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Генетическая одиссея человека
Около 60 000 лет назад в Африке жил человек. Каждый из нас - его потомок. Как же этот реально существовавший Адам стал нашим общим отцом, и какой путь проделали его дети и внуки, чтобы заселить практически все уголки нашей Земли? Ответы на эти вопросы дают достижения генетики, ставшие доступными неподготовленному читателю благодаря остроумной, полной удивительных фактов книге известного генетика Спенсера Уэллса. По-научному точно, но весело и доступно автор пишет о новейших открытиях молекулярной биологии и популяционной генетики, позволивших разгадать самые волнующие тайны человечества - от правды о настоящих Адаме и Еве до появления разных рас.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2002
196 people are currently reading
2448 people want to read
About the author
Spencer Wells
51 books53 followersSpencer Wells is a geneticist, anthropologist, author, entrepreneur, adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
February 15, 2017
This nonfiction book from 2002 summarizes Wells' and others' research into the human path traced by Y-chromosome and mitochondrial-DNA from Africa outward.
It is fascinating work for those interested in human genetics and anthropology.
One highlight is that North and South America's Native Americans (First Peoples from Alaska through Canada/North America, Central America and all the way south to Tierra del Fuego in Chile/South America) appear to have originated from a group of twenty or less VERY RESILIENT Siberians crossing the land bridge into Alaska.
It is fascinating work for those interested in human genetics and anthropology.
One highlight is that North and South America's Native Americans (First Peoples from Alaska through Canada/North America, Central America and all the way south to Tierra del Fuego in Chile/South America) appear to have originated from a group of twenty or less VERY RESILIENT Siberians crossing the land bridge into Alaska.
August 26, 2013
This turned out to be the third volume of a "trilogy" of sorts. I had just read Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived (2013) and Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors (2006). Naturally I was a little concerned that it might be largely redundant with all or parts of the other two, or that it might be dated, having been published in 2002.
Happily it was only slightly redundant, taking different slants and emphasis on common topics. However, what Wells had to say with regard to the "Out of Africa" theory remains highly consistent with the other two more recent works.
I particularly liked Wells' sections on the migrations of early North Americans from Asia.
And in an early part of the book, when trying to give the reader a sense of what it must have been like for the first hominids to leave the jungles and forests, he uses second person point-of-view, which I love and have experimented with myself. YOU become the character and YOU experience the environment with all its dangers and changing characteristics. It was an all too brief section, but I loved it.
After reading the book I accidentally discovered that Wells has been leading the The Genographic Project for National Geographic. This effort is a bit like crowd sourcing. Hundreds of thousands of people are submitting their DNA for genealogical research. They use both mitochondrial and Y-chromosone methods. The money you pay covers the cost of the analysis and also helps to fund the research and preserve ethinicities that are rapidly disappearing and being subsumed by the "global village." And of course, you get a fascinating report of how you came to be you and where your ancestors came from. A bit scary maybe.
So, don't let the date of publication put you off. This is a great read.
Happily it was only slightly redundant, taking different slants and emphasis on common topics. However, what Wells had to say with regard to the "Out of Africa" theory remains highly consistent with the other two more recent works.
I particularly liked Wells' sections on the migrations of early North Americans from Asia.
And in an early part of the book, when trying to give the reader a sense of what it must have been like for the first hominids to leave the jungles and forests, he uses second person point-of-view, which I love and have experimented with myself. YOU become the character and YOU experience the environment with all its dangers and changing characteristics. It was an all too brief section, but I loved it.
After reading the book I accidentally discovered that Wells has been leading the The Genographic Project for National Geographic. This effort is a bit like crowd sourcing. Hundreds of thousands of people are submitting their DNA for genealogical research. They use both mitochondrial and Y-chromosone methods. The money you pay covers the cost of the analysis and also helps to fund the research and preserve ethinicities that are rapidly disappearing and being subsumed by the "global village." And of course, you get a fascinating report of how you came to be you and where your ancestors came from. A bit scary maybe.
So, don't let the date of publication put you off. This is a great read.
July 27, 2017
Whole genome studies of Neanderthal DNA have revealed that non-African interbred with our hominid cousins to a small degree during the exodus from around 60,000 years ago. As a result, most non-African today is approximately two percent Neanderthal at the genetic level. Sub-Saharan Africans, whose ancestors never would have encountered the Neanderthals, carry no Neanderthal DNA in their genomes.
The spread of agriculture during and the spread of empires during the Bronze Age have radically sculptured regional genetic variation. Waves of migrants appear to have washed over previous inhabitants.
As simply evolution means a change in the genetic composition of a species over time. If we need to check between two species , if they belong to the same speice. We need to check the genes. If the genes are the same then the two species belong to the same spiece and they do can reproduce with each other.
How genes in a population behave over time is fairly complecated. And why they couldn't develop it. It is because of their lifestyle
First force : mutations. Without them we won't have polymorphism. They accrue randomly during the cell divisions, and give arise as a copying mistakes during the process if cells division.
Second force: natural selection, if we didn't have it we would look like our unsophasticated ape-like ancestors.
Third force: genetic drift. The tendency of small changes
The molecules is the document of evolutionary history
A: adenine
C: cytosine
G:guanine
T: thymine
DNA has a negative charge
The oldest splits in the ancestory of the Y chromosome occurred in Africa.the root of the male and female tree occurred IN Africa.
The man from whom all men alive today they share their Y chromosome with. Lived 59.000 years ago. More than 80.000 years after that estimated for Eve.
Did Adam amd Eve never meet?
That means men simply lose their recipes more quickly than women
That and too that there were no modern human living outside of Africa 60.000 years ago.
Apes appeared in the fossil record 23. Million years ago.
If Ape appeared on new year eve .then our first huminid ancestor walked up right. The first ape man would appear around the end of Oct. Homo Erectus who left Africa around 2 million years ago would appear at the beginning of Dec. Modern humans wouldn't show up until around 28 Dec.and they would not leave Africa till new year eve
While all African population contains deeper evolutionary lineages than those found outside thr continent. Some population retain traces of very ancient lineages .these groups are found today in Ethiopia, Sudan and parts of eastern and southern Africa.
Australia the subcontinent. The luck of mammals there allowed other species to evolve. Human Sapiens are the first primates to live in thus land. There were no apes, no monkeys, ni chimpanzee. Human must arrived some how using a way to cross the ocean
What prevented apes from developing and evaluation is the limited short term- memory . We gave up our life on trees . As we developed walking upright before developing our brains. Even our brains started changing in shape and size after walking upright.
Climate change was the main reason for our upright walk. The draught that caused by less rainforest in Africa caused the disappearing of the Mediterranean. Some of the trees have been moved to the edge of the forest , kept feeding in fruits like chimpanzee. .... the others who moved to the savannah, became hunters. Because plants and insists don't provide enough nutrition only. Mammals need high calories diet
We as human are biologically adapted to adapt. We have only our mind and our adaptation comparing with the animals
C-14:C-12 till 45.000 years ago. Before that Potassiume-40 K-40 and Uranium- 23
Thankfully the Eurasian Eve lived around 50.000 -60.000 years ago, suggesting that she and Eurasian Adam could have met.
No fossils, no evidence for Homo Erectus did not make it across the long stretch of Open Ocean to Australia.
Homo Sapiens might caused a genocide to Homo Erectus and were number one reason to extinct them
Agreculture spread in the world new immigration
Neolithic immigration from middle east to Europe
Rice agriculture started in China 5.000 years ago
The skeleton remain from the ...... agriculture community suggest that early agriculturalist may actually have had shorter lifespan than their hunter-gatherer neighbours. It is though to due largely to an increase in disease
Cro-magnons arrived to europe from warmer places.
they have different body shape than the neanderthal. they are taller (180)c.m. with taller limbs. the neanderthal are shorter(165)c.m with more musculaire body shape.
neanderthal were not so fourtune to live with their grandparents. they could not have thie extra support qnd passing tje knowledge from olderly people
the climate change opened a new window to asian people. it was easy for them to adapt
The spread of agriculture during and the spread of empires during the Bronze Age have radically sculptured regional genetic variation. Waves of migrants appear to have washed over previous inhabitants.
As simply evolution means a change in the genetic composition of a species over time. If we need to check between two species , if they belong to the same speice. We need to check the genes. If the genes are the same then the two species belong to the same spiece and they do can reproduce with each other.
How genes in a population behave over time is fairly complecated. And why they couldn't develop it. It is because of their lifestyle
First force : mutations. Without them we won't have polymorphism. They accrue randomly during the cell divisions, and give arise as a copying mistakes during the process if cells division.
Second force: natural selection, if we didn't have it we would look like our unsophasticated ape-like ancestors.
Third force: genetic drift. The tendency of small changes
The molecules is the document of evolutionary history
A: adenine
C: cytosine
G:guanine
T: thymine
DNA has a negative charge
The oldest splits in the ancestory of the Y chromosome occurred in Africa.the root of the male and female tree occurred IN Africa.
The man from whom all men alive today they share their Y chromosome with. Lived 59.000 years ago. More than 80.000 years after that estimated for Eve.
Did Adam amd Eve never meet?
That means men simply lose their recipes more quickly than women
That and too that there were no modern human living outside of Africa 60.000 years ago.
Apes appeared in the fossil record 23. Million years ago.
If Ape appeared on new year eve .then our first huminid ancestor walked up right. The first ape man would appear around the end of Oct. Homo Erectus who left Africa around 2 million years ago would appear at the beginning of Dec. Modern humans wouldn't show up until around 28 Dec.and they would not leave Africa till new year eve
While all African population contains deeper evolutionary lineages than those found outside thr continent. Some population retain traces of very ancient lineages .these groups are found today in Ethiopia, Sudan and parts of eastern and southern Africa.
Australia the subcontinent. The luck of mammals there allowed other species to evolve. Human Sapiens are the first primates to live in thus land. There were no apes, no monkeys, ni chimpanzee. Human must arrived some how using a way to cross the ocean
What prevented apes from developing and evaluation is the limited short term- memory . We gave up our life on trees . As we developed walking upright before developing our brains. Even our brains started changing in shape and size after walking upright.
Climate change was the main reason for our upright walk. The draught that caused by less rainforest in Africa caused the disappearing of the Mediterranean. Some of the trees have been moved to the edge of the forest , kept feeding in fruits like chimpanzee. .... the others who moved to the savannah, became hunters. Because plants and insists don't provide enough nutrition only. Mammals need high calories diet
We as human are biologically adapted to adapt. We have only our mind and our adaptation comparing with the animals
C-14:C-12 till 45.000 years ago. Before that Potassiume-40 K-40 and Uranium- 23
Thankfully the Eurasian Eve lived around 50.000 -60.000 years ago, suggesting that she and Eurasian Adam could have met.
No fossils, no evidence for Homo Erectus did not make it across the long stretch of Open Ocean to Australia.
Homo Sapiens might caused a genocide to Homo Erectus and were number one reason to extinct them
Agreculture spread in the world new immigration
Neolithic immigration from middle east to Europe
Rice agriculture started in China 5.000 years ago
The skeleton remain from the ...... agriculture community suggest that early agriculturalist may actually have had shorter lifespan than their hunter-gatherer neighbours. It is though to due largely to an increase in disease
Cro-magnons arrived to europe from warmer places.
they have different body shape than the neanderthal. they are taller (180)c.m. with taller limbs. the neanderthal are shorter(165)c.m with more musculaire body shape.
neanderthal were not so fourtune to live with their grandparents. they could not have thie extra support qnd passing tje knowledge from olderly people
the climate change opened a new window to asian people. it was easy for them to adapt
September 14, 2010
This book appealed to the geeky side of me. I really love learning about human genetics and origins, about mitochondrial eve, the mother of us all, living in africa, and trying to wrap my mind around how that could possibly be. This book was at times a little above my head, and I had to shrug and push on through, because I was too lazy to actually make myself understand it. And it wasn't as engagingly written and some of the popular science books I've read of late. He did try for the colloquial thing, but his voice was a bit more naturally on the sciencey dry side of the spectrum. but pushing through some of the heavy science details was worth it for the broad understanding and trove of interesting details there in.
interestingly, the title isn't actually (mostly) a sexist mistake, turns out that most of what we know about the journey of humans out of africa are know because of studies of the Y chromosome, following a variety of different adams, from different times and places, and they successfully pass on their chromosomes and spread over the globe.
Not only did this book chronicle all the various routes that humans took out of Africa as we populated the world, it also gave the history of the science, the history of each new discovery that helped anthropologists, linguists, and genetic scientists use new discoveries and technologies to tell us more about our human origins.
interestingly, the title isn't actually (mostly) a sexist mistake, turns out that most of what we know about the journey of humans out of africa are know because of studies of the Y chromosome, following a variety of different adams, from different times and places, and they successfully pass on their chromosomes and spread over the globe.
Not only did this book chronicle all the various routes that humans took out of Africa as we populated the world, it also gave the history of the science, the history of each new discovery that helped anthropologists, linguists, and genetic scientists use new discoveries and technologies to tell us more about our human origins.
January 21, 2014
So bad, for so many reasons. This book contains so many passages dealing with migrations, invasions, and movements of populations, and so much information on genetics markers, that a few good maps and diagrams would have been helpful. But I count about 5 maps and diagrams total, in the entire book. And what maps exist are a practical joke. Like 10th generation black and white copies. Unreadable.
Honestly, go to a book store and open the book to page 182 and check out the black and white copy of a map they used. Can you read any of the smudgy text? This book made me *angry*, like a practical joke at my expense.
There are other things wrong with this book (the crappiness of the Index is one, the broad and useless metaphors are another. And hey here's another, Wells doesn't know how to keep it at any one given level; the majority of the book is written at a tabloid intelligence level, dumbing down the details and making broad generalizations and metaphors, as if writing in USA Today or The Post. But interspersed, now and then he throws in jargon, as if we are reading at a grad school level. Very annoying.). But based just on the bad maps and diagrams alone, a very disappointing book. I want my money back.
My theory? He had a very successful tv show and put this book together hastily, as a followup.
Honestly, go to a book store and open the book to page 182 and check out the black and white copy of a map they used. Can you read any of the smudgy text? This book made me *angry*, like a practical joke at my expense.
There are other things wrong with this book (the crappiness of the Index is one, the broad and useless metaphors are another. And hey here's another, Wells doesn't know how to keep it at any one given level; the majority of the book is written at a tabloid intelligence level, dumbing down the details and making broad generalizations and metaphors, as if writing in USA Today or The Post. But interspersed, now and then he throws in jargon, as if we are reading at a grad school level. Very annoying.). But based just on the bad maps and diagrams alone, a very disappointing book. I want my money back.
My theory? He had a very successful tv show and put this book together hastily, as a followup.
July 8, 2010
Spencer Wells traces the migrations of humankind from our original life in Africa through our eventual diffusion throughout the world. With genetics of the male Y-chromosome, & the accrued differences of isolated populations over time, the pattern of when human populations diverged from each other can be deciphered.
The most interesting part was when the book tied together culture and its genetic markers. Scientists can trace the spread of agriculture, language, and even the specific gender roles of humans their their genetic lines. Throughout history we have been a male-dominated species; we have largely been patrilocal, meaning that men tend to stay local w/ their land & power, while women travel to them bc in many societies in the past they have had no wealth of their own. This has been supported w/ genetic evidence comparing male & female genetic lines, showing that men have more homogeneous DNA within a region than females do.
Although much of the book is rather bland, just listing of the endless genetic markers that become hard to keep track of as they add up, the work put forward linking culture & genetics was fascinating and made the book worth reading.
The most interesting part was when the book tied together culture and its genetic markers. Scientists can trace the spread of agriculture, language, and even the specific gender roles of humans their their genetic lines. Throughout history we have been a male-dominated species; we have largely been patrilocal, meaning that men tend to stay local w/ their land & power, while women travel to them bc in many societies in the past they have had no wealth of their own. This has been supported w/ genetic evidence comparing male & female genetic lines, showing that men have more homogeneous DNA within a region than females do.
Although much of the book is rather bland, just listing of the endless genetic markers that become hard to keep track of as they add up, the work put forward linking culture & genetics was fascinating and made the book worth reading.
April 30, 2018
The Journey of Man is another solid book addition to my 2018 tally, just ignore the fact it took me a few weeks to finish, that was because of a reading conflict with Why We Sleep written by Matthew Walker. This predates Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project, but similar ground is covered and this book is slightly more polished compare to Deep Ancestry. I honestly would say both books complete one another and are both very interesting work, throw this onto the lap of any racist person on earth.
Spencer Wells is a storyteller at heart and the knowledge that is thrown around is both interesting and useful. The revelations are truly astonishing and are pushing the envelope of evolution study, the connection and traceability work is impressive. The book might be a little short but I would read this along with Deep Ancestry so that you get an initial investigation and the ongoing investigation. Looking at the timeline, one would think we are well overdue for a new book.
I liked this a little more than Deep Ancestry but this argument is still pending and new research is being unearthed with new technology. A must read book.
Spencer Wells is a storyteller at heart and the knowledge that is thrown around is both interesting and useful. The revelations are truly astonishing and are pushing the envelope of evolution study, the connection and traceability work is impressive. The book might be a little short but I would read this along with Deep Ancestry so that you get an initial investigation and the ongoing investigation. Looking at the timeline, one would think we are well overdue for a new book.
I liked this a little more than Deep Ancestry but this argument is still pending and new research is being unearthed with new technology. A must read book.
May 18, 2017
Fascinating. Best part for me was tracing of genetic markers and connecting it with linguistic theory.
October 8, 2024
Детальний огляд еволюції людини. Чи точніше огляд еволюційної теорії у застосуванні до людини, її поширення і способів дослідження історії. Гарна книга для бібліотеки популярної науки.
November 21, 2012
The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, by Spencer Wells. New York: Random House Trade paperbacks, 2003. 218 pages.
The Journey of Man was written by Spencer Wells, a geneticist with a PhD in Biology from Harvard University. Wells wrote this book in conjunction with a documentary by the same title as part of the Genographic Project. The Genographic Project – headed by Wells and funded by National Geographic and IBM – is focused on mapping the geographic migration of mankind through history.
Wells states that The Journey of Man is a “detective story” following human migration out of Africa to all the corners of the world. The goals of the book are to test the validity of the concept of human race and then explain how humans came to occupy the globe. Wells is the director of the Genographic Project, and his mission is directly reflected by his book. It is evident that Wells is an adherent to the Out-of-Africa model and uses all his data to support it.
The Journey of Man is broken into nine easy to read chapters which make use of some helpful graphics and many analogies. Wells starts out by discussing the diversity and ultimate unity of mankind as one species. While Wells uses genetics to discuss human migration, he specifically focuses on Y-chromosomal DNA to trace the migration of mankind back through history to one man, Y-chromosomal Adam. By following Y-chromosomal DNA, Wells makes a case for the Out-of-Africa model and describes the waves of migrations as Homo sapiens sapiens spread from Africa into Asia and the Middle East, and then across the globe. He spends some time explaining how culture, politics, technology and language all played a role in the “big bang” of human history as mankind spread rapidly over the earth. The Journey of Man ends with the author lamenting the genetic mixing within the global melting pot, the loss of linguistic diversity and the urbanization of village culture. He views this globalization as creating a rapidly shrinking window of opportunity for geneticists to discover our history before it is lost forever. This is an interestingly pessimistic stance for a genetic researcher to take as he seems to lack confidence in new discovery. After all, one would not have to look very far into the past to find a time in which there was no hope that DNA analysis could be used to follow migration, let alone to study the fossil record.
The book’s major strength was the straightforward method Wells uses to follow the thread of human migration. Since he primarily discusses Y-chromosomal DNA, he enables the reader to become familiar with the topic and engage in the material. The linear way in which it is written also helps achieve reader familiarity. Wells could spend some more time developing the topics within the book since at times he waters down the material so much that it becomes difficult to take him seriously.
The weakest area of discourse in The Journey of Man is found early on in the text when Wells discusses the relative age of Y-Chromosomal Adam to mtDNA Eve. He states that Adam lived 59,000 years ago while Eve lived more than 80,000 years ago (54). Instead of expounding on this difference in dates, Wells passes this “fairly complicated” issue off as “probably the results of thousands of years of sexual politics,” and concluding that “Men simply lose their soup recopies quicker than women.” In other scholarly work, this difference in dating is often explained as a result of a genetic bottleneck due to some near extinction event. Wells is likely aware of this fact and may avoid the explanation because Creationists can point to it as evidence of the biblical Flood account.
Wells has a small section on language extinction and some very interesting things to say about the evolution of language over time. He briefly discusses the theory that all languages may have come from one original language and how linguistic anthropology can use this to track migration. More time could have been spent developing this a bit more, but the brevity can be forgiven because linguistics is not closely tied to his study of genetics.
The biggest problem I had with the book was more of a personal issue. Wells states in his preface that “this is not a book on human origins,” explaining that he is only concerned about historical migration. However Wells makes it abundantly clear that he is an evolutionist and within two words of the first chapter has discounted the creation account as a myth.
On the whole, Wells does a good job of laying out his evidence for the Out-of-Africa model and fully supports his thesis. People who are interested in a different method of studying human history would enjoy this book. “Excavating” the history found in the human genome provides a fresh look at this area of study which “bones and stones” tend to make dreary and mysterious. Wells has successfully made genetic research understandable, and more accessible to those not entirely familiar with it. The Journey of Man is written in a down-to-earth tone that frequently borders on the informal. At times, I found his analogies about soup to be somewhat unhelpful and a bit condescending, and the visual aids could have been developed further or at least given to a professional artist to redesign.
Overall, I would recommend this book as an entry level text into the world of molecular anthropology. Since the book was written in 2002, there is likely material found therein that is outdated; a possibility readers should take into account. Evolutionists will find this to be a fairly straightforward treatise of the Out-of-Africa model as supported through genetics. Evolutionist proponents of multiregionalism may not enjoy this book as it provides strong evidence against this theory. Additionally, I would strongly encourage Creationist readers to take a deeper look at the material in this book as it lends some direct support to their worldview as well, even if it is not implicitly intended to.
The Journey of Man was written by Spencer Wells, a geneticist with a PhD in Biology from Harvard University. Wells wrote this book in conjunction with a documentary by the same title as part of the Genographic Project. The Genographic Project – headed by Wells and funded by National Geographic and IBM – is focused on mapping the geographic migration of mankind through history.
Wells states that The Journey of Man is a “detective story” following human migration out of Africa to all the corners of the world. The goals of the book are to test the validity of the concept of human race and then explain how humans came to occupy the globe. Wells is the director of the Genographic Project, and his mission is directly reflected by his book. It is evident that Wells is an adherent to the Out-of-Africa model and uses all his data to support it.
The Journey of Man is broken into nine easy to read chapters which make use of some helpful graphics and many analogies. Wells starts out by discussing the diversity and ultimate unity of mankind as one species. While Wells uses genetics to discuss human migration, he specifically focuses on Y-chromosomal DNA to trace the migration of mankind back through history to one man, Y-chromosomal Adam. By following Y-chromosomal DNA, Wells makes a case for the Out-of-Africa model and describes the waves of migrations as Homo sapiens sapiens spread from Africa into Asia and the Middle East, and then across the globe. He spends some time explaining how culture, politics, technology and language all played a role in the “big bang” of human history as mankind spread rapidly over the earth. The Journey of Man ends with the author lamenting the genetic mixing within the global melting pot, the loss of linguistic diversity and the urbanization of village culture. He views this globalization as creating a rapidly shrinking window of opportunity for geneticists to discover our history before it is lost forever. This is an interestingly pessimistic stance for a genetic researcher to take as he seems to lack confidence in new discovery. After all, one would not have to look very far into the past to find a time in which there was no hope that DNA analysis could be used to follow migration, let alone to study the fossil record.
The book’s major strength was the straightforward method Wells uses to follow the thread of human migration. Since he primarily discusses Y-chromosomal DNA, he enables the reader to become familiar with the topic and engage in the material. The linear way in which it is written also helps achieve reader familiarity. Wells could spend some more time developing the topics within the book since at times he waters down the material so much that it becomes difficult to take him seriously.
The weakest area of discourse in The Journey of Man is found early on in the text when Wells discusses the relative age of Y-Chromosomal Adam to mtDNA Eve. He states that Adam lived 59,000 years ago while Eve lived more than 80,000 years ago (54). Instead of expounding on this difference in dates, Wells passes this “fairly complicated” issue off as “probably the results of thousands of years of sexual politics,” and concluding that “Men simply lose their soup recopies quicker than women.” In other scholarly work, this difference in dating is often explained as a result of a genetic bottleneck due to some near extinction event. Wells is likely aware of this fact and may avoid the explanation because Creationists can point to it as evidence of the biblical Flood account.
Wells has a small section on language extinction and some very interesting things to say about the evolution of language over time. He briefly discusses the theory that all languages may have come from one original language and how linguistic anthropology can use this to track migration. More time could have been spent developing this a bit more, but the brevity can be forgiven because linguistics is not closely tied to his study of genetics.
The biggest problem I had with the book was more of a personal issue. Wells states in his preface that “this is not a book on human origins,” explaining that he is only concerned about historical migration. However Wells makes it abundantly clear that he is an evolutionist and within two words of the first chapter has discounted the creation account as a myth.
On the whole, Wells does a good job of laying out his evidence for the Out-of-Africa model and fully supports his thesis. People who are interested in a different method of studying human history would enjoy this book. “Excavating” the history found in the human genome provides a fresh look at this area of study which “bones and stones” tend to make dreary and mysterious. Wells has successfully made genetic research understandable, and more accessible to those not entirely familiar with it. The Journey of Man is written in a down-to-earth tone that frequently borders on the informal. At times, I found his analogies about soup to be somewhat unhelpful and a bit condescending, and the visual aids could have been developed further or at least given to a professional artist to redesign.
Overall, I would recommend this book as an entry level text into the world of molecular anthropology. Since the book was written in 2002, there is likely material found therein that is outdated; a possibility readers should take into account. Evolutionists will find this to be a fairly straightforward treatise of the Out-of-Africa model as supported through genetics. Evolutionist proponents of multiregionalism may not enjoy this book as it provides strong evidence against this theory. Additionally, I would strongly encourage Creationist readers to take a deeper look at the material in this book as it lends some direct support to their worldview as well, even if it is not implicitly intended to.
September 19, 2023
The PBS documentary of the same title should be required watching for every high-school student. I have shown it to my eighth-graders for years and it remains (in my admittedly humble opinion) one of the best documentaries ever made. This written journey was equally enthralling but was MUCH more scientific and academically written. A nice supplement to the film, Mr. Wells expands upon the concepts within the film, providing the science behind the culture. Highly recommended but dense and academic for the armchair scientist.
April 25, 2021
Генетична подорож людини Землею. Або шляхи розповсюдження людства. Ніколи не знав, що за допомогою ДНК можна відслідкувати наше поширення як виду.
Загалом спочатку важкувато без базових знань генетики розуміти думки автора( мітохондрії, хромосоми, поліморфізми, генетичні дрейфи і тд), але чимдалі слідкуєш за генетичними маркерами, тим більш стає цікаво та захопливо.
Автор охоплює питання націоналізму, раси, мови, а особливо цікаво це вплив культурних особливостей на на нашу історію та розповсюдження.
Ну і звісно, дати виникнення, «стрибків» розвитку та шляхи крізь наші континенти, якими наші далекі пращури колонізували всю планету до найдрібніших островів.
І як після таких досліджень можуть бути думки, що нас створили інопланетяни чи інша надлюдська сила, не знаю.
Загалом спочатку важкувато без базових знань генетики розуміти думки автора( мітохондрії, хромосоми, поліморфізми, генетичні дрейфи і тд), але чимдалі слідкуєш за генетичними маркерами, тим більш стає цікаво та захопливо.
Автор охоплює питання націоналізму, раси, мови, а особливо цікаво це вплив культурних особливостей на на нашу історію та розповсюдження.
Ну і звісно, дати виникнення, «стрибків» розвитку та шляхи крізь наші континенти, якими наші далекі пращури колонізували всю планету до найдрібніших островів.
І як після таких досліджень можуть бути думки, що нас створили інопланетяни чи інша надлюдська сила, не знаю.
October 12, 2020
"У нас усіх є африканська пра-пра-... прабабуся, яка жила приблизно 150 тис років тому"
Spencer Wells пояснює генетику настільки доступною мовою, що краще б я його читала у школі, замість картонного підручника із біології. Саме коли я вчила генетику у школі, вийшла ця книга у США. І ось 16 років потому її переклав КСД. І запізнився.
16 років у сфері досліджень ДНК та походження людини - це ціле життя. Ця книжка трошки застаріла, панове!? Веллз пише: "Сучасні європейці майже напевне не нащадки неандертальців", але ще й 10 днів не минуло, як я читала на Guardian новину від німецьких вчених: "Люди з генами неандертальців важче переносять коронавірус". Там же: "На сьогодні приблизно 16% європейців та близько половини жителів Південної Азії мають такі гени". Суть у тому, що ці гени звідкись у нас (людей розумних) є, але Веллз у 2002 році цього ще не знає. Так само із "Мітохондріальною Євою". У 2018 році було опубліковано дослідження про те, що мітохондріальна ДНК успадковується не тільки через жінок. І ще один сюрприз! У 2010 році прочитали геном так званої "денисівської людини", яка виявилася абсолютно новим видом вимерлих людей. Цей вид схрещувався і з неандертальцями, і з сучасними людьми, і з 4-тим видом вимерлих людей, яких ще не відкрили. З моменту виходу першодруку "Генетичної одіссеї" вчені зробили величезну кількість відкриттів у генетиці та антропології, але схоже, що українці приречені інформаційно відставати від світу на два десятка років.
Із цікавинок:
▪️ Чітке наукове пояснення: "Значення Y-хромосоми дуже переоцінюють" (цитуючи автора).
▪️ Бабусі стали кінцем неандертальців (як - у книжці)
▪️ 70% світових суспільств практикують "патрилокальність". Як результат - матеріальні цінності контролюють саме чоловіки.
▪️ Індоєвропейська мовна сім'я, яка налічує 140 різних мов, ймовірно виникла на північ від Чорного моря у південних степах України та Росії. Саме курганне плем'я (читай "скіфи") першими серед людей приручили коней, а також "рознесли" свою мову по всій Євразії (тим чи іншим способом).
▪️ 90% людей розмовляють сотнею найпоширеніших мов, хоча лінгвісти визнають існування 6000 мов. Половина із цих мов зникне до кінця століття. Тобто кожні два тижні зникає 1 мова!
Висновки: книжка цікава, але деякі аспекти вже застарілі та неактуальні. Наука крокує швидше, ніж українське книговидання.
Spencer Wells пояснює генетику настільки доступною мовою, що краще б я його читала у школі, замість картонного підручника із біології. Саме коли я вчила генетику у школі, вийшла ця книга у США. І ось 16 років потому її переклав КСД. І запізнився.
16 років у сфері досліджень ДНК та походження людини - це ціле життя. Ця книжка трошки застаріла, панове!? Веллз пише: "Сучасні європейці майже напевне не нащадки неандертальців", але ще й 10 днів не минуло, як я читала на Guardian новину від німецьких вчених: "Люди з генами неандертальців важче переносять коронавірус". Там же: "На сьогодні приблизно 16% європейців та близько половини жителів Південної Азії мають такі гени". Суть у тому, що ці гени звідкись у нас (людей розумних) є, але Веллз у 2002 році цього ще не знає. Так само із "Мітохондріальною Євою". У 2018 році було опубліковано дослідження про те, що мітохондріальна ДНК успадковується не тільки через жінок. І ще один сюрприз! У 2010 році прочитали геном так званої "денисівської людини", яка виявилася абсолютно новим видом вимерлих людей. Цей вид схрещувався і з неандертальцями, і з сучасними людьми, і з 4-тим видом вимерлих людей, яких ще не відкрили. З моменту виходу першодруку "Генетичної одіссеї" вчені зробили величезну кількість відкриттів у генетиці та антропології, але схоже, що українці приречені інформаційно відставати від світу на два десятка років.
Із цікавинок:
▪️ Чітке наукове пояснення: "Значення Y-хромосоми дуже переоцінюють" (цитуючи автора).
▪️ Бабусі стали кінцем неандертальців (як - у книжці)
▪️ 70% світових суспільств практикують "патрилокальність". Як результат - матеріальні цінності контролюють саме чоловіки.
▪️ Індоєвропейська мовна сім'я, яка налічує 140 різних мов, ймовірно виникла на північ від Чорного моря у південних степах України та Росії. Саме курганне плем'я (читай "скіфи") першими серед людей приручили коней, а також "рознесли" свою мову по всій Євразії (тим чи іншим способом).
▪️ 90% людей розмовляють сотнею найпоширеніших мов, хоча лінгвісти визнають існування 6000 мов. Половина із цих мов зникне до кінця століття. Тобто кожні два тижні зникає 1 мова!
Висновки: книжка цікава, але деякі аспекти вже застарілі та неактуальні. Наука крокує швидше, ніж українське книговидання.
March 28, 2009
Unlike most books which precede the movie, this one followed the PBS documentary made by Spencer Wells for National Geographic. That was a FABULOUS documentary. I expected the book to follow the documentary closely but provide more scientific details. The book is quite independent and it took me a while to figure this out and resulted in some disappointment. The book doesn't contain too much of the science of the Y-chrom genetics and it tends to jump around chronologically making following the story a bit difficult. It does have the most beautiful photographs however. I told this to the friend who lent me the book and they have now given me Deep Ancestry to read. This is Spencer Wells' second book and it is supposed to delve more into the science.
March 18, 2008
I interviewed Wells for an issue of The Alcalde, the University of Texas alumni magazine. He is a geneticist who, with his colleagues, has circled the globe taking blood samples and establishing that all humans descended from a single man, who lived about 60,000 years ago in east Africa. Completely fascinating subject matter and entertainingly written.
June 9, 2021
Пізнавальна книжка про те, як людство поширювалося планетою, з досить детальними, але не переускладненими поясненнями, як популяційні генетики досліджують історію нашого виду. Хоч інколи трохи плутаєшся у назвах генетичних маркерів, книга не складно читається.
Я прям багато нового дізналася, і хоча мені бракує експертизи, щоб оцінити, чи автор не наробив помилок чи перекручень, на мій некваліфікований розум книжка точно варта прочитання.
Я прям багато нового дізналася, і хоча мені бракує експертизи, щоб оцінити, чи автор не наробив помилок чи перекручень, на мій некваліфікований розум книжка точно варта прочитання.
September 20, 2020
A good summary of everything for people that need it dumbed down (like me)
January 29, 2012
Unfortunately The Journey of Man just isn't a very interesting read. Wells can't quite make up his mind whether he's writing a pop-science book or a university text, and it doesn't seem to me like it would satisfy either.
Occasionally it sparks into life, and the fascinating tale of humanity's journey from the Rift Valley to the four corners of the world really takes off. This is particularly so when Wells ties in the stories to his own wide experiences, such as his research in central Asia. It fails when this narrative drops into a school child's summer holiday recollection of genetic events; first M107 went to the Middle East then Y069 went along the coast to India then M25 went to China... yawn.
On top of all this, for a book that is marketed as pop-science, it often becomes a long list of technical incomprehensible terminology, like reading an engineers diary.
"...adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine always pairs with guanine..."
And then he reaches for the other extreme, and attempts to explain complex theories with banal and patronising sentences like this:
"Our rare mitochondrial cluster is given the name M - like the head of M16 in James Bond movies. In biblical terms, Eve begat L3 and L3 begat M."
Overall a disappointing, and surprisingly brief, read that at least had a few moments of brilliance. But Wells clearly isn't a writer, and it feels like his occasional forays into gripping prose are more by accident than design.
Occasionally it sparks into life, and the fascinating tale of humanity's journey from the Rift Valley to the four corners of the world really takes off. This is particularly so when Wells ties in the stories to his own wide experiences, such as his research in central Asia. It fails when this narrative drops into a school child's summer holiday recollection of genetic events; first M107 went to the Middle East then Y069 went along the coast to India then M25 went to China... yawn.
On top of all this, for a book that is marketed as pop-science, it often becomes a long list of technical incomprehensible terminology, like reading an engineers diary.
"...adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine always pairs with guanine..."
And then he reaches for the other extreme, and attempts to explain complex theories with banal and patronising sentences like this:
"Our rare mitochondrial cluster is given the name M - like the head of M16 in James Bond movies. In biblical terms, Eve begat L3 and L3 begat M."
Overall a disappointing, and surprisingly brief, read that at least had a few moments of brilliance. But Wells clearly isn't a writer, and it feels like his occasional forays into gripping prose are more by accident than design.
December 27, 2012
This is a book about mankind's greatest journey: the evolution of mankind and the spread of our species around the globe. The story is as much about the micro-geography of the odyssey, mitochondrial DNA and the y-chromosome, as about the historical and physical movements of bands of hunters and agriculturists who populated the world thousands of years ago.
We all know the end of the story -- where we are today -- the tales of how we got here is where the excitement lies.
Corroborating evidence for the biology comes from the study of our languages, their similarities and differences, and especially their evolution.
The book was written in 2002 and undoubtedly there will be much more written on the subject, but Spencer Wells, the author, presents us laypersons a clear and readable understanding of the subject matter, and a hunger for more data as it emerges.
We all know the end of the story -- where we are today -- the tales of how we got here is where the excitement lies.
Corroborating evidence for the biology comes from the study of our languages, their similarities and differences, and especially their evolution.
The book was written in 2002 and undoubtedly there will be much more written on the subject, but Spencer Wells, the author, presents us laypersons a clear and readable understanding of the subject matter, and a hunger for more data as it emerges.
February 8, 2014
Spencer Wells is an expert on genetics and its application toward tracing human migrations from the time we first journeyed out of Africa till we colonized the entire Earth. He brings to the task knowledge of his own research plus that of other geneticists. He couples this with the things anthropologists, linguists and other researchers can tell us to provide his readers the most accurate picture he can draw of where our ancestors came from, and how they got to the places they now inhabit. Perhaps the most amazing thing about his writing is that he manages to make such a complex study accessible to readers like me, who has no formal background as a historian, anthropologist or geneticists. It's not light reading, but if mankind's history and migrations interest you, it's a delight to read.
January 1, 2016
Genetic Odyssey is a well written book. Due to life I wasn't able to read this book in short time but every time I picked it back up my intrigue picked up where it left off. This book answers any questions the average person would have on the spread of humanity. My only jab at this book is on several occasion it simply reenlightens, which is no fault of the author. I debated whether this was a four or five star book but my small compliant isn't a serious flaw, because you will enjoy the way it reenlightens. Spencer Wells ability to explain and entertain is right up there with Edward O. Wilson.
If you are searching for your next captivating read visit my website, http://shamont97.wix.com/literaryworks. I am an author looking for an audience.
If you are searching for your next captivating read visit my website, http://shamont97.wix.com/literaryworks. I am an author looking for an audience.
November 27, 2017
This book needed more in the form of diagrams (quality as well as quantity). This also felt like another pop-science book written by a scientist who isn't also a "writer." Some of his analogies were laughably bad and misleading to the point where I feel like they confused more than clarified.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book, which is more a testament to my interest in the subject than the execution of the author. I knew a lot of the basics that were covered, but the details I didn't already know were fascinating.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book, which is more a testament to my interest in the subject than the execution of the author. I knew a lot of the basics that were covered, but the details I didn't already know were fascinating.
November 14, 2010
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 happen? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, & races. That's from the back of the book jacket. I should add that our "Eve" lived maybe 150,000 years ago. See THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE as one way to trace the female ancestry.
September 7, 2017
Fascinating and accessible read for anyone interested in early human migrations and prehistory. My one hesitation is that some details (like Neanderthal admixture) have been contradicted by more recent analysis since 2002 (confirmed by the author's later commentary). Overall, this is an excellent, clear, and succinct discussion of the topic, and I would definitely recommend it.
July 28, 2017
Really interesting examination of the Y-chromosome lineage, whose variances give a picture of human migration with finer resolution than that of mitochondrial DNA. Plenty of details and explanations without resorting to technical jargon.
February 6, 2018
Basic intro. Suffers from the expected bits of moralizing. Strongest in the discussion of M130 and coastal migration. This is better researched and written than similar books on the same topic. I wish he would have gone into depth on his specialty - Central Asia.
June 4, 2018
This rather small book called "A genetic odyssey" traces through DNA our ancestry back to Y-chromosome Adam and mitochondrial Eve in Africa 200,000 and 150,000 years ago. He then shows how these genes spread out of Africa to populate the world. For all the scientific data this book was a relatively easy read and interesting. I took it on vacation to northern Europe where part of my genetic heritage rests. "Body size increases with latitude...No tropical mammal would ever evolve the behavior of building up fat reserves to prepare for times of famine, but most temperate species do this as a matter of course." He is not necessarily referring to human mammals, although the ability to store fat is one of the features that allowed our species to survive in the northern climes. Although still visible in Americans, I didn't see any fat storing northern Europeans pedaling their bicycles everywhere.
"Over 70% of the world's societies practice something known as patrilocality. In this type of society, men control the wealth. When 2 people marry, the wife goes to live with her husband and assumes a new identity in her husband's clan. The European custom of a wife changing her name to that of her husband traces its origins to this type of patrilocal behavior." Interesting that many women today no longer change their names upon marriage so perhaps our society is starting to change away from the patrilocal customs. Of course also as this book shows change can take several generations.
"In Italy 150 years ago less than 10% of the population was estimated to have spoken Italian." "Before the 19th century, Europe was divided up into separate fiefdoms, kingdoms and duchies. Life was much more "local" than it is today." "As nationalism took hold in Europe, language was used in the newly unified states to create a sense of national identity. Governments sought cultural unity by favoring one language over the others." So my Italians that left Genoa in 1871 may not have actually spoken what we think of as Italian and in one generation in the streets of Chicago and later the small towns of the Midwest whatever language they did speak was lost to American English.
As someone who has traced genealogy back 400 years, this book takes me back from that to 200,000 years ago. I find it interesting that despite our different languages and appearances, genetically we are all related to that man and woman in Africa so long ago. As my Russian tour guide said, "We are all the same in so many ways."
"Over 70% of the world's societies practice something known as patrilocality. In this type of society, men control the wealth. When 2 people marry, the wife goes to live with her husband and assumes a new identity in her husband's clan. The European custom of a wife changing her name to that of her husband traces its origins to this type of patrilocal behavior." Interesting that many women today no longer change their names upon marriage so perhaps our society is starting to change away from the patrilocal customs. Of course also as this book shows change can take several generations.
"In Italy 150 years ago less than 10% of the population was estimated to have spoken Italian." "Before the 19th century, Europe was divided up into separate fiefdoms, kingdoms and duchies. Life was much more "local" than it is today." "As nationalism took hold in Europe, language was used in the newly unified states to create a sense of national identity. Governments sought cultural unity by favoring one language over the others." So my Italians that left Genoa in 1871 may not have actually spoken what we think of as Italian and in one generation in the streets of Chicago and later the small towns of the Midwest whatever language they did speak was lost to American English.
As someone who has traced genealogy back 400 years, this book takes me back from that to 200,000 years ago. I find it interesting that despite our different languages and appearances, genetically we are all related to that man and woman in Africa so long ago. As my Russian tour guide said, "We are all the same in so many ways."
October 12, 2021
Wells gets into a bit more detail than I needed, but that's OK in a scientific tract designed for the general reader. And this is a story I wanted to hear in more detail, having seen the like-titled film (with its amazing visuals) some years back. Other scientific achievements may be more sensational, the Mars landings for example, but the human genome project has unlocked the means to illuminate human prehistory more dramatically than by any previous means. By studying mutations in the Y chromosome and mitochondrial female chromosome, geneticists found human travel from Africa, and then from Asia, to the other continents was traceable. Old assumptions have been trashed, new findings have multiplied. An original "Adam" and "Eve" have been located geographically, and their direct descendents identified (the San people of Namibia). Even their language is arguably the oldest, and itself the source of every other on the planet. Wells and others have collated paleogenetic expertise with identified artifacts, relics, bones, etc. to identify not just prehistoric human migrations but the evolution of hunter-gatherers to agricultural settlements and organized, stratified societies. Evidence of the populating the Western hemisphere is amazing in and of itself. All respect to the scientific detectives who compiled this, the mega-story of mankind, and to Wells who explains it so accessibly. And as a scientist he freely admits there is more detection to be done.
May 11, 2021
A great book, but takes work to read. Using genetic markers on the Y- chromosome, Wells traces the movement of early male humans (hence, Journey of “Man”) around the globe. Explaining as simply as possible, Wells details how genetic characteristics in current human populations can be analyzed through their mutations to recreate the movements of past peoples. Despite his efforts, the explanation is not simple and I had to stop at the end of each section to summarize my understanding of what was being said. Hint: there is a geographic diagram near the end of the book that presents his case clearly if you want only the conclusions and not the argument/evidence. As no expert in the field of genetic anthropology, I found his case convincing, but now, some 19 years after publication, certainly incomplete. You will find no discussions of Denisovians — they had not yet been discovered. And Wells’s discussion of the correlation of the dispersal of genes and language pales before David Anthony’s monumental The Horse, the Wheel, and Language (2007). The fields of paleogenetics and paleoarcheology are moving so swiftly that it is difficult to understand current debates without going back to read books like this one that outline the debates of twenty years ago.
December 11, 2022
The edition of this book that I read was twenty years old and there may be newer revisions of the book that reflect recent discoveries, but even as old as it was, it was remarkable and a worthwhile read. Author Spencer Wells is a genetic scientist, an expert among those decoding the DNA of the human genome. Yet, his writing is clear and accessible to the layperson. He explains the statistical mathematics involved in plain terms accompanied by drawings showing how the chromosome lineages split.
The main purpose of the book is to explain the paths humans took to populate Earth over the last 50,000 years. Scientists are able to trace this because genetic changes in our chromosome in one group follows them as they move to another territory, but those markers do not exist in people going a different direction. I may not be explaining that well, but he explains it all quite clearly.
The book was also the basis of a PBS special which you can find on YouTube. I haven't watched that as of this writing, but I enjoyed the book.
The main purpose of the book is to explain the paths humans took to populate Earth over the last 50,000 years. Scientists are able to trace this because genetic changes in our chromosome in one group follows them as they move to another territory, but those markers do not exist in people going a different direction. I may not be explaining that well, but he explains it all quite clearly.
The book was also the basis of a PBS special which you can find on YouTube. I haven't watched that as of this writing, but I enjoyed the book.
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