When two worlds collide.

This special issue of Human Biology commemorates the quincentennial of Christopher Columbus's journeys to the New World. This historical event, the collision of New and Old World cultures, forever altered the demography of the world. As a result of this contact, the native peoples of the Americas experienced innumerable hardships, disease, death, and the destruction of civilizations, tribes, and a way of life. However, Europe was enriched by the acquisition of an assortment of agricultural products, gold, and a haven for millions of immigrants fleeing persecution and poverty. This collision of the worlds also resulted in the creation of a unique social experiment, democracy under a constitution, but at a phenomenal cost to the natives of the Americas and to the Africans brought to work the land. We should not celebrate this so-called discovery of the New World, but we can reflect on the 500th anniversary of a profound historic event. This commemorative volume of Human Biology summarizes the available information on the biology of New World populations. Given spatial constraints, I solicited contributions that examined the controversial issues of late versus early peopling of the New World and the effects of cultural contacts. The eight articles are grouped temporally; that is, the first section deals with Amerindian populations before European contact, and the second section describes contemporary genetic and morphological variation.

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[24]  M. Crawford,et al.  Immunoglobulin allotypes in several North American Eskimo populations. , 1990, Human biology.