Journey from Eden: The Peopling of Our World

by Brian M. Fagan

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Genres: Anthropology, History, Science, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Evolution

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Brian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Journey From Eden chronicles the migration of humankind from Africa that took place between 700,000 and 900,000 years ago. At that point the arrows of migration go in several directions. Two theories, the candelabra and Noah's Ark propose to describe next steps. The condelabra theory posits that homo erectus settled sporadically across Eurasia as early as 900,000 years ago and evolved separately into today's people. The Noah's Ark theory says that humans evolved in Africa first 150,000 to 100,000 years ago, then migrated into Eurasia and drove out or replaced groups that had evolved from earlier groups of homo erectus which had migrated and evolved separately there. The one thing all agreed on is one way or another we all come from Africa. Excellent book that provides much for archeologists to ponder and argue over.

[Regena · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice to review the state of hominid archaeology within a decade after I graduated. I think much of that thought STILL has not changed as of today, however, and I wonder that perhaps the trail of hominids into man has grown cold…. I did just see that million and a half year old teeth have now been found in Romania, or some such Eastern European country. I wonder if we will ever make any more advancements in this field….

[Russell Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a detailed, but not too difficult tome to follow.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is now 30 years old, but, upon re-reading, I found that it still serves as a very good general introduction to human evolution and dispersal from Africa that I would recommend over more recent volumes. It’s also a physically beautiful book, with great illustrations and maps. The focus is primarily on the emergence of truly modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens), not on earlier hominids. Fagan discusses the competing evolutionary theories: “Noah’s Ark” (emergence of modern humans in Africa and dispersal to the rest of the world at a relatively late date) and “Candelabra” (emergence of modern humans from ancestral hominids throughout the world over hundreds of thousands of years). Fagan correctly deduced that the evidence favoured the “Noah’s Ark” theory, and more evidence for this has accumulated since this book was written, so most of Fagan’s conclusions remain generally correct.

Of course, some specifics have changed - we now think that the first North Americans came from Asia travelling down the Pacific Coast, several thousand years before an ice-free corridor in the interior of North America opened, DNA analysis has provided a lot more information, including proof of the interbreeding of Neanderthals and modern humans, and there have been a few completely unexpected surprises, notably the discovery of other human species such as the Denisovans and the “Hobbit” (Homo floresiensis). So supplement with some Wikipedia research, but you will still learn a lot from this one.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published 20 years ago, so some of the details may be outdated, but gives a clear overview of the then current theories of how modern humans spread all over the world and the types of evidence that are used to support/test those theories.

[Eric Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book...i highly recommend this.

[Courtney Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a tough read (kind of like an anthropology textbook) but, really interesting!