Towards an interdisciplinary perspective for the study of human expansions and biocultural diversity in the Americas

Abstract

The timing and mode(s) of the initial human occupation of the Americas are among the most discussed topics in archaeology and biological anthropology, with hundreds of articles published in the last decades dedicated to the topic (for some comprehensive reviews, see References 1–3). Researchers have contributed to the debates through a vast range of disciplines, methodological and theoretical approaches, ranging from traditional archeological and bioarchaeological methods, to climate simulations and ancient DNA analyses. And yet, despite recent advances in the study of the biological variation and prehistoric expansions of populations into and within the Americas, there is still little consensus about key questions including the time and modes of human dispersion across the continents. This brings up a crucial question: why are we unable to find a consensus about the processes behind the initial settlements of the Americas?