In the last 15 years, the field of palaeogenomics has rapidly become a dominant source of knowledge about the past. Powered by technological advances in ancient DNA research, genomics has somewhat eclipsed other methods of archaeology. Genomic information from thousands of ancient humans has now been sequenced, allowing complex reconstructions of historical population movements. These high-profile research findings have, in turn, served as rich material for a wide variety of political arguments. Several scholars have noted the use of palaeogenomics to bolster arguments of white racial superiority, nationalism, and xenophobia, an example of what I call "deep time politics": I argue that deep time politics can also support progressive and anti-racist narratives. Drawing on the example of palaeogenomics researchers who analyze samples from Indigenous Australians, I show that scientific debates are simultaneously political debates and mechanisms to demonstrate anti-racist identities. I argue that scientific controversies about the recency of the "most recent common ancestor" (MRCA) of First Nations Australians, correlations between genetic and linguistic diversity, and archaic hominin introgression are better understood as debates about Indigenous land rights and racial difference: in short, as deep time politics.

Biography

Emma Kowal is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Co-Convenor of the Science and Society Network at Deakin University, Australia, and Past President of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). She is a cultural and medical anthropologist who previously worked as a medical doctor and public health researcher in Indigenous health. Her research lies at the intersection of anthropology, science and technology studies (STS), and Indigenous studies. Her books include Trapped in the Gap: Doing Good in Indigenous Australia, the collection Cryopolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting World, and Haunting Biology: Science and Indigeneity in Australia (Duke UP 2023).