Grumpus's review of Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes
by Steve Olson
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 r...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, 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 r...more
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It is indeed a small world. My first husband and current husband are both distant cousins of mine; my parents were also distant cousins to each other. Not close enough to go "Eww!" but, still, it was a bit startling to discover that the father of my children and I shared the same set of grandparents six or seven generations back.Why only three stars for this book? Was it a dry read?
It was not a dry read at all. Three stars on Goodreads means "I liked it." Four stars would have been, "I really liked it." I think I may have really liked it if I had not already watched the National Geographic special last year on this topic. Therefore, not much was new to me and the book was as expected. I would strongly recommend it to you if you are interested this topic.
Ah, I see.I point out a shortage of forks in my family tree and get no snark? You're such a gentleman, G.
I was soooo tempted but chose the high road :-)
I was going to tell you about this sign I once saw on a web site for a place called "Uncle Dad's" - We treat you like family 'cause you just may be. But I chose the high road :)
I was also going to send you this link regarding a Redneck Family Tree but again, I took the high road :D
http://www.jibjab.com/view/13680
An interesting complement to Olson's book is "Genes, peoples, and Languages" by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/317...
