Mapping human history : discovering the past through our genes Steve Olson

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olson, Steve, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human population genetics.

Physical anthropology and history.

Human genetics--Variation.

Human genetics.

Human beings--Migrations.

Human beings.

Anthropology, Physical.

Genetics, Population.

Genotype.

Population Dynamics.

Medical Subjects:

Anthropology, Physical.

Genetics, Population.

Genotype.

Population Dynamics.

Physical Description:

viii, 292 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c2002.

Summary:

Until just a few years ago, we knew surprisingly little about the 150,000 or so years of human existence before the advent of writing. Some of the most momentous events in our past--including our origins, our migrations across the globe, and our acquisition of language--were veiled in the uncertainty of "prehistory." That veil is being lifted at last by geneticists and other scientists. Mapping Human History is nothing less than an astonishing "history of prehistory." Best of all, the story it tells, of why groups of humans differ and what those differences mean, pertains to our lives today. Steve Olson traveled through four continents to gather insights into the development of humans and our expansion throughout the world. He describes, for example, new thinking about how centers of agriculture sprang up from disparate foraging societies at roughly the same time. He tells us why we can all claim Julius Caesar and Confucius among our forebears. He pinpoints the ways in which the story of the Jewish people jibes with, and diverges from, biblical accounts. And, using very recent genetic findings, he explodes the myth that human races are a biological reality. In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Olson's Mapping Human History offers an ambitious, original, and convincing narrative that reveals where we came from and how we became who we are possibly have biological origins.

Contents:

End of evolution : African origins of modern humans

Individuals and groups :divergence of modern humans

African diaspora and the genetic unity of modern humans

Encounters with the other : modern humans and Neandertals in the Middle East

Agriculture, civilization, and the emergence of ethnicity

God's people : a genetic history of the Jews

Great migration to Asia and beyond

Sprung from a common source : genes and languages

Who are the Europeans

Immigration and the future of Europe

Settlement of the Americas

Burden of knowledge : Native Americans and the human genome diversity project

End of race : Hawaii and the mixing of peoples.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-275) and index.

ISBN:

0618091572

OCLC:

48451080

Online:

Publisher description