Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes |
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Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes
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by Steve Olson
Sales Rank: 99097
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List Price: $25.00
$0.96
At Amazon
on 6-21-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 304 pages
Published by: Houghton MifflinEdition: 1st Edition May 15, 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0618091572
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0618091577
Book Dimensions:
9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
Weighs: 1.2 pounds
From Library Journal
Thanks to recent discoveries in genetics, explains science journalist Olson, we're learning about human history before any history was written down.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Review
Kirkus Reviews : "Olson raises the level of discourse to a new high, assembling powerful evidence to support the no-races hypothesis."
Publishers Weekly : "An engaging and fast-paced look at a subject that has profound implications for our everyday lives."
Boston Herald : "An instructive overview of human history."
Reader Reviews
Olson's "Mapping Human History" is written in a clear, easy to understand style that makes mitochondira, haplotypes and other archana of modern genetics fairly understandable to the lay reader. Olson explains why most geneticists believe that modern humans, no matter how different they may seem, are biologically very similar. There is no room in this book for theories about how one "race" is somehow better than another--or even for the idea that the term "race" has any meaning at all. Our cultures may have divided us, but our DNA betrays the fact that we are all descended from a small group of modern humans who lived in eastern Africa about 100,000 years ago. There simply hasn't been enough time to make us dramatically different from each other, despite what racists would have us believe. The theory that modern humans originated in Africa fairly recently and then spread throughout the world is still, of course, hotly debated. A number of reputable scientists favor the multiregional hypothesis, which claims that modern humans evolved in various places around the world from archaic populations already living in those regions. The mutliregional hypothesis implies that the differences between modern groups are deeply rooted in the very distant past. Olson clearly disagrees with that view, and he does a good job of presenting the genetic evidence that points to a more recent African origin (sometimes called the "Out of Africa II" hypothesis). In the course of doing so, Olson touches on many interesting points. A few of the more striking were these: First, Olson describes recent DNA research indicating that Neanderthals were in fact a different species from our own. This is another hotly debated proprosition, and I suspect that experts could criticize the DNA analysis that Olson describes on the grounds that it's pretty hard to make sense of 35,000 year old DNA. Still, Olson makes a good case that the new results are compelling and consistent with other evidence. Second, Olson describes the Jewish tradition that the male descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, will be the high priests of the Israelites. Genetic research among the kohanim (priests), who often have a surname like Cohen, Cohn, or Kahn, suggests that many of these persons are in fact descended from a common male ancestor, who may indeed have been Aaron. Finally, Olson explains why everyone on the planet at this point probably has some genetic material contributed by Julius Caesar and Confucius, among others. It's a small world after all, at least as far as our DNA is concerned. The only part of the book that I didn't enjoy were the last couple of chapters, which shift from the topic at hand (i.e., "mapping human history") to questions of ethics. While these issues are important, they are too complex to be explored well in the fifty or so pages that Olson alots to them, and the discussion tends to detract from the fascinating "deep history" that is the focus of the rest of the book.
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Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes
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Price: $0.96
Updated on 6-21-2008.
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