The first publication to outline the complex global story of human migration and dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory. Utilizing archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence, Peter Bellwood traces the journeys of the earliest hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist migrants as critical elements in the evolution of human lifeways.
- The first volume to chart global human migration and population dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory, in all regions of the world
- An archaeological odyssey that details the initial spread of early humans out of Africa approximately two million years ago, through the Ice Ages, and down to the continental and island migrations of agricultural populations within the past 10,000 years
- Employs archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence to demonstrate how migration has always been a vital and complex element in explaining the evolution of the human species
- Outlines how significant migrations have affected population diversity in every region of the world
- Clarifies the importance of the development of agriculture as a migratory imperative in later prehistory
- Fully referenced with detailed maps throughout
Table of Contents:
List of Figures ix
Preface xiv
A Note on Dating Terminology xvi
Acknowledgements xvii
1 The Relevance and Reality of Ancient Migration 1
Migration in Prehistoric Times 4
Hypothesizing About Prehistoric Migrations 6
Migrations in History and Ethnography 8
The Helvetii 8
Ancient China 9
Medieval Iceland 10
The Nuer of Sudan 10
The Iban of Sarawak 12
Relevance for Prehistoric Migration? 13
2 Making Inferences About Prehistoric Migration 17
Changes in Time and Space – Genes, Languages, Cultures 18
Human Biology, Genetics, and Migration 19
Demic Diffusion 21
Language Families and the Study of Migration in Prehistory 22
Language Family Spread: Lessons from Recent History 26
Language Family Spread: Lessons from Anthropology 28
Dating the Spreads of Language Families 29
Cultures in Archaeology – Do They Equate with Linguistic
and Biological Populations? 30
Archaeology and the Study of Migration in Prehistory 32
One End of the Spectrum – Intensive Culture Change
without Significant Migration 32
The Other End of the Spectrum – Intensive Cultural Change
with Significant Migration 33
3 Migrating Hominins and the Rise of Our Own Species 36
Behavioral Characteristics and Origins of Early Hominins in Africa 38
First Hominin Migration(s) – Out of Africa 1 41
Unfolding Species in Time and Space 46
Java, Flores, and Crossing the Sea 48
Out of Africa 2? 50
Out of Africa 3? The Origins of H. sapiens 52
The Recognition of Modern Humans in Biology and Archaeology 54
The Expansion of Modern Humans Across the African and
Eurasian Continents, 130,000–45,000 Years Ago 58
Africa 58
The Levant and Southern Asia 60
Northern and Western Eurasia 63
The Fate of the Neanderthals 66
Explanations? 67
4 Beyond Eurasia: The Pioneers of Unpeopled Lands – Wallacea and Beyond, Australia, The Americas 71
Crossing the Sea Beyond Sundaland 72
How Many Settlers? 74
The First Australo-Melanesians 76
The Archaeology of Island Colonization – Wallacea, Melanesia, Australia 77
Heading North and Offshore Again – Japan 81
The Americas 83
Getting to Beringia 84
Circumventing the Ice 88
The Rapid Unfolding of American Colonization 90
5 Hunter-Gatherer Migrations in a Warming Postglacial World 96
Postglacial Recolonizations in Northern Eurasia 97
After the First Americans: Further Migrations Across Bering Strait 101
Na-Dene and Yeniseian 101
The Apachean Migration 104
The Holocene Colonizations of Arctic Coastal North America 105
The Thule Migration and the Inuit 107
The Early Holocene Colonization of a Green Sahara 109
Continental Shelves and Their Significance for Human Migration 112
Holocene Australia – Pama-Nyungan Migration? 113
Linguistic Prehistory during the Australian Holocene 117
Who Were the Ancestral Pama-Nyungans? 119
6 The First Farmers and Their Offspring 123
Where and When Did Food Production Begin? 124
Why Did Food Production Develop in Some Places, but Not Others? 127
Why Was Domesticated Food Production Relatively Slow to Develop? 128
Food Production and Population Expansion 129
The Neolithic 133
Food Production as the Driving Force of Early Agriculturalist Migration 135
7 The Fertile Crescent Food Production Complex 140
Agricultural Origins in the Fertile Crescent 141
Neolithic and Chalcolithic Expansion Beyond the Fertile Crescent 147
Anatolia and Southeastern Europe 147
Neolithic Migration Beyond Greece and the Balkans 149
The Steppes and Central Asia 151
Iran, Pakistan, and South Asia Beyond the Indus 153
Linguistic History and the Spread of the Fertile
Crescent Food Production Complex 157
Perspectives from Indo-European 157
The Possible Significance of the Turkic and Yeniseian Languages in Central Asia 163
West Eurasian Genetic and Population History in the Holocene 165
Peninsular Indian Archaeology and Dravidian Linguistic History 168
The Spread of the Fertile Crescent Food-Producing
Economy into North Africa 169
The Fertile Crescent Food Production Complex and Its Impact
on Holocene Prehistory in Western Eurasia 172
8 The East Asian and Western Pacific Food Production Complexes 178
Agricultural Origins in the Yellow and Yangzi Basins of East Asia 178
Migrations from the Yellow River Basin 181
Migrations from the Yangzi Basin – Mainland Southeast Asia 182
Early Rice and the Linguistic Record 187
Genetics, Human Biology, and the East Asian Mainland during the Holocene 189
Island Southeast Asia and Oceania 191
The Colonization of Oceania 194
The History of the Austronesian Language Family 197
Biological Anthropology and the Austronesians 201
The East Asian and Western Pacific Food Production Complexes and Their Impacts on Holocene Prehistory 204
9 The African and American Food Production Complexes 210
Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa 211
West Africa and the Niger-Congo-Speaking Populations 213
The African Food Production Complex in Perspective 218
Holocene Migrations in the Americas 219
The Central Andes 221
Amazonia 224
The Caribbean Islands 228
Mesoamerica 229
Northern Mesoamerica, the Southwestern United States, and the Uto-Aztecans 230
The Eastern Woodlands 234
The American Food Production Complexes and Their Impacts on Holocene Prehistory 238
10 The Role of Migration in the History of Humanity 243
References 249
Index 299
About the Author :
Peter Bellwood is Professor of Archaeology at the Australian National University. A renowned authority in a field driven by contesting paradigms, his vast experience and detailed empirical research have informed his widely-translated publications, especially covering South East Asia and the Pacific. Recent key works include The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Volume 1: Prehistory (2013), co-edited with Immanuel Ness, First Farmers (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago (second edition 1997, reprinted 2007), and Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis (2002), co-edited with Colin Renfrew. His research integrates a range of techniques from archaeology, linguistics, and human biology, and he is currently engaged in archaeological research in Vietnam and the Philippines.
Review :
“In sum, First Migrantsis a commendable effort to synthesize a growing body of literature on the subject and will serve as a useful and much needed text for courses on the subject. For those generally unfamiliar with different parts of the world and why people moved to and fro, Bellwood has offered an attractive resource and one which should prove useful in that regard for years to come.” (American Antiquity, 1 July 2014)
“This is a significant contribution to our understanding of world archaeology.” (Antiquity, 1 June 2014)
