When did people arrive in the Americas?
One of the biggest mysteries in human history is when people first arrived in the Americas. Who were these people? How did they get there? And what clues do genetics and archaeology reveal? The answers are still elusive, but the story of the first Americans may be far older and more complex than we once thought.
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Sources and recommendations (with Amazon links- If you buy I will earn a small commission)
John Hemming, Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon, 2008 (https://amzn.to/4snyxsK)
The standard account of the history of the Amazon rainforest. Comprehensive, and much better written than your average dry history.
Chris Feliciano Arnold, The Third Bank of the River, 2018 (https://amzn.to/3MO1ajN)
An excellent book on the Amazon today, largely its underbelly. Gritty journalism at its best.
Charles C. Mann, 1491: The Americas Before Columbus, 2005 (https://amzn.to/47h1MoQ)
One of my favourite books I've ever read. A story elegantly told, and it will change the way you think about the Americas before the European arrival.
Charles C. Mann, 1493: How the Ecological Collision of Europe and the Americas Gave Rise to the Modern World, 2011 (https://amzn.to/4lcckeI)
The sequel to the above, about the world that was created by the connecting of the Americas to the world system.
Grandin, Greg- Fordlandia, 2009 (https://amzn.to/47gLhsW)
The standard account of Henry Ford's misadventures in the Amazon. Well-written.
McNeill, J. R, Mosquito Empires; Ecology and War in the Greater Carribbean, 2010 (https://amzn.to/40hxHle)
It seems like it might be a dry history book, but it's much better than that. Argues convincingly for the crucial role of disease (hence the mosquito) in the story of the Americas.
English colonies in Guiana and on the Amazon, 1604-1668, James A. Williamson, 1923
Other
‘A Whole New World’, Razib Khan, Substack, 2021
The Economist
‘A New History of the First Peoples in the Americas’, Adam Rutherford The Atlantic, 2017
‘The Amazon Rainforest Was Profoundly Changed by Ancient Humans’, Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 2017
‘The ancient people who reshaped the Amazon’, Shafik Meghji, BBC Travel, 2022
‘Amazon Jungle Once Home to Millions More Than Previously Thought’, Erin Blakemore, Na-tional Geographic, 2018
‘Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon’, de Souza et al, Nature Communications, 2018
‘Lost Ancient Society Found in Amazon Rainforest’, Luke Taylor, Discover, 2022
‘These Amazonian Villages Were Laid Out Like Clock Faces’, Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Maga-zine, 2020
‘Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air’, Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 2022
FREIRE, José R. Bessa. “Da ‘fala boa’ ao português na Amazônia brasileira”. Amerindia. Revue d’Ethnolinguistique Amerindienne, Paris, 1983, 8, pp. 39-83
‘Scientists Have Discovered a 600-Mile Coral Reef’, Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, April 21st 2016
‘More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia’, Vinicius Peripato et al, Science, 5th October 2023
‘Palaeo-Eskimo genetic ancestry and the peopling of Chukotka and North America’, Pavel Flegontov et al, Nature, 5th June 2019
‘Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon’, de Souza et al, Nature Communications, 27 March 2018
‘'Sistine Chapel of the ancients' rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest’, Dalya Alberge, The Guardian, 29th November 2020
Ehrenpreis JE, Ehrenpreis ED. ‘A Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population’. Am J Med Sci. 2022 Apr; 363(4):288-294.
Bryan Harris, ‘Brazil’s indigenous tribes suffer new degradations at hands of illegal miners’, Fi-nancial Times, May 27th, 2022
Associated Press, ‘Brazil launches high-risk expedition to protect isolated tribe’, The Guardian, 7th March 2019
Sarah Brown, ‘Organized crime drives violence and deforestation in the Amazon, study shows’, Mongabay, 1st August 2022
2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Brazil, BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR, US Department of State
Sachs, Ignacy, 'Growth and Poverty: Some Lessons from Brazil', in Jean Drèze, and Amartya Sen (eds), The Political Economy of Hunger: Volume 3: Endemic Hunger (Oxford, 1991; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Jan. 2008)