How Genetics Can Inform History

Until recently the only disciplines providing significant information about the pre-literate global human past were archaeology and linguistics. Now genetics is making important contributions. We survey recent progress, which includes:

1. The discovery that there was mating between modern and archaic humans in Eurasia, and in the ancestral populations of New Guinea and Australia.

2. Settling a long standing issue as to whether agriculture in Europe originated primarily by cultural diffusion or by population movement.

3. Improved understanding of the genetic history of India.

We will review the current state of the art, and limitations of genetics, both now and most probably in the future. Finally we will discuss briefly how genetics may settle the difficult and controversial issue of the origin of Indo-Europeans.