Amazon.com Review
In this intriguing work of scholarly detection, forensic anthropologist James Chatters relates the story of a fossil discovery that has challenged received wisdom about the peopling of the Americas--and that has touched off a storm of controversy.
On July 28, 1996, two students happened on a skull that peeked from the mud of a Washington riverbank. When police officers arrived at the site, they called in Chatters, a deputy coroner and scientist. At first glance, Chatters guessed that the skull was that of a white pioneer, perhaps a hundred or so years old, but on examining other skeletal remains, he began to suspect that the human eventually dubbed "Kennewick Man" was much older indeed. Various scientific tests proved him right: the skeleton was around 9,500 years old. But Kennewick Man, he announced, was also "Caucasoid" in appearance, a revelation that triggered charges of racism and tomb-robbing by local Native Americans, who claimed the remains as part of their cultural heritage. The announcement also drew in white supremacists, who seized on Chatters's discovery to argue that their forebears were the first to arrive in North America.
Both the term "Caucasoid" and its racially charged interpretations were off the mark, Chatters writes, for Kennewick Man should be seen as an ancestor to us all. Some of his features, and those of other ancient remains found elsewhere in the Americas, suggest a kinship with peoples as various as Polynesians, Ainu, medieval Icelanders, and Australian aborigines. More important than bloodline is the revision that Kennewick Man and his cousins force in our account of the arrival of humans in the Americas, which, Chatters argues, happened in waves over long periods of time and involved people of widely varied features and genetic traits.
Writing evenly of a controversy that continues to rage, Chatters provides a behind-the-scenes view of physical anthropology, as well as a fascinating revision of the human past. --Gregory McNamee
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Bones always have a story to tell, says Chatters in this firsthand account of the discovery, in Washington state, of Kennewick Man, a 9,500-year-old skeleton that some scientists believe gives evidence of European migrations to the Americas long before the arrival of Native Americans. Chatters, an archeologist and forensic consultant called in when the skeleton was found, tells a tale of "cowboys" and Indians, revolving around a stalled investigation. Local tribes, backed by the federal government, claim Kennewick Man as an ancestor and want to rebury him. Even as this book hits the shelves, an appeal by anthropologists is pending in the courts, and Chatters's intent seems to be to influence popular opinion. The first half of this book, a reconstruction of the weeks leading up to the government's appropriation of the bones, reads like a bad thriller; the author relies on a handful of dialogue modifiers to convey character, making it easy to tell the good from the bad from the ugly. Chatters's "cowboys" in white hats are the anthropologists, and his Indians are as mean and thick-headed as they come. They "growl" and speak "angrily," and are always getting in the author's face. He, meanwhile, invariably has the last word: "I glared at him and snapped, `The First Amendment always applies.'" The second half of the book is a surprisingly engaging treatment of the science used to reconstruct the past from ancient remains, and of some theories on prehistoric migrations from Europe and Asia that might explain Kennewick Man, and that attempt to debunk Native Americans' claim to him. (June 7)Forecast: Being released in the midst of a court case the hearing is scheduled for June 19 this is bound to garner media attention and controversy as each side make its case in the battle for these bones. The author will tour in the Northwestern U.S., where interest is particularly high.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
