The Trouble with Ancient DNA

"Journalists and scientists have spread dubious historical narratives based on over-extrapolations from DNA evidence, according to this penetrating study. Källén . . .  explains the limits of collecting DNA from ancient bones and other archaeological finds, noting that the DNA is often so deteriorated that scientists can only recover less than 10% of the genome. . . . Shedding light on how geneticists’ theories of the past often say more about themselves than their subjects, this provides plenty of food for thought." * Publishers Weekly *
“Källén delves into how ancient DNA techniques have been implemented and interpreted in the context of human evolution, both within and outside the field. With The Trouble with Ancient DNA, she considers three broad applications of ancient DNA—large-scale migrations, genetic relationships between past and present populations, and phenotype reconstruction—looking closely at a series of case studies from existing literature and working to flesh out the societal impacts of such works, including the ways they’ve been co-opted to advance racist agendas.” -- Maanasa Raghavan, The University of Chicago
“This one is a must-read! Geneticists have made an unfortunate habit of approaching the past with a twenty-first-century toolkit and a nineteenth-century mindset—and now they are getting called on it. This wonderfully stern examination of the interpretations of widely promoted ancient DNA data in archaeology shows that a technological revolution is quite separate from a scientific revolution. It will hopefully help to pull geneticists intellectually into the modern age, and to effect a real synthesis between the two classes of data.” -- Jonathan Marks, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
“A timely, nuanced and much-needed analysis of the genomic revolution in the science of the past. DNA molecules are venerated in ‘celebrity science’ stories about charismatic imagined ancestors. Källén’s book is the perfect remedy for these ‘just so’ stories. She is the ideal travel companion for this journey into the weeds of what the science of paleogenetics can and cannot tell us about our past and why this matters.” -- Emma Kowal, Deakin University