In a journey across four continents, acclaimed science writer Steve Olson traces the origins of modern humans and the migrations of our ancestors t...
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Mar 16, 2008
Grumpus
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It’s the history of all of us. . . and we’re more alike than most people know.
Mitochondrial Eve (our common female ancestor) lived fewer than 200,000 years ago and thus shows the recency of our common ancestry. “Some people might like to believe that genetic mixing of people from different groups is rare—and that their ancestors certainly didn’t mix with hoi polloi. But groups have many ways of mixing.”
By comparing the DNA sequences of people all over the world, genet More...
Mitochondrial Eve (our common female ancestor) lived fewer than 200,000 years ago and thus shows the recency of our common ancestry. “Some people might like to believe that genetic mixing of people from different groups is rare—and that their ancestors certainly didn’t mix with hoi polloi. But groups have many ways of mixing.”
By comparing the DNA sequences of people all over the world, genet More...
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Mar 12, 2009
Tacente
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Olson provides one of the most accessible accounts of population genetics, the fascinating field pioneered in the trenches of WWI and later developed into a full-blown science through the efforts of L.L.Cavalli-Sforza and many others. The book is divided into sections corresponding to parts of the world, though this is only a very sketchy division (since the human race is intrinsically interconnected, one can't really speak of Africa without touching upon the rest of the world).
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Jul 07, 2010
Juanita
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I am glad to have read this book. I had a general idea of the information about genetic tracking of human beings to common ancestry, about possible interbreeding with other primate/human-types like Neandertals [sic:], and of course the scientific evidence debunking ideas of race, of relative racial "inborn" differences, of "difference" itself perhaps. It was good to read more deeply in these topics, and Olson does a credible job of making such complicated science intell
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Oct 22, 2009
Michael
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Olson's overview of genetic research on the migrations of modern humans out of Africa and into every inhabited land is very useful. He includes good notes for those wishing to read the primary sources. Although the material is fascinating, the style is somewhat unexciting. The book would benefit from a section on the spread of those hominids who left Africa in earlier migrations, since the work refers to the encounters between modern humans and pre-modern humans already established in territorie
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Aug 08, 2010
Katie
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Human genetics and our development into modern humans and our relationship to each other is one of my particular areas of interest, and this is an excellent book for a layman who knows little about the subject. What's so compelling about it to me is that it makes the same arguments as many other books (we're really not that different after all) but does it with irrefutable evidence -- our own DNA. I've read this book twice already (as evidenced by all the underlining and margin notes on just a
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Dec 24, 2010
Rachel
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Genetics is an amateur passion of mine (not in a creepy white supremicist/measuring skulls kind of way, but in a "wow, look how we moved around and settled different parts of the globe" kind of way.) DNA and the concept of haplogroups allows us to see how we are all connected and originate from the same place and also how our ancestors parted ways and rejoined and parted and joined again throughout human history. Did you know there is no marker for race? And that, in fact, it really on
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Aug 15, 2010
Steve
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Olson traces the evolution of mankind across four continents, and in doing so begs the question of whether racial distinctions are nothing more than historical accidents. According to his account everyone alive today can trace their biological roots to a small group of anatomically modern humans inhabiting the grasslands of Eastern Africa some 100,000 years ago. The four most momentous events in the prehistory of human evolution all probably occurred within 500 miles of the equator. Around 6 mil
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Jun 27, 2007
Cougar Dan
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This book was full of interesting and pertinent information and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. But if I had to pick a title for it, I would have called it The Case Against Racism. While it does talk a little bit about the origin, distribution, and diversification of the human species over the course of the past 200,000 years, that's not what Olson seems to be focused on. In the book, he goes into great detail discussing the history of bigotry on the basis of race, and then uses science to s
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May 15, 2011
Similar to The Seven Daughters of Eve (above), but with a somewhat different focus. Goes into more detail on the spread of anatomically-modern humans across the globe, and how mitochondrial DNA has been used to discover what we know. Includes some fascinating discussion on the ethical aspects of this kind of research, and pros/cons for various small native populations that geneticists want to study. Less accessible than The Seven Daughters of Eve, but a bit more interesting overall.
Apr 22, 2010
J.
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This book by Steve Olson is about DNA and where we human beings came from. For instance he says that all of the 6 billion people alive today have descended from a small group of anatomically modern humans who once lived in eastern Africa.
Historically wherever modern humans met and perhaps mixed with the earlier human beings the older human beings eventually disappeared.
Fascinating reading.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
Historically wherever modern humans met and perhaps mixed with the earlier human beings the older human beings eventually disappeared.
Fascinating reading.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
Dec 24, 2010
Stephen
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A good read. The book comes to the (I think) reassuring conclusion that race has very little to do with genetics. All humans are so genetically similar that race is irrelevant at that level. The really cool and interesting parts are about how the various continents became populated. There are also several highly interesting descriptions of isolated populations like the Basque in France and the Samaritans in Palestine. It is particularly amusing (and ironic) that the humble Bushmen appear to
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Nov 10, 2010
Jen
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Having studied biology and anthropology in college, I have a decent amount of knowledge in this area. With that being said, I went into the book feeling a little apprehensive that I wouldn't learn much of anything and that it might be too basic for me. However, I was happy to find that it retold the information I already knew in a really interesting way, and wove in with some things that were new to me!
Jun 28, 2010
Nancy
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Olson puts together the story of how DNA and the human genome project has been used to trace the story of humans--where we apparently originated, how we all trace back to genetic Adam and Eve, why the number of our ancestors doesn't continue to double into infinity, why none of us is pure anything. It's a fascinating read and makes sense to the lay person.
Dec 16, 2009
Alvin
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I picked up this book without prior knowledge of the genetic human origins theory, and soon I was sucked into a fascinating ride to prehistoric times when early forms of homo sapiens first emerged in East Africa. I'd suggest anyone pondering this book not to be turned off by the word "Genes" in the title - it's true that genetics play a central role in this book, but it is reader-friendly enough to suit even non-science aficionados and young readers. The writing is well-balanced with e
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Sep 04, 2009
Anna
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Gets a bit preachy in the last few chapters. Granted it's preachy throughout but it really starts to hammer at you in the last few chapters. Another reviewer is right, the proper title for this book should be 'The Case Against Racism.'
The actual scientific information is good. Could use better maps and illustrations as well.
The actual scientific information is good. Could use better maps and illustrations as well.
May 27, 2009
Shep
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A very good read though not quite as engaging as Brian Sykes' work. Olson also seems more motivated by politics than science in explaining the interaction of race, genetics, and culture.
Oct 21, 2010
Cassandra
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I was not entirely impressed with the authors writing style, however I can not think of any subject that better underlies our connectedness as humans than genetics. Understanding our genetic history has the uncanny ability to help us realize how pointless racism and segregation are. We are all truly connected, our history as humans is entertwined and recognizing our common origins should give humanity a deeper sense of the true meaning of family.
Jul 02, 2009
Emilie
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A bit repetitive but really interesting nonetheless....I could have used this for my thesis 3 years ago!
Mar 28, 2010
Booknerd
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A lot of interesting ideas about the place of a genetics in the debate on race, and of course as a science book a lot of useful destruction of said concept of race. Thought-provoking and good at the broad issues of genetic research, though for myself I would have liked more detail, especially about the prehistoric patterns of human migration.
Nov 14, 2010
Patmcclain
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Another history of ancient humanity through DNA. Great basic book.
Dec 17, 2009
Meinarno
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Buku yang pada awalnya membingungkan. Ketika perlahan dibaca, maka takjublah bahwa yang sebenarnya terjadi dalam rangkaian evolusi manusia selama jutaan tahun telah dirangkum oleh Olson.
Beberapa informasi tentang evolusi yang tak ada di buku-buku pelajaran SMA menjadikan buku ini seperti "gerbang" ke area baru yang sama sekali belum tersentuh oleh pengetahuan dasar selama ini.
Sangat baik bagi yang tertarik tentang asal muasal manusia, khususnya dalam hal evolusi
Beberapa informasi tentang evolusi yang tak ada di buku-buku pelajaran SMA menjadikan buku ini seperti "gerbang" ke area baru yang sama sekali belum tersentuh oleh pengetahuan dasar selama ini.
Sangat baik bagi yang tertarik tentang asal muasal manusia, khususnya dalam hal evolusi
Sep 24, 2007
Juno
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This one is a great and provocative book,with main thesis that "We, all of earth inhabitants, are from one ancestor". This argument leads to the peace-approach in interracial and interethnic relations. Some friends might say that, "It was what American said,and it was absolutely American project." But, when exploring this book deeper and deeper, we'll get scientific explanation that is also logical and provocative !
May 30, 2010
Sudi
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salah satu tema kesukaanku: evolusi. menegaskan kembali tentang teori "out of africa", dan tentang persebarannya ke seluruh dunia yang bisa dilacak dari jejak genetika, linguistik dan artefak. bahwa seluruh ras manusia di dunia hanya berbeda sangat kecil sekali dalam perbedaan kromosomnya, jadi tak ada landasan ilmiahnya sama sekali untuk bertempur atas nama perbedaan rasial.
Apr 06, 2008
Brent
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Another 'unfinished book,' this one was one of a few I'm checking out that deal with doing history (and thus genealogy) with genetics. This book was marked as a let down becuase it had too little novel information and what it did have was fairly basic. A better book: The Seven Daughters of Eve.
Apr 10, 2008
P.
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This book is an excellent summary of our knowledge of humanity's origins as informed by archaeology, anthropology, DNA,etc. The last chapter is an especially good discussion of "The End of Race" that is the assimilition in Hawaii and that continues to be instructive.
Dec 17, 2009
Rung
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I love the conclusion of this book, the author seems well understand the life of human being, there are very beautifully put at the end, it is very inpressive, eveybody must read.
Dec 16, 2009
Daniel
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very cool. reexamines the movement of humans out of africa by looking at genetic stuff. Very readable (and understandable) for non-science poeple, like me.
