The Past Is Not a Well Described by the Present

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The past is not really a well described by the present. Its s very important to keep that in mind. And one of the things we see again and again with anciendiana data is when one goes an callextiane from archaeological context that have never been interrogated before with its technology, and makes guess beforehand about what how these people would be related to people living afterward. Almost always that guess is wrong, and often profoundly wrong. Is essentially everywhere woralmost we see patterns like this,. where, again and again, you see groups in the south pacific that are not directly ancestral, or primarily ancestral, to people living to day.

Human beings like to divide themselves into groups, and then cooperate, socialize, and reproduce with members of their own group. But they’re not very absolutist about it; groups tend to gradually (or suddenly) intermingle, as people explore, intermarry, or conquer each other. David Reich has pioneered the use of genetic data in uncovering the history of ancient humanity: what groups existed where and when, and how they interacted. The result is a picture of churning populations in constant flux, including “ghost populations” that no longer exist today.

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David Reich received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Oxford. He is currently a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. Among his awards are the Dan David Prize, the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, the Wiley Prize, the Darwin-Wallace Medal, and the Massry Prize. He is the author of Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.

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