ANTH 3310: Anthropological genetics

More than 50 years of Crawford's research on the effects of migration on the evolution of human populations relocated to a series of unique environments. It documents the history of the field of anthropological genetics from its inception in 1973, through the information/computer revolution of the 1980s to the development of molecular characterization of human populations and the sequencing of the human genome.

Emma Kowal recounts the troubled history of Western biological studies of Indigenous Australians and asks how we now might see contemporary genomics, especially that conducted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scientists. Kowal illustrates how the material persistence of samples over decades and centuries folds together the fates of different scientific methodologies. By linking this history to contemporary genomics and twenty-first-century Indigeneity, Kowal outlines the fraught complexities, perils, and potentials of studying Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century.

The book illustrates the role of genetic analysis in advancing the modern study of human origins, populations, evolution, and diversity. Broad in scope, this essential reference work establishes and explores the relationship between genetic research and the major questions of anthropological study.

Venla Oikkonen approaches population genetics as an evolving set of technological, material, narrative and affective practices, arguing that these practices are engaged in multiple forms of belonging that are often mutually contradictory. Considering scientific, popular and fictional texts, with several carefully selected case studies spanning three decades, the author traces shifts in the affective, material and gendered preconditions of population genetic visions of belonging. Topics encompass the debate about Mitochondrial Eve, ancient human DNA, temporality and nostalgia, commercial genetic ancestry tests, and tensions between continental and national genetic inheritance.

This book provides researchers with knowledge on population genetics and relevant statistical approaches to help them become more effective users of modern genetic, genomic and statistical tools. In-depth chapters offer thorough discussions of systems of mating, genetic drift, gene flow and subdivided populations, human population history, genotype and phenotype, detecting selection, units and targets of natural selection, adaptation to temporally and spatially variable environments, selection in age-structured populations, and genomics and society.

This book provides a fascinating overview of new and innovative technologies and current applications in forensic genetics. Edited by two forensic experts with many years of forensic crime experience with the Italian police and with prestigious academic universities, the volume takes an interdisciplinary perspective, the volume presents an introduction to genome polymorphisms, discusses, forensic genetic markers, presents a variety of new methods and techniques in forensic genetics, and looks at a selection of new technological innovations and inventions now available from commercial vendors.