Ancient DNA as Civilization History

A growing genre of popular books and essays uses ancient‑DNA datasets and polygenic‑score claims to construct broad narratives about how migrations, selection, and demography shaped traits and institutions. Those narratives compress complex, technical evidence into causal stories that non‑specialist audiences treat as authoritative, shifting how the public thinks about race, identity, and the biological roots of social outcomes. — If packaged for mass audiences, these genomic civilizational narratives will change public conversations about ancestry, policy (immigration, education), and the legitimacy of biological explanations for social differences.