Preface List of Figures Part 1 Historical Contexts in Which We Live 1 Prehistory and the Present Crossing National and Mythical Boundaries 1 European Identities 2 A Tablet of Unusual Composition 3 A Pieterskerk Skull Migrates to Switzerland 4 Migration and Population Replacement in Prehistoric Europe 2 Evolving Scientific Views of Our Origins As Opposed to Political Projections upon the Prehistoric Past 1 Recent History Can Distort Our Perception of Prehistory 2 Indigenism in India 3 The Aryan Invasion and the Ancient Indian Fatherland 4 Colonial Expansion out of India and into India 5 The Zeal of Jihad and Reconquista Are Brought to the Subcontinent 6 The Continuing Saga of Colonialism 3 A Fascination with Phenotypical Diversity The Manifold Ways in Which We Humans Can Look Beautiful 1 The Rise of Race 2 Enchanted by Human Phenotypical Diversity 3 The Slippery Slope from Physical Anthropology to Racism 4 A Molecular Understanding of Heredity and the Fallacy of Race 5 The Tenacity of Obsolete Labels and the Rise of New Fictions 6 Endogamy and Exclusion vs. Conquest and Élite Dominance 7 Decolonising East Asian Prehistory 4 Chinoiserie Old and New Language Typology with and without Racial Prejudice 1 Spellbound by Language Typology 2 Racist Linguistic Typology vs. Linguistic Relativity 3 Ex Occidente Lux 4 The Creoloid Origins of Chinese 5 Asian Negrito Populations and the Birth of Lexicostatistics 6 Lexicostatistics under the Novel Guise of 'Phylolinguistics' Part 2 Episodes of Our Shared Prehistory 5 Beyond the Linguistic Event Horizon The sub-Himalayan Hill Tracts and Adjacent Plains Serve as a Conduit 1 The Rapacious Species 2 The Colonisation of Eurasia 3 Mixing with the Neighbours 4 Walking the Dogs Back to Africa 5 Long Lost Cousins 6 Eastward through the Clement Climatic Corridor 7 Yet Another Wave Washes through the Subcontinent 8 Human Paternal Lineages as Molecular Tracers 9 Paternal Starburst in the Subcontinent 10 Subsequent South Asian Y-Chromosomal Starbursts 6 Holocene Dispersals Genetic Correlates of Major Linguistic Phyla in Eastern Eurasia 1 From the Himalayan Heartland to Hyperborea 2 Austro-Tai Comprises Austronesian and Kradai 3 Older Layers of Peopling Shine through 4 Austroasiatic and para-Austroasiatic 5 Trans-Himalayan and Yangtzean 7 From India to Europe and Back From the Holocene to the Beginnings of Recorded History 1 Dene-Kusunda and beyond Beringia 2 Burushaski and Indo-European 3 The Discovery of the Indus Civilisation 4 The Dravidians and the Indus Civilisation 5 Nihali and Vedda 6 Crossing the Pacific with Coconuts and Sweet Potatoes 7 The Discovery of America 8 Meanderings in the Pacific and Indian Oceans 9 Ancient Culture on the Beautiful Maldives 10 As Bassas de Chagas 11 Epilogue Bibliography Index.