Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins by Steve Olson

Mar 16, 2008 Grumpus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science

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, geneticists have found 85% of th...more 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, geneticists have found 85% of the total amount of genetic difference in humans occurs within groups and only 15% between populations. As the author puts it, “In other words, most genetic variants occur in all human populations. Geneticists have to look hard to find variants concentrated in specific groups. This pattern is not found in most other animals. Most biologists feel that group genetic differences have to exceed 25%-30% for a single species to be divided into subspecies or races. By this measure, human races do not exist.”

That is a profound statement! “Most African-Americans have European ancestors; all European Americans have African ancestors. Race disguises rather than acknowledges our multifaceted histories.” Showing how insignificant these differences are the author states, “The genetic variants affecting skin color and facial features probably involve a few hundred of the billions of nucleotides in a person’s DNA. Yet societies have built elaborate systems of privilege and control around these miniscule genetic differences.”

Just think about it, just ten generations ago each of us had 1,024 great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents and most of us got our surname from just one of them. Twenty generations ago, we each had more than a million ancestors and at thirty generations we had more than a billion—more than were actually alive back in the time. This is the result of what the author terms “circles of inheritance”—whereby you have individuals contributing to your ancestry through more than one branch of your family tree. It has to do with cousins marrying each other and gets quite complicated.

The end result reminds me of two infamous songs, We Are The World and We Are Family. So, shouldn’t we be able to get along better?
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Mar 12, 2009 Tacente rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, genetics, population, anthropology, archaeology

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).

Olson is not a sc...more 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).

Olson is not a scientist, he's a science journalist, but he's done his research well, and he certainly delivers his message. There are some concepts that are not very clear in his account; for example, the we all have a MRCA - most recent common ancestor - and he, or she, or both, could have lived much more recently than we think, is pretty clear; but Olson also claims that we are all descended from Julius Caesar, or Xerxes - if that person's life did not eke out, today there isn't a single individual on the planet who is not descended from him or her. Olson doesn't really explain it, nor posits a date ante quam everyone's everyone's granddaddy.

Olson is a proponent of the no-race idea, which I myself tend to support because I find it attractive. However, serious objections were raised to such treatment of human diversity, and the idea itself was termed Lewontin's fallacy (by the name of the American geneticist who came up with it). Olson does not address the issue, nor, indeed, lists any recent, scientific objections. It's easy to dispel 18-century notions.

The book searches for the 'oldest existing human populations', the Khoi-san or bushmen of Africa; examines the effects of long-term inbreeding in Samaritans; explores the cohabitation of anatomically modern humans (that's us) and Neandertals in the Near East. One of the chapters is devoted to the apparent racial and ethnic harmony of Hawaii (not without its problems, of course); I never thought Hawaii were so special.

With a couple of caveats, this is probably the best entry-level book on population genetics.(less)

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May 11, 2013 Chris Demer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthropology, evolution, genetics, history

Steve Olson explains in this clearly written book how the Human Genome Project has given scientists new information in determining the history of our species, and some of those closely related. He discusses how genetic information (especially that provided by mitochondrial DNA and the DNA of the X chromosome) has helped us to understand where humans originated (Africa) and how they migrated out of that continent to populate the earth.
The overriding theme is how very similar we are to all other...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Nate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: evolution, science

Interesting, sweeping account of the history of human population movements based on where genetics was in 2002. Some fascinating info about the Jews, Bushmen, Mitochondrial Eve, the Neandertals, and the Native Americans. After each chapter, however, I was left wanting more. Too much commentary and speculation mixed in with hard genetic evidence. While I appreciated Olson's insight that race is a biologically indefensible construct, he seemed, by the end of the book, to be gathering as many quote...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Juanita Rice rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

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 intelligible to a non-specialis...more 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 intelligible to a non-specialist.
There are many fascinating related topicsin the book, and to me the most fascinating was the idea of the "universal Eve,"--a single individual to whom all existing genetic material may be traced. Less simplistically than that sounds, the theory has to do with differentials in inherited genes from women and men. Once a woman's genes enter the "stream," they are retained in offspring differentlkyt than genetic inheritance from men. And that's as far as I'll try to portrary the complex science.
Downside: I am accustomed to high standards of attribution in non-fiction, especially in a book which deals with specialized fields of knowledge that bear on ideological constructs which may influence future geopolitical events. Recent world history has depended strongly on ideas of European ("white") male superiority. If a book is to equip one with knowledge to resist a backlash, it must be dependable. Too much of this book seems to rest on "some people claim" foundations. A chapter on linguistics admits to being "the most speculative in the book." My alarm flags go up and jiggle. The penultimate chapter is naive and, I think, dangerous: he basically argues that Native Americans should not resist being included in the "Human Genome [Diversity:] Project," despite their resistance to being catalogued by the very sciences and power structures that so recently dehumanized them, stole their land, destroyed their lives, killed and maligned them. The book claims to understand all the biases of racist projects for the last 400 years; why then can it not understand that all science is inherently political, and that dismissing the point of view of recent victims of politics is to be in collusion?(less)

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Oct 22, 2009 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction-read

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...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Sean Mahdi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: holiday-reading-france-2013

Mapping Human History attempts to answer the big questions about how modern humans evolved. In doing so, it traces the fascinating story of modern humans' journey out of Africa 100,000 years ago and their subsequent migration around the world.

One of the points of tension in the book is that while genetics demonstrates our fundamental similarities as human beings and the meaninglessness of racial distinctions, tiny genetic differences are enough to trace groups of people back into the distant pa...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Noreen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some things about genetics I assumed were true turns out are false.
1. The mathematical "proof" that biological numbers of an individuals ancestors converges to a common "eve".
2. Ethnic groups who claim genetic "purity" such as the "Basque,Lemba, assorted Jews, " do in fact share the same DNA as their geographic neighbors.
3. It is impossible to determine whether or not someone is pure "Hawaiian" because there is no Hawaiian set of genes, or an Asian set of genes, or a European set of genes etc....more

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Aug 08, 2010 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, reread, non-fiction

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 abo...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

In a journey across four continents, acclaimed science writer Steve Olson traces the origins of modern humans and the migrations of our ancestors throughout the world over the past 150,000 years. Like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Mapping Human History is a groundbreaking synthesis of science and history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the latest genetic research, linguistic evidence, and archaeological findings, Olson reveals the surprising unity among modern humans and...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Grant Staley rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have always held interest in this subject since seeing a PBS piece on human migration years ago. This book covers the subject in a very readable format that is narrative rather than scientific. An opinion piece it is not, however, as the bibliography runs for 45 pages. I especially liked the author's sub-text that in the end, despite outward appearances, all humans are much more similar (genetically) than we are different. The final chapter is about Hawaii's melting-pot culture that supersedes...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more 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 million years ago, a population of African apes split into two distinct species which would lead to humans and chimpanzees. Subsequently, more than 4 million years ago one of the species on the evolutionary path to humans adopted bipedality, which may have been a significant factor behind brain development. Then, about 2 million years ago, one species of biped assimilated tool-making skills, thereby earning the genus name 'Homo'. At the end of this chain of events, some 100,000 years ago, a new group within the genus 'Homo' appeared which were both more mobile, and had higher level cognitive ability. Yet, Olson is at pains to point out that human evolution should not be regarded as a smooth process from lower to higher forms, but rather, a product of a winnowing process where failed evolutionary experiments became extinct along the way. Moreover, at various points of this evolutionary timetable several forms of human species co-inhabited the planet. Prior to evidence from genetic research, one theory of human evolution which held sway was that of 'multiregionalism' which regarded racial differences as denoting descent from different species. Thereby Africans were partly descended from Homo sapiens, Asians partly from Homo erectus and Europeans partly from Neandertals. However, in 1987 a team of Berkeley molecular biologists studying mitochondria in human cells brought such theories under intense criticism. Mitochondria are maternally transmitted which led the team to propose that logically all humans descend from one original female - the mitochondrial Eve. The diversity which characterises the human population has arisen as the process of each cell replicating its DNA is not perfect,and therefore, 'mutations' occur, and are passed onto descendants. Olson ascribes such racial differences as resulting from the tribal phase of human history when gene flow could have been restricted by geographical barriers The lack of any basis in regarding racial differences as explaining genetic differences can best be evidenced by the fact geneticists have discovered that 85% of total genetic variation occurs within groups and only 15% between groups. This is of paramount importance as for any species to be divisable into sub-species, there should exist at least 25-30% genetic variation. fascinating though this central premise is, the author has not been able to enthuse this reader with his overall style. (less)

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Jun 27, 2007 Cougar Dan Misogynistic Empire rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 syst...more

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May 15, 2011 Peter added it

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.

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Apr 22, 2010 J. Robert Ewbank rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-good-read, science

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'"

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Dec 24, 2010 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 have...more

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Nov 10, 2010 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

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!

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Jun 28, 2010 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

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.

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Nov 05, 2012 Cyndi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: genealogy, genetics

Very well written and thought out. Olson gives a strong overview of the field of genetics for use in tracing human history. It's about 10 years old but mostly still holds up. He especially does an excellent job balancing concerns of the testing populations, the legacy of racism, and the excitement that comes from new evidence.

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Feb 28, 2013 Mark Heishman rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book rejects most of what I was taught in school and Sunday school and Church. It also challanges as fiction much of what I have spent my adult life reading about. It makes such statements as we are all of black ancestory roots, man did not have its beginning in the middle east, we can all probably be linked to the same famous figures in history such as Julius Caesar and Attila the Hun, there is no true blood Jewish nation existing today. We all can be linked by blood to Jewish ancestory, r...more

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May 29, 2007 Alvin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those interested in geography, physical/cultural anthropology, diaspora, and human diversity

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 evidence an...more

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Sep 04, 2009 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

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.

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May 27, 2009 William J. Shep rated it 3 of 5 stars

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.

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Oct 21, 2010 Cassandra Silva rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

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.

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Apr 07, 2012 Kimi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, punya, terjemahan

Read this book if you think that you are greater than others. read it and it will change your mind. that we all actually came from the same place.

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Dec 24, 2010 Rachel Drew rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 only exists...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Emilie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-for-laypeople

A bit repetitive but really interesting nonetheless....I could have used this for my thesis 3 years ago!

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Mar 28, 2010 Booknerd Fraser rated it 3 of 5 stars

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.

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Nov 14, 2010 Patmcclain rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: human-evolution

Another history of ancient humanity through DNA. Great basic book.

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Mar 04, 2009 lita marked it as to-read · review of another edition

hasil berburu di Islamic Book Fair kemarin. cuma 15 ribu :D

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