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While populations vary genetically, this genetic variation does not follow patterns of racial categories articulated by Blumenbach, Morton, and others. If that statement surprises you, it is because these concepts are so deeply engrained within our culture. Humans’ DNA is 99.9% identical. It is that tiny difference—just 0.1%—along with what we loosely call the “environment”xiv that accounts for the variation in our remarkable outward appearance, or phenotype.
ancient DNA shows us that no population throughout human history has ever been “pure” in a genetic sense (35).
Ceramic Age peoples were likely ancestral to the Taíno, who were the First Peoples encountered by Columbus and his crews, and other cultural groups who may have been present at the time of contact (19). Brutal colonization practices, as well as the diseases introduced by Europeans, were
