Archaeogenetics and human evolution: the ontogeny of a biological discipline

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Genomics and ancient DNA methods have revolutionized many areas of biology, including human evolution. Recently we have seen significant advances in archaeogenetics including the use of large-scale genomic datasets to track human movements globally. In addition, advances in ancient and modern genomics have enabled researchers to resolve a range of issues of importance to indigenous people. Most notable among these is the repatriation of ancient remains to their kin i.e. to what Aboriginal Australians refer to as their ‘Place and Country’. From an historical perspective, new fields of science can be characterized as moving through three stages beginning with description, followed by a focus on mechanisms/functions and finally the formulation of experiments and hypothesis testing. The new science of archaeogenetics is currently in the descriptive stage. It involves large-scale genome sequencing and the use of explanatory narratives. Our analysis suggests that a mature formulation lies in the future.