Eric Crubézy, a professor of biological anthropology, a specialist in funerary archeology and paleogenetics, is Director of Research at the CNRS.
Darya Nikolaieva, a doctor of history at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, is a specialist in Yakut history and culture.
This book answers the question of why some societies collapse while others persist despite hostile conditions.
Combining data from archeology, population genetics, social and political history, the authors offer another way of understanding the history and destiny of civilizations.
Yakutia, the Eastern Siberian territory between Lake Baikal and the Bering Strait, is one of the most hostile regions on the planet. Temperatures drop to -70° C in winter. The territory is an enigma: the history of its population shows that it is not those groups best adapted to the environment that finally dominate, nor is it the most powerful societies — in this case the former USSR — that prevail.
The victors are not always the ones we might imagine.