Jennifer Raff is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas with a dual Ph.D. in anthropology and genetics and over fourteen years of experience in researching ancient and modern human DNA from the Americas. In addition to her research, she has been writing on issues of scientific literacy and anthropological research at her own website, Violent Metaphors, and for The Guardian, HuffPost and Evolution Institute blogs for several years. Since 2019 she has been writing a monthly column for Forbes on emerging research in genetics and archaeology.
"[Jennifer Raff] is at the forefront of a culture change in our
science. And now she has written the book anyone interested in the
peopling of the Americas must read." --The New York Times
"Jennifer Raff, who wrote our May 2021 cover story, 'Journey into
the Americas, ' applies her experience as an anthropologist and
geneticist to a sizable task: righting the wrongs of both fields'
treatment of Native peoples while addressing how modern
methodologies are now closer to understanding the origins of Native
Americans. Origin presents how centuries of racist thinking
informed theories that were widely accepted. Interstitial case
studies could merit entire chapters, from a Monacan burial mound in
Thomas Jefferson's backyard to a digression on whether gender or
occupation can be inferred from remains. And Raff makes ample space
for Native voices through original interviews."--Maddie Bender,
science journalist recognized by The New York Times
"Jennifer Raff, a credential dynamo in the field of paleogenomics,
invites readers into her off-limits laboratory where she and
colleagues are rewriting deep American history. ORIGIN is an
authoritative tale from the trenches told by a fearless
scientist."--David Hurst Thomas, author of SKULL WARS: Kennewick
Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity
"Raff's book is brilliant, digging into the riveting new theories
about America's first peopling, but it also does it ethically,
which exposes the weird, error-riddled, and ... bonkers ideas from
archeology's previous elites." --Jack Hitt, author of OFF THE ROAD:
A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route into Spain
"Rarely does a book combine the scientific, the compassionate, and
the respectful when engaging with genomes, histories, and the
movement of peoples. Even more rarely does a non-Indigenous
scientist listen to--and learn from--Indigenous interlocutors, past
and present. Jennifer Raff's ORIGIN deftly weaves a critical
narrative of discoveries, biases, achievements, faults, and
possibilities, offering an integrative, caring, and scientifically
rigorous approach to thinking with and about the histories of the
First Peoples of the Americas. Filled with complex but accessible
archeological, historical, and genomic analyses presented in the
context of honest and often difficult narratives, ORIGIN is a
necessary and elegant text."--AgustÃn Fuentes, professor of
anthropology at Princeton University and author of WHY WE
BELIEVE
"The deep history of the lands that became the Americas is one of
the most fascinating, under-explored, and politicized branches in
the story of humankind, and is being retold today with DNA as a
source. In ORIGIN, geneticist Jennifer Raff tells that tale with
great scholarship, respect, and the verve of a natural
storyteller."--Adam Rutherford, geneticist and bestselling author
of A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED
"Ancient DNA, extracted from bones thousands upon thousands of
years old, has the potential to rewrite the story of the human
past. In ORIGIN, Jennifer Raff expertly explains the complicated
science behind it, how it can tell us who the first inhabitants of
the Americas really were, and how they got there. ORIGIN balances
its cutting-edge command of the science and its interpretation with
a deep commitment to the ethical implications of this work. The
result is a lively, learned, and wonderfully told guide to a
fascinating topic."--Patrick Wyman, author of THE VERGE:
Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World and
host of Tides of History
"Jennifer Raff is incredibly knowledgeable, eloquent, and
thoughtful, with a peerless grasp of both the complicated science
of this exciting field and its difficult ethics."--Ed Yong, New
York Times bestselling author of I CONTAIN MULTITUDES: The Microbes
Within Us and a Grander View of Life
"Social and genetic history cannot be disentangled. ORIGIN also
highlights the colonizers' evolving cultural myths that shape and
are shaped by their science. This is a valuable read for consumers
of popular genetics who are not aware how much science is built on
colonial theft, and how Indigenous peoples push back to improve
science."--Dr. Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), Professor,
Faculty of Native Studies University of Alberta, Canadian Research
Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society, and author
of NATIVE AMERICAN DNA: TRIBAL BELONGING AND THE FALSE PROMISE OF
GENETIC SCIENCE
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