First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies offers readers an understanding of the origins and histories of early agricultural populations in all parts of the world.

Uses data from archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology to cover developments over the past 12,000 years

Examines the reasons for the multiple primary origins of agriculture

Focuses on agricultural origins in and dispersals out of the Middle East, central Africa, China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the northern Andes

Covers the origins and dispersals of major language families such as Indo-European, Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo and Uto-Aztecan

Bellwood, an archaeologist specializing in Austronesian populations, has compiled a vast body of evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and genetics, and synthesized it into a very readable book about the origin and dispersal of the Neolithic.

Bellwood is known for his view that the major language phyla of the contemporary world are most likely to be descended from the languages spoken by peoples who first developed agriculture. Since agricultural populations grow faster than foraging populations, and since much evidence shows that agriculture is not readily adopted by foragers, it appears that the Neolithic dispersal was largely a phenomenon of migration, in which the first farmers carried their languages and genes with them.

The book is full of detail, presenting a nuanced view of the Neolithic as it developed in five or six origin areas, and then dispersed outward. Technical concepts, such as "glottochronology," are explained without much fuss. Most of the genetic data has been collected within the past decade, and casts an intriguing light on the movements of people in prehistoric times.