The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey

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Random House Publishing Group, 2012 M10 31 - 240 pages
Around 60,000 years ago, a man—genetically identical to us—lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up as the father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races?

Examining the hidden secrets of human evolution in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the revolutionary science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. Replete with marvelous anecdotes and remarkable information, from the truth about the real Adam and Eve to the way differing racial types emerged, The Journey of Man is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind.
 

Contents

The Diverse Ape I
1
4Coasting Away
61
Leaps and Bounds 8
81
Blood from a Stone 8The Importance of Culture 6
184
Acknowledgements
197
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About the author (2012)

Spencer Wells is an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and the Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of ’56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads the Genographic Project, which is collecting and analyzing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people around the world in order to decipher how our ancestors populated the planet. Wells received his PhD from Harvard University and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and Oxford. He has written two books, The Journey of Man and Deep Ancestry. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, a documentary filmmaker.

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