Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins (Paperback)

by Steve Olson (Author) "THE PAST AUTUMN has been the rainiest season in southern Africa in more than a century, and the scrublands of northeastern Botswana are bursting with..." (more)
Key Phrases: five other researchers, mitochondrial lineages, archaic humans, Middle East, Native Americans, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Thanks to recent discoveries in genetics, explains science journalist Olson, we're learning about human history before any history was written down.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
"An instructive overview of human history." -- Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618352104
• ISBN-13: 978-0618352104
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #89,580 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #25 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Anthropology > Physical
  #85 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Genetics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Should be a 20-page paper instead, January 13, 2005

By	Derek Law (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As mentioned by many reviewers, this book has a lot of preaching about the invalidity of the concept of races.

What interests me to the book was the title "Mapping Human History". 10% of this book content is in this area, and if those content are condensed into a short paper, it'd make really good reading.

The whole book is a quick read. The key "mapping" can be summarized as follows:
1. "Out of Africa" hypothesis (sole source of modern homo sapiens is from Africa) is affirmed by genetic research.
2. First wave out of Africa (~65,000 years ago) is by sea along Arabian peninsula to Indian Ocean which has two streams afterwards, one earlier stream down Oceania and a later stream up East Asia.
3. "Mongoloid" characteristics are formed relatively late (~20,000 years ago? I don't recall anymore)
4. Second wave is through Sinai peninsula by land ~45,000 years ago and completely displaced Neaderthals in Middle East & Europe by around ~30,000 years ago
5. First wave and second wave met in (north) Central Asia from different directions
6. Primarily the East Asia stream entered the Americas ~15,000 years ago (but could be earlier), though some genes from the ME/Europe stream have also entered (because of 5.)
7. All these really happenned before the invention of agriculture (and culture). Agriculture (and potentially other key technologies such as use of iron) privileges the groups who are the first to under-go population explosion. A lot of racial mixing especially on the fringes afterwards. This is where Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" picked up.

If you're just interested in the mapping, you don't need to buy the book-- save it for something else.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unfulfilled Promise, May 22, 2002

By	J.C. Hall "jcharleshall" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes (Hardcover)

Mr Olson's book starts out extremely well, but sags after a few chapters. The initial segments on mitonchondrial DNA and our genetics is probably the most readable and understandable treatment that I have seen. About halfway through the book, however, Olson stops trying to trace human migration and development. His emphasis becomes avoiding rascism. At this point, the history and science dwindles away and the emphasis becomes how intermixed our gene pools are. It was almost as if his underlying motivation was a desire to use science to prove a political position. It became rather pedantic at this point. I was very disappointed after the strong start that the book made.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does for Paleoanthropology what Greene did for String Theory, June 19, 2005

By	J. Davenport "author of *Will as Commmitment ... (Maplewood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an excellent book, which I would highly recommend using in parts (or the whole) for introductory level college classes. What is so helpful about it is the way that it brings together the last 50 years of research in paleoanthropology, paleobiology, genetics, and related fields to explain the convergence towards a very wide-spread consensus about the primordial history of our species. The book puts in clear context the snippets that many people have read about 'mitochondrial Eve' and 'Y-chromosome Adam.' Few laypeople realize that there is now such a strong consensus in the scientific community that all contemporary human beings are descended from the same small group of primordial human beings in central East Africa some 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. But this finding, and the related explanations of superficial differences between the "races," is of enormous cultural and political importance. It is as important in anthropology as the discovery of the big bang was in cosmology. It ought to be taught in all our schools. Moreover, while the detailed examples added in the various chapters may be considered 'padding' by some scientific readers, they are very helpful in bringing the ideas alive for non-expert readers. The text is highly accessible and quite gripping -- perfectly usable for college or even high school audiences.