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One of the debates that have shaken the heads of the American people for a long time is that relates to the migration of ‘the
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One of the debates that have shaken the heads of the American people for a long time is that relates to the migration of ‘the peopling of the America.’ The main reason as to why it has been the hottest debate is that it is not known exactly how and when the migration took place. Various theories tend to explain the exact time of the migration with each of the theories having a different account to that of the other. Every team seems to have contradictory stories with that of the other publishers for every story that emerges, and therefore the conclusions are always different. The two main models have been proven to be reasonable according to a review by the archeological, geological and paleo-genetic research (Fiedel, 2004). However, the review disregarded the other couple of theories claiming that they are not reasonable.
According to advocates of the interior, the people of the southern Siberia are believed to have traveled on foot, moving eastwards over the land bridge of Beringia current day Alaska (Pitblado, 2011). The movement was motivated by the large herds of wild animals considering that the ancient people relied on game meat for survival and therefore they had to follow their source of food. According to history, Beringia had been previously exposed for many times in the past million years especially when the sea levels dropped. During the end of the ice age, humans began to move away from Siberia heading eastwards inhabiting the land of Beringia. The interior route to entry into America has been a dominant model for a long time and has as well been one of the reasonable theories explaining the peopling of the America.
The other theory is the coastal route that is also referred to as the kelp highway model. The Kelp model has gained traction over the last decades. The model suggests that the inhabitants of the northeastern Siberia migrated from the region following the coastal areas by boat and this included at times along the sea ice (Erlandson et al. 2015). The voyage passed through the northern Pacific heading all the way to America where the people settled. The migrants not only settled in America but continued with their journey down the coasts to which is modern-day Chile. With the migrants being well known for hunting and gathering, they, therefore, depended on wild animals, seafood and fruits from the bushes. Due to this reason they had enough reason to settle in the region. The coast of Chile was full of all kinds of foods that could sustain the migrants from Siberia. Among the foods that were in plenty included fish, shell fish, kelps and the seals which provided a good meal for the people. Apart from the foods, the coast had had rich waters that provided a conducive environment for the people to settle. Thus, the coastal route also the Kelp Highway is one of the refutable theories that try to explain the peopling of the America.
The two models that are the land bridge of Beringia and the Kelp highway models are crucial in explaining the peopling of the America (Erlandson et al. 2007). They are both theories that make sense in the manner through which the people of America came to be, and this is explained by the routes that the people are assumed to have followed. The two theories are similar in that they have some components of their stories being the same and therefore they are very close in relation to the explanation regarding even the origin and final settlements. The two models are similar in that they have a common origin. The migrants are all known to migrate from Siberia in both models, and this means that there was a common place of origin. Siberia can, therefore, be regarded as the main origin of the American people. As it is well known that people migrate due to various reasons, the migrants had to search for a better place to which could offer plenty of food for their population.
The two models as well are related in that they both agree that the people from Siberia took their journey heading eastwards. With the two theories explaining that the people moved from Siberia journeying to the east, they had a common aim, and this was to populate the American nation. There is a great connection between the first setters of the American nation and those of the Ancient Siberia and this evidence have been made possible through DNA sequencing that has shown close links between the two populations and this makes the two theories to be more relevant. Apart from being relevant, they are also similar as they indicate a common people linked through DNA (Schurr, 2000).
It has also been agreed upon that the migration of the two models took place around the same period, and this is estimated that it was within the last 25,000 years. This is attributed by the data obtained from the genetic configuration whereby the scientists perceive that the first settlers of the American nation and the Siberian populations were separated and this also led to the genetical isolation of the two groups. It is also essential noting that the isolation alone of the two groups in Siberia and the first settlers in America could not be used to determine the time of travel of the migrants into America. There is a possibility as well that the people who are the direct ancestors to the first settlers of America were stilled living in Siberia on in the regions of Beringia by the estimated time. Therefore, the migrants could only have been separated from the rest of the original populations possibly for a millennia before starting their journey and heading east towards the American nation.
The Beringia interior model has been criticized with the critics citing that the recent paleo-genetic and the geological studies suggest that there was no way to which the migrants could have used the foot to travel from Beringia towards the interior of America for the period between 13,500 years (Hill, 2006). The studies had scrutinized various sites as well as different types of evidence, and this made their conclusions reach different travel dates. The migration of the people towards the east was barred by the Laurentide and the Cordilleran ice sheets making the crossing journey impassable. The other theory of the coastal route has as well been criticized with the arguments taking different flavors. Some of the critics claim that some of the artifacts derived from the earliest archeological sites were either product of natural erosion or had been inaccurately dated and that they were not from the human hands. Other critics suggest that there were some misinterpretations by the anti-interior peers on some of the significant findings in the most recent papers.
The two models as well differ in the sense that there somehow different times to which the migration is estimated to have happened. The other difference between the two theories is that the migrants used different routes to make their way and finally settling in America. Besides, there is a disparity in the method through which the migrants used to close the ice sheets with the Beringian theory suggesting that they waited for the ice to melt down paving their way through. On the other side, the coastal route argues that the migrants used boats, sailing eastwards towards Chile. Despite the criticisms, the two models can be said to be right as there are some truths in them that link the first settlers of America as well as the remnants of Siberia.
References
Erlandson, J. M., Braje, T. J., Gill, K. M., & Graham, M. H. (2015). Ecology of the kelp highway: Did marine resources facilitate human dispersal from Northeast Asia to the Americas?. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 10(3), 392-411.
Erlandson, J. M., Graham, M. H., Bourque, B. J., Corbett, D., Estes, J. A., & Steneck, R. S. (2007). The kelp highway hypothesis: marine ecology, the coastal migration theory, and the peopling of the Americas. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2(2), 161-174.
Fiedel, Stuart J. 2004. The Kennewick Follies: “New:” Theories about the Peopling of the Americas. Journal of Anthropological Research 60:75-110.
Hill, Matthew E. 2006. Before Folsom: The 12 Mile Creek Site and the Debate Over the Peopling of the Americas. The plains Anthropologists. 51:141-156.
Pitblado, B. L. (2011). A tale of two migrations: reconciling recent biological and archaeological evidence for the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas. Journal of Archaeological Research, 19(4), 327-375.
Schurr, Theodore G. 2000. Mitochondrial DNA and the Peopling of the New World. American Scientist. 88:246-253.
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