Genes, Peoples, and Languages

by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Mark Seielstad (Translator)

Historians relying on written records can tell us nothing about the 99.9 per cent of human evolution which preceded the invention of writing. It is the study of genetic variation, backed up by language and archaeology, which provides concrete evidence about the spread of farming, the movements of peoples across the globe, the precise links between races - and the sheer unscientific absurdity of racism. "Genes, Peoples and Languages" offers an astonishing investigation into the past 100,000 years of human history and a rare, firsthand account of some of the most significant and gripping scientific work of recent years. Cavalli-Sforza is one of the great founding fathers of archaeogenetics, and in this book he maps out some of its grand themes.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Anthropology, Evolution, Language, Linguistics

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was an Italian population geneticist born in Genoa who has been a professor at Stanford University since 1970.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been meaning to read this for a while — even before coming across it in Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct — because genes and languages are two interests of mine. I’m not much for statistics and I found it difficult to follow some of the analyses of the data in this book, but fortunately, Cavalli-Sforza and his translator managed to put the conclusions across quite clearly. I’m surprised to see opposition to the idea that the spread of genes and languages can be mapped onto each other fairly closely, with some exceptions; Darwin predicted it, and according to the data here, it’s fairly clear.

I think the book might’ve benefited from a tighter focus, all the same; it seemed like the language chapter/s went off on a tangent somewhat. Still very interesting, and no doubt out of date by now — my edition says 2001 — so I really should look for more up to date stuff.

Originally posted here.

[صالحة حسن · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب دسم جداً وقيّم .. وهو على الجانب الآخر علمي بحت يستلزم
خلفية علمية جيدة قبل الشروع بالقراءة مما يعني
أن البعض قد يواجه صعوبات تتعلق بماهية التوزيع الجيني وتنوعات الكروموسومات وما يتعلق بها التي
يربطها لويجي كافللي بشكل مباشر بموضوع تطور الشعوب عرقيا وثقافياً
يظهر ذلك جليا في فصل اللغة إذ قدمه كافللي استناداً على التوزيع الجيني للأفراد المتنقلة من قارة إلى أخرى وكيفية ارتباط العشائر بعضها ببعض جغرافيا وأحيائيا من حيث تشابه اللغات وتقاربها أو تباعدها .

الحديث في أول الكتاب عن فرضية السلالات النقية مهم كذلك والتي خرج
منها لويجي باستنتاج استحالتها جينيا لما يعنيه ذلك من تكاثر وتعاقب أجيال لا يخرج عن نطاق
الأسرة الواحدة ..الأمر يحمل نتائجاً كارثية على المستوى الحيوي العلمي ( تشوهات .. طفرات جينية غير حميدة وماشابهها) .

يختم كافللي الفصول جميعها بأن التطور الجيني الذي بدأ من انسان النيانتردال و حتى الانسان المعاصر (نحن) يوشك على التوقف .. ويرجح أنه لا وجود لسلاسات بشرية متطورة جديدة على المستوى العقلي الحيوي والجيني ككل

المثير نوعا ما أن كافللي يرى في ذلك أيضا قربا لإندثار التمييز العنصري بين الأعراق
نتيجة لتداخلها وتوقف الإنعزال الجغرافي البيئي والثقافي الذي نتجت عنه الفئات المتمايزة من البشر على مر السنين


الترجمة لا غبار عليها إلا في بعض المصطلحات .. ويمكنكم العودة للصفحات الأخيرة
هناك ترجمة خاصة بالمصطلحات من العربية لللأجنبية .. الدي ان ايه على سبيل المثال كانت ترجمتها "دنا"
نقل حرفي .. فهمته بالعودة للصفحات الأخيرة .



خارج السياق : بغض النظر عن طبيعة القائمين على مشروع مكتبة الأسرة المصري وعلى الرغم من أن الأوضاع
قد لا تكون مناسبة الآن إلا أني أتمنى فعلا أن لا يتوقف لما يقدمه من روافد ثقافية مميزة كما أراها بعد الاطلاع على عدد منها مؤخرا .

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating foray into population genetics, bristling with excitement about what we've learned from new advances in genome sequencing. Cavalli-Sforza, a geneticist, provides a good view of how the science is actually conducted, constructing a thorough survey of population migration and human evolution. The author asks plenty of questions of general interest, doing his best to tackle them in an inter-disciplinary fashion: what do people mean when they talk about "races?" Does it hold up to careful genetic analysis? (no) When and how did human beings arrive in Europe, or Asia for that matter?

Cavalli-Sforza moves on to examining language and culture, and it is here that he gives me pause. For example, though there is not a consensus in linguistics about the connection between language families such as Indo-European and Uralic (or Na-Dene, Caucasian, and the pre-PIE substrate in Europe, for that matter), C-S presents some of these hypotheses as accomplished fact. On the plus side, he is careful to think about how these claims can be tested in light of actual genetic evidence.

The last section is extremely valuable, and I get the sense that the author is looking a few steps ahead, and asking questions about human evolution with the sort of rigor that genetics might give us the answers.

[Ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is very redundant. It can be pretty much condensed down to two main ideas: genetic variation has been used to fairly accurately track patterns of human migration, and this data correlates very closely with linguistic studies that have led to models of human migration. The ideas themselves are kind of interesting, I'll agree, but the book is redundant to the point it drones on and any novelty is totally diminished by the lackluster presentation.

I know that my general genetics students would have trouble understanding the concepts discussed, so I wouldn't say it's science explained at the level of the general populace. Yet for me, a PhD candidate in cell biology, it's way too basic and I found myself skimming 2-3 pages worth of explanations at many parts of each chapter. So, I'm not really sure what sort of audience the author is writing to.

I'd recommend the first half of the book to anyone interested in learning about the scientific methods used to determine genetic differences between populations and for a primer in population genetics. The second half is so repetitive that it's not really worth reading much of to understand the general message and ideas presented. I found myself often wondering, "Didn't I just read this 5 pages ago?"

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book, very informative in terms of the genetics side of things. However, perhaps he should have stuck to genetic evolution and not gone off into territory he knows little about (linguistics). As a linguist, I can say that the majority of what he says about linguistics and even the linguistic work he relies upon range from the very controversial to the totally dated and completely debunked. Greenberg's crazy mega-language families for instance are an utter, utter sham, and no one in linguistics has taken them seriously for decades. He makes some valid points about the relationship between genetic evolution and linguistic evolution, and his discussion of where parallels can be drawn and where they can't is useful, but not enough to make up for his problematic treatment of everything to do with languages and linguistic evolution.

[Sergio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro es interesante. De todas formas, tenía más expectativas cuando lo leí, así que por eso lo evalúo con unas escuetas tres estrellas. Recomiendo que, antes de leerlo, se aprendan ciertas cosas de biología (monocigotos, héterocigotos por ejemplo) de las cuales yo soy muy ignorante. El tema es muy interesante.

[Katya Epstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book frustrating. It's a translation (I even read somewhere that it's a translation of a translation, which is never a good idea), and it's not a good one. I don't read Italian well enough to read the original, so I can't say how many of the problems are the author's fault, but if they were, the translator should have fixed many of them.

The book is on a very complex topic. Understanding this kind of material takes the cooperation of a very skilled writer and a motivated reader. But this book does not reward the motivated reader. It makes sense that with such challenging material, a reader might expect to have to go back and re-read a paragraph now and then. But in this case it's a waste of time. The writing is so poorly structured that in fact the missing information is not discernable from the text: It's full of missing or ambiguous antecedents and even outright contradictions. (The translator is a geneticist, and perhaps not a professional translator, so I suspect that since he already understood the material, he did not see the ambiguities in his own writing.) On top of that, the writing is stilted and jarring: It doesn't flow, and it's certainly not a pleasure to read. As far as I can tell, the book is a compilation/adaptation of previous articles and speeches, and it feels like nothing more than a list of paragraphs. Segues are almost non-existant. The story doesn't go anywhere.

This is frustrating, because the topic is a fascinating one. But after having read this book, I don't feel that I know any more than I did after reading Steven Pinker's 10-page synopsis of Cavalli-Sforza's work in The Language Instinct: a distinctly more rewarding book.

[Mohamad Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

الغاز الجينات وقد صارت كتابا يقرأ وتاريخ كامل للبشريه اصبح من الممكن جمع اجزائه وفهم متناقضاته
و موطن اوائل البشر على الارض والى اين انتقلوا ولماذا
متى تكلموا وعملوا وكيف عرفوا الزراعه وكيف انتشرت قديما
بدايه كل معارف البشر بل بدايه كل شئ
من حواء الافريقيه الى اسيا واوربا ثم الامريكيتين
وكيف تطورت جينات البشر عبر الاف السنين لنصل لهذا التنوع الوراثى الضخم
وفى هذا ضحدا بالعلم لكل مزاعم العنصريه والقوميه
ثم بابا عن اشجار لغات العالم وعلاقتها ببعضها البعض واصل كل منها
اجمالا الاسلوب علمى رصين الا انه يكثر الشرح والتفصيل احيانا
كما يكثر بين صفحاته النظريات وطرق اثباتها ما خفف الماده العلميه وجعلها صعبه الاستخلاص

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4/5

[Catherine LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked it. i felt like the book kind of jumped around a bit but i was fine with it. i’m taking off a star just because it was published in 2001 so a lot of the information is outdated at this point.

[Soobie is expired · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ci sono arrivata grazie a Introduzione alla cultura coreana: Aspetti linguistici, storici e religiosi del Paese del Calmo Mattino. L'ho richiesto in biblio e ci ho messo mesi a leggerlo. La bibliotecaria mi aspetta con la frusta!

Interessante ma un po' complicato a volte. E poi tendeva a ripetere un po' le stesse cose in tutti i capitoli. Gli ultimi due capitoli sono quelli - per me - più interessanti perché trattano dell'evoluzione delle lingue.

Funziona anche come manuale contro il razzismo visto che il punto focale del libro è che non esistono razze e che ci sono più differenze dal punto di vista genico tra due friulani, che tra un friulano e un papuano.

Quando si prepara un lavoro destinato a comparire su riviste scientifiche specializzate, si sa esattamente quali affermazioni non possono essere espresse al futuro nella loro totalità - in pratica, quasi tutte. Al pubblico questo può apparire strano: la scienza non dovrebbe dare certezze? In realtà, solo la religione può darne, a chi l'accetti. Il fatto che ogni religione offra certezze diverse è forse preoccupante, ma sembra che i credenti non ne siano turbati. Lo stesso vale per certe convinzioni politiche; in altre parole, la certezza viene solamente dalla fede, con un'unica eccezione: la matematica, di cui bisogna notare, comunque, che vi riesce anche perché è largamente tautologica.

Eh, eh, eh...

Ma vi sono anche molti altri motivi per diventare razzisti. Uno di essi, probabilmente molto importante, è il desiderio di scaricare su qualcuno il proprio malcontento. Non è un segreto che l'alienazione sia causa di irritazioni molto profonde, nella società moderna, e di vera rabbia. Ciò che può derivare dall'essere costretti a fare un lavoro disumanizzante, dal terrore della disoccupazione, dalla realtà della povertà e dell'ingiustizia, dal senso di impotenza che ne deriva, dall'osservazione spesso invidiosa delle ricchezze incredibili di un numero ristretto di individui. Quale che sia la fonte della rabbia, ne saranno quasi sempre le vittime le persone di livello sociale inferiore; sono le sole che non possono reagire efficacemente. Basta un senso di superiorità relativa per generare disprezzo verso quelli che pensiamo essere più in basso di noi sulla scala sociale, e il disprezzo sarà spesso più forte da parte di quelli che si credono, a torto o a ragione, disprezzati dalle classi superiori. Effettivamente, sembra che non ci siano poveri così poveri che non possano ricavare qualche soddisfazione nel prendersi la rivincita su quelli ancora più poveri di loro.

E l'ha scritto nel 1996...

Vivo in California da 25 anni, ma devo sforzarmi per ricordare che, qui, l'insegnamento della teoria dell'evoluzione non è libero. L'informatica avanza a grande velocità, si costruiscono gli aerei più sofisticati del mondo, ma una grande fetta della popolazione impara ancora la storia dell'umanità sulla base di un'interpretazione letterale della Bibbia. I movimenti religioni fondamentalisti sono molto forti e vorrebbero abolire l'insegnamento dell'evoluzionismo; non potendolo fare, cercano di limitarlo e chiedono che, come minimo, si presenti anche la loro verità, la creazione, e le si dedichi la medesima quantità di tempo. Per molti americani, il mondo è stato creato nell'anno 4004 prima di Cristo; per queste stesso persone il nostro lavoro è evidentemente assurdo e con ogni probabilità blasfemo.

La fede religiosa può rendere l'uomo capace di qualsiasi sacrificio, compreso quello della vita e delle proprie idee. La probabilità di convertire alla teoria dell'evoluzione un credente fondamentalista mi sembra troppo piccola perché valga la pena di dedicarvi uno sforzo, almeno in questa sede.

Potrei addirittura comprarlo per me.

[Silvia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Protagonista principale è la genetica (materia di studio di Cavalli-Sforza), accompagnata dall’archeologia e dalla linguistica. Viene analizzato il fenomeno dell’evoluzione, e in particolare le cause che hanno portato alla separazione tra popoli e la creazione di culture diverse. L’autore descrive molto dettagliatamente i metodi utilizzati nello studio dei geni, come per esempio l’analisi del DNA mitocondriale o dei polimorfismi, e il modo in cui questi servono poi per datare eventi importanti. Vengono inoltre toccati temi di carattere più generale, come il razzismo, analizzato sempre dal punto di vista genetico.
Quest’opera fornisce una buona visione del lavoro del genetista e di che cosa consiste. I processi sono analizzati nei minimi dettagli, e lo stesso vale per le statistiche e i dati presentati. Ho trovato molto interessante il capitolo sulla lingua: non pensavo che qualcosa di così imprevedibile come lo sviluppo e l’evoluzione del linguaggio potesse essere utilizzato, applicandovi la statistica, per calcolare, per esempio, quanti anni fa due popoli si siano separati. Anche il primo capitolo, focalizzato invece sul razzismo, mi ha colpito: lo scopo di Cavalli-Sforza era quello di mostrare l’inesistenza di basi scientifiche che potessero anche minimamente giustificarlo, e, a mio parere, ci è riuscito appieno.
Nonostante ciò, non ho particolarmente gradito il libro. Cavalli-Sforza è, di mestiere, un genetista, e non uno scrittore, ed è comprensibile che per qualcuno che conosce bene una data materia sia complicato spiegarla a chi invece ne sa veramente poco. Ho trovato diversi passaggi troppo dispersivi e ripetitivi, mentre altri decisamente poco approfonditi. Più volte ho dovuto fermare la lettura per cercare concetti che non erano esaustivamente spiegati, e devo ammettere che verso la fine avevo completamente perso la voglia di leggere. Non mi sento però di dover dare troppa importanza a queste mie difficoltà in quanto non credo che questo saggio fosse destinato a studenti delle superiori o, più in generale, a un pubblico non specializzato.
In conclusione, credo che questo sia un ottimo saggio, sebbene lo consigli a lettori estremamente motivati o molto interessati nella genetica.

[Ira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popularising scientific research is as necessary as jumping across the disciplinary fences erected between natural and human sciences, if we wish to keep some stake in and knowledge of scientific development rather than leave it in the fat hands of corporate powers and their security forces and border controls. The book is an attempt at doing both things, and manages up to a point: one feels that not enough is said about languages, and that the conflation of culture with language for the purpose of mapping sounds too much like a methodological shortcut. But the book is open about its limits, in a rather Popperian way, and perhaps this willingness to expose its own vulnerabilities and welcome, if not direct, criticisms adds to its charm as a work of science in progress and makes one much less cynical about the expertisation and incommunicability of scientific knowledge.

[Pabsyalgomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is by 2020 quite outdated in its scientific part, but it's main message stands correct. We have now increased our knowledge about the genome exponentially, and the role of social media and internet was probably not in mind in 2000.
Some people said, correctly, that the book is repetitive. But I think because it was conceived as well as a book in which you could read the chapters independently, and so you would get the message despite you skipping some parts. And actually, that might be a good thing of you intend to read the book end to end but are not interested in the statistics behind it, for example, which take a good part of some chapters.
It is a very enjoyable read overall, and the genetics and linguistics in it are fascinating.

[Michael Boerm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mapping the original spread of language around the world via genetics. Fascinating read.

[Yellowish]

كتاب علمي معقد نوعًا ما، يحتاج شخص ملم بعلم الوراثة ليستوعب جميع المعلومات.

[Sally Jamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mapped stories constructing a fascinating hypothesis of the recent 150,000 of human expansion, migration and human diversity formation by a linguist and geneticist Cavalli-Sforza.

[Hadeel S. Rasheed · Rating 3 out of 5]

معقد و لا يعطي نتائج واضحة للابحاث.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

They say that translations are like women - they are either beautiful or faithful. Unfortunately, the translation of the original book written by Cavalli-Sforza turned out to be faithful. The word order seemed a bit exotic in many places. Also, some sentences lacked a few "the"'s, while others had too many of them.

I have a feeling this book was written by two different people. Most content was boring, repetitive and redundant and then suddenly the plot thickened and I got hit over the head with some interesting facts I was unaware of previously.

I found two factual errors:
- the writer comments on Svante Paabo's work with ancient DNA, yet he claims that human genome does not contain any traces of Neanderthal DNA,
- the writer insists that IQ is dependent mostly on social and environmental factors, while it is widely known that IQ is mostly hereditary.

[Davide Rodorigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cavalli-Sforza ha avuto per primo la straordinaria intuizione di intersecare genetica, linguistica e archeologia per studiare la storia delle migrazioni umane e la distribuzione dei caratteri antropologici; in questo libro riassume in modo divulgativo i suoi traguardi scientifici: alcune teorie risultano datate e sono state superate da studi più recenti ma l’approccio e i principi generali sono validissimi e stimolanti; la scrittura di Cavalli-Sforza è rigorosa senza perdere il guizzo italiano per le piccole divagazioni, sempre chiara e ricca di accenti ironici e di riferimenti tratti dalla sua ampia cultura; particolarmente interessante la parte sulla genetica e sulle lingue con le costruzioni degli alberi, più speculativa l’ultima parte sulla trasmissione culturale; in questa avrebbe scritto parecchio sui social se lo avesse potuto scrivere oggi

[David Arch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cavalier-Sforza was a genetic anthropologist using a number of proteins, or chemical markers(prior to the many subsequent DNA techniques developed in the late 1990s and 2000s), to trace the migration of humans across the planet. Using blood types, antibodies, etc. (all genetic data) he and his research group provides convincing data showing homo-sapient migration out of Africa (the exact date was, at the time, thought to be approximately 110,000 years ago), the settling of Europe from the east and the slow migration through Asia to America. This book is a layman’s version of his Hisory and Geography of the Human Gene. Fascinating

[Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entendiendo el contexto en el que fue publicado (los años 90) se trata de un libro con hipótesis muy innovadoras, arriesgadas y bastante rigurosas. No me extraña que alguna de ellas haya sobrevivido hasta nuestros días, como la de la Eva mitocondrial.
Sin duda un libro muy recomendable que te muestra algunos de los métodos usados en genética aplicados a otros campos, como la evolución lingüística o cultural. Además , introduce algunos conceptos teóricos muy importantes para comprender las hipótesis, y expone la amplitud de rango de aplicaciones de éstos, de manera que personas no cursadas en genómica (como yo) puedan hacerse a la idea de para qué pueden ser útiles dichos métodos.

[Clifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's probably unfair to give the book only three stars because the problem really is that I'm not equipped with the understanding of genetics to really follow what I was reading. I am very interested in the migration of people from our mutual place of origin but I'm more interested in the evolution of languages, which is the real reason I got this book. And the book's last two chapters, which deal with language and cultural evolution, I will probably re-read.

[Natasha Galkina · Rating 4 out of 5]

В целом я довольна. Благодаря знакомству с темой чтение не заняло много времени и дополнило некоторыми деталями уже имеющиеся знания.
У меня было издание 1996 года (здесь в отзывах пишут что это очень давно и книга нуждается в правках), но мне абсолютно нормально. Было интересно прочитать про африканскую Еву, где какие зерновые культуры проросостали, про удачливость как эволюционный фактор и многое другое.

[Francesco Bianco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un eccezionale manifesto contro il razzismo, fondato su implacabili dati scientifici e sostenuto da una prosa posata e razionale.
Straordinarie la vastità e la varietà della cultura dell'autore, il cui lavoro coniuga dati e competenze attinte a discipline diverse: genetica (ovviamente), linguistica, antropologia, sociologia, psicologia sociale, storia.
Un esempio di cosa siano la ricerca scientifica, la passione per la conoscenza, la curiosità intellettuale.

[Zoe Carney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with how to rate this. I'm not a geneticist, but I found the early chapters about Cavalli-Sforza's work interesting and accessibly-written.

By the midpoint, however, I was finding it repetitive, and I was looking forward to the final chapters, which promised to tie the genetic research to linguistics, something I do know quite a lot about, albeit not to a high level.

Unfortunately, this was where it went downhill. The theory of linguistic history he latched onto could charitably be described as 'disputed', and I really wish he'd co-written this section with some actual linguists rather than simply picking the theory he liked best and duct-taping it onto his own. The conclusion saved it somewhat, but it left me wondering if everything that had gone before was similarly out there. Judging by the glowing reviews from people who do know about genetics, I assume it's not, and that he was well-respected in his field.

Overall, a book of two halves. I'm glad I finally read it, but I think I need to seek out something more up to date and ideally more genuinely interdisciplinary.

[Jam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was published 20+ years ago and there’s probably newer research established on our genetic and linguistic origins. Nonetheless, I still liked the interdisciplinary approach in trying to explain how all races (at least until a certain point) are connected.

Hence, no “master race” but it’s only a matter of how much genetic distance and divergence were introduced across generations.

[Juan Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luego de leer Las Hijas de Eva (Bryan Sykes), no se puede meno que sentir curiosidad por leer este libro. La lectura no resulto lo interesante que esperaba, el tratamiento es serio, pero le falta algo de "chispa", quizás para un lector como yo Las Hijas de Eva ya saturan el tema. El tema del lenguaje me parece que hasta Marshall McLuhan lo trata mejor.

[Rati Shubladze · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had great expectations before reading the book. A bit outdated, with several interesting references and facts, albeit too overburden with professional jargon and nuances. On the Carl Sagan scale of popular science fiction (just invented by me) 4 stars out of 7.

[Logan Streondj · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting analysis of some genetic data, corroborated with linguistic and archeological data. While certainly quite dated now, we know a lot more since the publishing. It was still an entertaining read with some cute theories about inheretance and things like that.