Overview

How Our Restless Ancestors Shaped the Interconnected World We Live in Today First Migrants Revisited: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective reveals how human and hominin migrations over the past five million years shaped the world we inhabit today. Peter Bellwood synthesises insights from archaeology, palaeoanthropology, genetics, and linguistics to trace humanity’s earliest movements — from the first African expansions to the global spread of agriculture. The book reveals how migration redistributed the results of biological and cultural evolution, transforming societies and environments in every corner of the globe. Bringing together decades of scholarship, Bellwood challenges simplistic narratives of ancient migration as random events without cause or consequence, instead positioning it as a powerful mechanism the behind the formation and spread of new patterns in human biology and culture. Through rich interdisciplinary analysis, he shows how the permanent movements of populations created enduring patterns of genetic, linguistic, and cultural diversity that continue to define us. Covering the migrations of early hominins, Homo sapiens dispersals across continents, and the global diffusion of agriculture, the book provides a richly interdisciplinary account of humanity’s shared past, drawing clear connections between environmental change, demographic expansion, and the human impulse to explore. Deepening our understanding of migration as one of the most enduring forces in human history, First Migrants Revisited: Reinterprets migration as a dynamic process of redistribution of human biology, culture, and language Highlights the enduring consequences of prehistoric migration for contemporary human societies Provides new insights into the large-scale population movements that shaped the genetic, cultural, and linguistic diversity that still characterizes humanity today Features accessible summaries of the latest findings on early Homo sapiens dispersals and the global spread of agriculture Includes comparative discussions of different hominin species and their adaptive strategies First Migrants Revisited: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective is ideally suited for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses in archaeology, anthropology, human evolution, and historical linguistics, as well as for modules in global history, evolutionary biology, and population genetics within BA, BSc, and MA degree programmes.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Bellwood (Australian National University)
Publisher:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Imprint:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Edition:   2nd edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.60cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781394202416

ISBN 10:   1394202415
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   30 April 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

List of Figures xi List of Table xiii Preface xiv A Note on Dating Terminology xvii Acknowledgments xix 1 Prehistoric Human Migration and Why It Mattered 1 Migration as a Cyclical Phenomenon – Punctuations and Quiescence 2 Defining Ancient Migration 6 Migration Versus Conquest and “Elite Dominance” as Vectors of Human Dispersal 8 Potential Reasons for Ancient Migration 9 Researching Ancient Migration at the Level of the Biological Population 10 Language Families and Historical Linguistics 13 When and How Did Language Families Originate and Spread? 17 Cultures in Archaeology – Did They Equate with Linguistic and Biological Populations? 20 On Triangulating Opinions from Different Disciplines 21 2 Migrations in History and Anthropology –A Consideration of Outcomes 24 Settling Uninhabited New Lands –Medieval Iceland, and the Bounty Survivors on Pitcairn Island 25 Ancient China: Imperial Conquest with Mass Settlement of Previously Inhabited Territory 26 The Anglo-Saxons in England: Success in Migration Where the Romans Failed 28 The Nuer and Dinka of Sudan: Demic Diffusion Between Neighbors Fueled by Imbalances in Raiding Group Size and Bride Price Demands 31 The Iban of Sarawak and the Yanomami of Venezuela: Population Growth in Tribal Circumstances and a Constant Need for New Land 32 Roman Britain: Imperial Conquest and Major Cultural Change, but No Mass Settler Immigration 34 Indic-influenced Southeast Asia: Religious and Cultural Influence, but No Mass Settler Immigration 35 The Helvetii: A Failed Attempt at a Planned Migration 36 The Relevance of Historical and Ethnographic Migrations for Understanding Prehistoric Situations 37 Notes 41 3 Migrating Hominins, Until the Emergence of Homo Sapiens 42 How Did Species Originate and Migrate? 42 The First Hominins 44 The Issue of Inter-Species Hybridization 48 Early Hominins and Migration in Africa 51 Out of Africa, But How Often? 54 Who Were the First Hominin Migrants beyond Africa? 59 Flores, Luzon, and Crossing the Sea 62 Large Brained Hominins of the Middle Pleistocene –Out of Africa Again? 65 Neanderthals and Denisovans 68 Stone Tools and Hominin Species –Did They Correlate? 70 Taking Stock 72 4 Early Homo Sapiens in Africa and Eurasia 74 Where and When Did Homo sapiens Originate? 74 What Was, and Still Is, Homo sapiens? 77 Behavioral Modernity 81 Eurasia and Africa in Comparative Perspective 82 The Expansion of Modern Humans Across Africa 84 Out of Africa –When? 85 The Environments Behind Homo sapiens Migration into Eurasia 87 The Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia 91 Ancient Genetic Perspectives on Upper Paleolithic Eurasians 95 The Crossings of Asia 96 The Fates of the Neanderthals and Denisovans 97 5 Early Homo sapiens Offshore: Island Southeast Asia, Australia, New Guinea, Japan, and The Americas 101 The Southern Route to the East 101 Homo sapiens Arrives in Sahul, But When? 102 How Did People Reach Australia and New Guinea? 106 How Many Settlers? 108 Heading North and Offshore Again –Japan 110 The Americas 114 Getting to and Through Beringia 116 The Genetic Sources of the First Americans 118 The Rapid Unfolding of American Colonization 120 Paleo-Inuit and Thule Inuit Migrations 123 The Apache and the Navajo of the US Southwest 126 6 Last Hunter-Gatherers, First Farmers, and the Warming of the Earth 129 Goodbye to the Last Glacial Maximum, Welcome to the Holocene 129 Food Production, the First Farmers, and Their Fecund Offspring 134 Why Did Food Production Develop in Some Places, But Not Others? 139 Why Was Domesticated Food Production Relatively Slow to Develop? 141 Food Production and Population Expansion 143 7 Ancient Farming Migrations in Western Eurasia and Northern Africa 149 Agricultural Beginnings in the Fertile Crescent 152 Migrations Out of the Fertile Crescent 156 Neolithic Expansion from Anatolia into Southeastern Europe 158 Neolithic Migration Through Europe, Beyond Greece and the Balkans 161 The Eurasian Steppes, Central Asia, and Towards the Indian Subcontinent 165 Iran, Pakistan, and South Asia Beyond the Indus River 168 The Spread of the Fertile Crescent Food-Producing Economy into North Africa 171 Genomic Perspectives on the Fertile Crescent Food Production Complex 174 Genomic Expansions Out of the Fertile Crescent 175 The Indo-European Language Family –Origins and Dispersals 180 Peninsular India and the Dravidian Language Family 183 Northern Africa and the Afro-Asiatic Language Family 185 Notes 188 8 Ancient Farming Migrations in Eastern Asia and Oceania 189 Eastern Asian Topography and Its Effect on Human Migration 189 Agricultural Beginnings in East Asia 192 Who Were the First Farmers of East Asia? 194 One Beginning, or Two, or More? 198 Neolithic Migrations from the Central and Northern Chinese Riverine Plains 200 Sino-Tibetan and Transeurasian Migrations from the Liao and Yellow Rivers 202 Southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia 204 A Key Archaeological Sequence from Northern Vietnam 209 The Austroasiatic and Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai, or Daic) Language Families 211 Island Southeast Asia and Oceania, and the Role of the New Guinea Highlands 214 Archaeological and Genetic Migrations Through Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Oceania 219 The Colonization of Oceania Beyond New Guinea and the Solomons 224 Holocene Australia and Its Migration Puzzles 229 9 Ancient Farming Migrations in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas 232 Africa Before Food Production 233 Africa with Food Production 234 Sub-Saharan Crop Domestication 236 The Bantu Expansion 238 Independent Cultural Developments and Migrations in the Americas 241 The Rise of Food Production in the Americas, Especially Maize 246 Food Production and Migration in the Americas 248 Early Farmers in Ecuador and Peru 251 Early Farmers in Amazonia 252 The Caribbean Islands 254 Mesoamerica and the US Southwest 255 The Eastern Woodlands of North America 259 Notes 260 10 What Happened in (Pre)History(?) 262 Global Hominin Prehistory and Migratory Punctuation –A Review 262 Some Further Questions 266 References 269 Index 000

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Author Information

PETER BELLWOOD is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. An International Fellow of the British Academy and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, he is internationally recognised for his research on human population history in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. His previous publications with Wiley Blackwell include First Farmers, First Migrants, First Islanders, and The Global Prehistory of Human Migration. In 2021, he was awarded the International Cosmos Prize in Osaka, Japan.

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