The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyRandom 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. |
From inside the book
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Page xiii
... classification of fish, because all fish live in water, the identical bits of our genetic code tell us nothing about our history. The story is in the differences, and this is what we study. This is not a book on human origins. Rather ...
... classification of fish, because all fish live in water, the identical bits of our genetic code tell us nothing about our history. The story is in the differences, and this is what we study. This is not a book on human origins. Rather ...
Page 8
... classify every living organism on the planet. Rather a daunting task, but Linnaeus managed to do a pretty good job ... classification. Darwin, ever the objective scientist, noted that our outward appearance has been over-emphasized in ...
... classify every living organism on the planet. Rather a daunting task, but Linnaeus managed to do a pretty good job ... classification. Darwin, ever the objective scientist, noted that our outward appearance has been over-emphasized in ...
Page 11
... classification of humanity based on these subtle variations. Broca's methods, disseminated in a highly influential textbook, served to galvanize the scientific community. Soon everyone wanted to measure skulls. In England, an amateur ...
... classification of humanity based on these subtle variations. Broca's methods, disseminated in a highly influential textbook, served to galvanize the scientific community. Soon everyone wanted to measure skulls. In England, an amateur ...
Page 15
... classification. Common, genetically simple polymorphisms were critical. These arrived in 1901, when Karl Landsteiner noticed an interesting reaction upon mixing the blood from two unrelated people: some of the time it clumped together ...
... classification. Common, genetically simple polymorphisms were critical. These arrived in 1901, when Karl Landsteiner noticed an interesting reaction upon mixing the blood from two unrelated people: some of the time it clumped together ...
Page 16
... classification that had become blurred by recent migration, and Carleton Coon later used them to support his theories of discrete subspecies, no one had actually tested the genetic data to see if there was any real indication of racial ...
... classification that had become blurred by recent migration, and Carleton Coon later used them to support his theories of discrete subspecies, no one had actually tested the genetic data to see if there was any real indication of racial ...
Contents
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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Common terms and phrases
actually Adam Africa agriculture analysis ancient animals anthropologists apes appear archaeological Asian Australia Cavalli-Sforza cent central Asia China chromosomes clan classification climate coastal colleagues common ancestor continent culture Darwin defined descendants developed difficult earliest early human east Asia Eurasian Europe Europeans evidence evolution evolutionary expansion favour field find first frequency genes genetic data genetic diversity genetic variation geneticists genome hominid Homo erectus human genetic human migration human populations hunter-gatherers hunting ice age impala India Indo-European Indo-European languages infer ingredients journey known languages leap lifestyle linguistic living marker Middle East Middle Eastern migration mitochondrial DNA modern humans molecules mtDNA mutations Native Americans Neanderthals Neolithic northern nucleotide origin past perhaps polymorphisms population genetics recent region route sample scientific Siberia significant simply soup recipes south-east Asia southern species spoken spread steppe suggests thousands trace unique Upper Palaeolithic western Y-chromosome lineages