it would have been enough. Lots of photos.

This is both an excellent and a memorable book. It is excellent because of David Meltzer’s authoritative knowledge built upon a lifetime of focus on American early archeology. It is a memorable book because the author’s style of writing fully exposes us to the rigor of a scholarly mind at its best. When I closed this book, I was left in wonder about the origin of human settlement in the Western Hemisphere. Although this book can be read by an educated college graduate, it seems to be more oriented to the classroom. The 344 pages of text are followed by more than 100 pages of readings, references, index, etc. Not everyone who is curious about the first people in America will want a book as careful, precise, and non-conclusive as David Meltzer has given us. But for readers who want to know the scientific facts behind the theories, this book is outstanding. This book is clearly organized around a number of scholarly problems in the history of human colonization of North America. For example, what was the climate like when the first Americans arrived and what evidence do we use to answer that question? Were there humans in North America 11,000 years ago, 12,000 years ago, or much earlier? If human beings arrived in North America as early as some scholars think, then how did those early arrivals cross Beringia before the ice barriers opened? Is it possible that the earliest known site of Asians crossing into North America over Beringia could end up being in Chile? Why are there no sites north of Chile? Are early human settlements located on the eastern side of Brazil, and do they pre-date the crossing from Asia, and do they imply an Atlantic crossing? How did the first culture in North America, which archeologists call “Clovis culture,” which produced a uniformly recognizably set of tools, spread so rapidly and so widely? Was human hunting responsible for the extinction of North American megafauna like the mammoth, mastodon, and other large species? David Meltzer reviews each of these topics with uncompromising rigor. The reader can watch the author’s scholarly mind, analyze evidence and reject rapid or faulty conclusions. Fortunately or unfortunately, this also means that the reader must be able to suspend credulity and remain in expectant uncertainty regarding many of the most important questions about the origin of North American people. David Meltzer is not only a scholarly writer, but also a good one, and he reminds the reader to look at pre-history through broad principles, that depend upon a swarm of factors, large and small, specific to historical circumstances that result in the unique contingencies that formed the early history of North America. He reminds us to look for “a long and singularly unpredictable string of choices” that shape history. Meltzer is also aggressive in arguing against other writers such as Vine Deloria, who Meltzer criticizes as a writer of pre-historical doctrine rather than facts; or Paul Martin’s theory of megafauna overkill, which Meltzer attacks as non-credible. The greatest strength of this book is the way it hammers the reader’s mind into a tool for rigorous analysis of data. The greatest weakness of this book is its textbook like ponderousness. For me, this book swung open a door of wonder into North America 11,000 and 12,000 years ago when bands of roving hunters entered an uninhabited region of planet Earth filled with masterful creations of nature like the mammoth, lion and bison.Reviewed by Paul R. Fleischman, author of Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant

Firstly, I would like to say the author has a lively writing style. He writes clearly, covering many different aspects of archeology, paleontology, DNA analysis and myriad others in an integrated whole on the subject of the peopling of the Americas. He often uses humor in his writing which I found enjoyable. The author covers topics in a methodical, detailed fashion yet neither talks down to nor talks over the heads of the general reader.But...It is obvious the author is a defender of orthodoxy - even when evidence doesn't support it. His personal biases are fairly obvious. Even the careful general reader can see the "flies in the ointment". He has a tendency to gloss over evidence that does not support his own beliefs (shouldn't science be based on fact rather than "belief"?) or ignore it completely. He is, as most are in academia, thoroughly "politically correct" and it unfortunately colors his evaluation of issues.The author treats the hypothesized "ice-free corridor" as fact. If this "corridor" is indeed the entry point of asian populations between Berengia and the Americas proper, the oldest evidence of human habitation should be there with finds further south being progressively less ancient. In fact, the case is the opposite. Monte Verde is the oldest discovered and is in South America. The next oldest are in the American southwest with the least ancient found in the proposed ice-free corridor. The evidence simply doesn't support the hypothesis as yet (new finds may shed more light on the issue). This is supposed to be science, remember? We're supposed to base our conclusions on *facts*, not what we *want* to believe.The author goes out of his way to absolve paleoindians of "overkill" regarding the extinction of pliestocene "mega fauna". He zeroes in on climate change which changed the food sources for these animals (less digestible warm-weather grasses replacing cold-weather plant material that would be crucial for species such as mammoth) as the most likely culprit. The buffalo (bison bison) survived because it's multiple stomachs could digest the new grasses while primitive horses, camels, mammoths, etc. could not. The "fly in the ointment"? The giant bison (bison antiquus) with the same digestive capacity as the buffalo also went extinct. The fact is overkill sites have been found where early hunters trapped and killed large numbers of animals they could not have consumed before most of it rotted. It seems no people can be accused of harming their environment unless they are white. ;)Chapter 10 is a waste of ink. It has nothing to do with the subject of the book and is a politically-correct rehash of "the evil white man came and destroyed the continent" stuff. I suppose it is expected for an academic who wants to continue to get research grants to say stuff like this. At several points, this borders on the absurd. He relates the killing of Aztec "worshippers" by "unsavory lieutenant, Pedro de Alvorado" in Tenochtitlan as "cruel and foolish". Umm...weren't those "worshippers" hacking people's chests open to pull still-beating hearts from the bloody holes? Just askin'. ;) The fact of the matter is that the Spanish and the Aztecs were *both* rapacious, cruel, brutal oppressors, not good-guy vs. bad-guy.I would not reccomend this book. The author has waaay too many axes to grind and vested interests to protect. Science should be guided by fact and evidence and, sometimes, science should have the courage to admit "we don't know".

This is a fabulous book.This book presents an up to date view of all the current theories on who, how and when they came to the Americas first, objectively giving the pros and cons for each. Meltzer's opinions and conclusions do come through but do not over shadow the information. As such it is a great reference source at a university level that includes an historical perspective.The writing style features a wry humor and interesting narrative not often found in what could be used a text book, making it clear enough to be of interest to the general reader, requiring no prior knowledge in the field of archaeology.This is clear presentation of one of most controversial topics in archaeology.Even as one involved in the field of archaeology I still found it informative with a rare objective overview and will continue to be used as one of my key references.

Este libro al igual que el de Deniss Standford y Bruce Bradley "Across Atlantic Ice", son lecturas obligadas para el arqueólogo o aquella persona que esté interesada en conocer las primeras sociedades cazadoras recolectoras del continente americano. Son lecturas básicas que todo arqueólogo debe tener en su acervo.

Excellent book, fast delivery