The Amerindian Microcosm

As this book shows, a fascinating chapter of the human evolutionary history has been written in the American continent. In pre-Columbian times, America was inhabited by hunter-gatherer peoples, although, in some places, new technological innovations arose, resulting in the emergence of organized states and cities larger than some important European counterparts. The arrival of the European conquerors and settlers and African slaves dramatically changed the course of this history, however. Despite the turmoil in this post-contact period, some small and isolated communities maintaining hunter-gatherer lifestyles and speaking rare Native languages remained, indicating a scenario that had undergone few changes in thousands of years. This volume constitutes a rich source of information on several topics related to Native American history that will be of interest for professionals in several academic and scientific fields. In addition to demographic, evolutionary, and cultural perspectives, this book considers the revolutionary development of sophisticated laboratory and bioinformatic approaches, using both whole genomes and specific genetic regions to understand classical questions of the past, present, and future not only of Native Americans and their descendants, but of all of humankind.