Bones: Discovering the First Americans [Hardcover]

Elaine Dewar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0786709790 | ISBN-13: 978-0786709793

Bones—the remains of ancient New World natives now lying in museums and university laboratories across the Americas—are at the center of the scientific and cultural battles described in this provocative book. These bones, award-winning investigative journalist Elaine Dewar asserts, challenge the accepted theory that the first Americans descend from a Mongoloid people who migrated across the Bering land bridge to Alaska at the end of the Ice Age 11,000 years ago. With Native American activists, white supremacists, DNA experts, and physical anthropologists—all vying for control of ancient bones like those of the Caucasoid Kennewick Man—Dewar explores the politics of archaeology, history, law, native spirituality, and race relations at work in this scientific battlefield. She reports, too, on the contention among the experts over alternative theories that suggest the New World may have been populated as early as 60,000 years ago, perhaps by Polynesian voyagers who sailed to South America. “Bound to shake archaeologists out of their complacency.”—Canadian Geographic “Provocative ... likely to rattle the old bones of orthodoxy.”—Calgary Herald

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dewar, a Canadian investigative journalist whose expose Cloak of Green probed the dark underbrush of environmental politics, returns here to dust off North American anthropology's skeletons in the closet. The author profiles a handful of scientists whose research debunks the prevailing theory that the first Americans came here on foot from Siberia over the Bering Strait during the last ice age; she also presents controversial archaeological, genetic and folkloric evidence suggesting that humans settled in South America at least 1,000 years earlier. Furthermore, she says, finds like the Caucasoid Kennewick Man, discovered in a Washington State riverbed, suggest that somebody beat the forebears of modern Native Americans to these shores. The truth is out there, but as Dewar argues, proper research has been thwarted time and again by stiff-necked academic careerism, the "dirty water of ethnic politics" and just plain carelessness bones mysteriously "disappear" from museum storerooms, labs forget to conduct crucial DNA studies and so forth. This is popular rather than hard science, and there are gripping moments, but had she written half as much book, Dewar would have told a leaner, more vibrant story. But Dewar is a keen observer of place and personality, and the scientists she interviews are the real heart of the story she wishes to tell which is perhaps why her argument sometimes gets buried in pages of anecdotal narrative.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

We've all been taught that the first Americans crossed a land bridge over the Bering Sea about 11,000 years ago and continued down to Tierra del Fuego, populating two continents. Canadian journalist Dewar (Cloak of Green) explores emerging research that calls into question that venerated theory. In this lengthy, detailed, and well-written story, the author explores the saga of the Kennewick Man, findings in Peru that show dates much earlier than expected, mummies discovered in Nevada that do not fit the accepted time lines, and more to illuminate the current state of archaeology in the Americas. With the flair of a mystery writer, Dewar explores the conflicting theories as they are influenced by academic and personal jealousies, government interference, ethnic concerns, mishandled artifacts all the human and bureaucratic folly that have gotten in the way of the science. A revealing and informative look not only at the archaeology in question but at the convoluted, intricate, and very human difficulties involved in "doing science," this book is recommended for academic and large public libraries or where interest warrants. Ann Forister, Roseville P.L., CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (March 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709790
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709793
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digging the dirt, October 21, 2004

By 

Donald B. Siano (Westfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bones: Discovering the First Americans (Paperback)

Like many others, I have something of an interest in the origins of people, and take some notice of the findings of the scientists whose job it is to gather and interpret hard data. The peopling of the Americas has some special interest, of course, not the least because it is so controversial. The central dogma, found in all the textbooks and encyclopedias of our day, is that the earliest Americans arrived at about 11,000 BC or so ago, and the route was over the Beringian land bridge from Siberia to Alaska.

This book, written by a very well informed journalist, is an honest effort at an examination of the data, pro and con, for the dogma, told in a most delightful way. Her method is to read everything, visit every museum involved, and interview everybody involved in the controversy that she can. It is not a dry tome that merely relates the findings, but a sort of personal journey through it, a travelogue to some of the important sites, and a reflection on the meaning of it all.

What she finds is at times quite eye-opening and even sometimes pretty distressing. It seems that the dogma is so strong that some investigators suppress evidence against it for fear of losing standing and funding, which is controlled by a tyranical old guard, charged with a righteous fervor to protect it.

I found the story quite fascinating. Was it possible for people to traverse the land at the time required? Apparently not, according to the latest findings. Are there sites older than 11,000 BC? It seems there were! A most persuasive argument to me was the finding that the migrants brought the hookworm with them. Because the hookworm must reside for part of its life-cycle in warm soil, it could not have come by the Beringian route. Pretty persuasive to me!

The style of writing is lively and immediate and the book is hard to put down, once started. I only regret that there are no illustrations at all.

Dewar has done quite an outstanding job in bring this story together, and it will reward your time spent with it.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Skeletons in the closet, March 15, 2002

By 

"michaeleve" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bones: Discovering the First Americans (Hardcover)

Given that Canadian First Peoples have traditions and creation stories that say they come from right here in North America and have been here for Eons; journalist Elaine Dewar wants to know why the tale that passes as history - about arrival by way of the Bering Strait some 11,000 years ago - still remains such a widely held belief. BONES: DISCOVERING THE FIRST AMERICANS is her investigative journey into this subject.

Traditional history says that Mongoloid migrants from Siberia came across a land-bridge spanning the Bering Straits at the end of the last Ice Age. They penetrated South from Alaska through an "ice-free corridor" then East and eventually back North, thus occupying the entire North American continent.

A lot of this is now in doubt by scientists but Dewar takes relish in dismantling the whole theory. At 600 plus pages her book has plenty of room to do so. For someone who is a self-admitted non-expert in the field she puts together seemingly well reasoned arguments. I'm a lay person in this area so I can't say if she's correct with her analysis. What I can say is that the book is well written and heavily researched and she puts forward her views in a way that makes it clear that readers like me, not experts, are her intended audience. As such I would expect this book to be criticized by anthropologists, ethnographers, and archaeologists, as usually happens when non specialists dare to tred on scientists turf. Dewar highlights the sloppiness and selective nature of some archaeological research and is able to assert that "the practice of archaeology in Ontario has become a disgrace." She's backed up in this by the Province's former director of the London Museum of Archaeology. It's certainly not just in Canada though and it's not just corporate and government influence and interference either.

In a couple of chapters dealing with Kennewick Man and one of the primary researchers on his origins - American archaeologist Jim Chatters - we see a very modern menace raise its head. Chatters had been receiving cooperation from Native Americans of the Colville tribe, even with regards to the vexing issue of destruction of ancestral bones for DNA research. Chatters tells Dewar that once he published findings that indicated possible Caucasoid origins for Kennewick Man the tribe suddenly said "all studies of human remains are a desecration." Chatters suffered as a result of "suppression of anything negative about Native Americans" The uniquely 21st century threat to his reasearch "was all a result of political correctness."

BONES will certainly rattle some professionals and stakeholders in the relevant sciences. To the extent that the author has uncovered skeletons in the closet as it relates to issues such as the issuance of grants, academic rivalries, and selective science, she has does her own area of specialization - that of investigative journalism - quite proud.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where have all the editors gone?, October 13, 2002

By 

Robert Adler "science writer & author" (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bones: Discovering the First Americans (Hardcover)

When I spotted _Bones_ I was thrilled. The subject--the peopling of the Americas--is one I am fascinated by. The author is an investigative journalist who spent years tracking down the archaeological sites, the scientists, and the artifacts that promise to reveal when, how and by whom the Americas were first populated.

The book has some major strengths. In its 556 pages of text it does address pretty much every aspect of the story: the Clovis First paradigm and the recent cracks in its foundation, the Beringian land bridge-Canadian ice-free corridor entry into the New World and its critics, the oldest bones and their intensely controversial cultural/geographic connections, and the intense debate, especially in the U.S., over scientific study of ancient human remains vs. reburial by interested Native American groups under the NAGPRA law.

It also has some glaring weaknesses. The biggest problem is the author's tendency to inject herself into the story. Not only did I learn far more about how every landscape, lab or pictograph looked to her, and even what she ate for lunch than I needed or wanted to know, but I also ran into far more of her theorizing about digs, artifacts, findings and theories than I wanted. She interviewed most of the players in this field and seems to have read most of the literature. But in selecting from this mass of material, I would have liked a lot more science and a lot less gossip. It seems to me that a good editor could have trimmed this book by 50 percent, and greatly improved it in the process.

One thing that emerges from the book is that the story is far from finished. Hopefully a new generation of scientists, less wedded to rigid doctrines such as "Clovis First," and using newer and better analytic approaches, will shed much-needed light on this vexed subject. And hopefully someone will tell the story with the clarity and discipline it deserves.

Still, anyone interested in this fascinating area will get something from _Bones_, even if, like me, they find themselves thumbing impatiently through the verbiage to try to find the real "bones."

Robert Adler
Author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).