ABSTRACT
This riff or mini chapter opens by asking if humans are a migratory species. It cites experts who claim in 1998 that “like many birds, but unlike most other animals, humans are a migratory species.” This claim, however, is open to question, and there are various objections to consider and alternative ways of interpreting the evidence. Are humans less a migratory species than a species capable of migration? Perhaps human migration, on the analogy of human health, reflects an interrelation between biological endowments and social determinants, much like conditions from asthma or certain cancers to sex in the age of AIDS. Social determinants may be what tell people, at crisis points in personal or group history, to hit the open road, despite the perils ahead. You migrate or wander when times get tough because that’s what humans, unlike black woodpeckers, just do. It appears that biological anthropologists—while still sifting evidence and weighing arguments—have not unequivocally answered the question of whether humans are a migratory species. Unlike migratory polar bears, however, who make annual and seasonal north-south treks, humans seem ready (as an inherently curious species?) to wander off just to see what we can see.
