''First Peoples'' is a five-part

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television documentary program about the first people on the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. The program aired in 2015. It shows how humans reached each

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

, focusing on various

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

discoveries and placing them into the context of what research has discovered about

pre-modern human migration :'' This article focusses on prehistorical migration since the Neolithic period until AD 1800. See Early human migrations for migration prior to the Neolithic, History of human migration for modern history, and human migration for contemporary mig ...

. The program includes interviews with many of the researchers involved in these studies, such as geneticists

Svante Pääbo Svante Pääbo (; born 20 April 1955) is a Swedish geneticist and Nobel Laureate who specialises in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. In 1997, he ...

and

Eske Willerslev Eske Willerslev (born 5 June 1971) is a Danish evolutionary geneticist notable for his pioneering work in molecular anthropology, palaeontology, and ecology. He currently holds the Prince Philip Professorship in Ecology and Evolution at Univer ...

and anthropologists

John D. Hawks John Hawks is a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also maintains a paleoanthropology blog. Contrary to the common view that cultural evolution has made human biological evolution insignificant, Hawks belie ...

and Nicole Waguespack.

Episodes

# "First Peoples: Americas" The episode begins with a lengthy discussion on

Kennewick Man Kennewick Man or Ancient One was a Native American man who lived during the early Holocene, whose skeletal remains were found in 1996 washed out on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. Radiocarbon tests show the man lived a ...

and what his

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

reveals about him. # "First Peoples: Africa" This episode discusses the

Jebel Irhoud Jebel Irhoud or Adrar n Ighoud (; , Moroccan Arabic: ), is an archaeological site located just north of the town of Ighoud, Tlet Ighoud in Youssoufia Province, approximately south-east of the city of Safi, Morocco, Safi in Morocco. It is noted f ...

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

found in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. It also discusses

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...

of other humans in

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

and

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

. # "First Peoples: Asia" It emphasized man's need to explore. Because of that need they encountered other peoples. Modern human DNA shows the earliest ''Homo sapiens'' interbred with other human species such as Neanderthals. # "First Peoples: Australia" This program explores the close connections between the first people and modern-day

Australian Aborigines Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 years ...

. # "First Peoples: Europe" It highlights the explosion of art in Europe that came with the ''Homo sapiens''.

References

{{reflist

External links

Home page

PBS First Peoples trailer on YouTube

Reviews

Ars Technica/Condé Nast
2015 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings 2010s American documentary television series PBS original programming Documentary television shows about evolution