![]({"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517%2Bf1dP%2BNL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[325,499],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517%2Bf1dP%2BNL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[226,346]})
This review is on the book, "The 10,000 Year Explosion" and the authors are Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. Their book presents an important and revolutionary idea about humanity, namely that we are currently evolving at a pace faster than we can imagine. This idea is in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom that human evolution has ground to a halt. For example, evolutionary biologist, Stephan Jay Gould, wrote that there has been no change in humans in the last 40,000 or 50,000 years.
The book's title suggests that the book focuses on the period of time about 10,000 years ago and that is correct. However before going there, the authors address an earlier period and present their startling take on why it happened. The period is around 30-40,000 years ago and is often referred to as the Great Leap Forward. There was an extraordinary change in human behavior during this period. Innovation for the first time had suddenly become part of very human activity. One example is a proliferation of polychromatic cave art depicting animals, which to us are now long extinct. Other examples are: sculptures (fertility goddesses), music instruments ( bone flutes), jewelry, and improved tools and weapons. The authors believe that the spark for this creative surge may have been the secondary result of an injection of new and different genes into our genome. Those new genes came from interbreeding with Neanderthals. The fact that interbreeding occurred is argued for by the authors, but it is not clear to me that they were aware that Paabo Svante had concurrent to their book, developed procedures for restoring ancient DNA and had decoded nuclear Neanderthal DNA. He proved interbreeding to be true.
The authors then turn their attention to the period 10,000 years ago when humans invented agriculture, which gradually displaced the hunter-gatherer way of life throughout much of the world. Agriculture was a mixed blessing for these early farmers. It made a huge difference in the availability of food, but that benefit came at a heavy price. Unlike the healthy diet of the hunter-gatherer, early farm crops were inadequate in nourishment. Stated more precisely, human bodies had not yet adapted to these new foods. Moreover, disease became a stressor for the farming communities. Human and animal waste made its way into drinking water and living in close proximity to domesticated animals allowed animal diseases to crossover to humans. As agriculture allowed for larger populations and the idea spread throughout the world, it left fossil evidence that humans had become far less healthy compared to hunter-gatherer cultures. When a species is confronted by life-or-death stressors, superior genes are passed forward into future generations whereas inferior genes are eliminated. In other words, the strong live and have offspring whereas the weak die and do not. Favorable mutations allow for genetic adaptations to be made. Just consider how superior our immune systems are compared to the Indians of both North and South America to Europeans diseases like measles, whooping cough, mumps, etc. They are non-fatal childhood diseases to us, whereas they were exterminating diseases to the Amerindians. Perhaps ninety percent of the Amerindians were killed by such diseases. The earliest farmers in the Fertile Crescent were in the vulnerable condition as the Amerindians until generations of evolutionary adaptation produced protection.
The authors made an argument that I found to be breathtaking; namely that evolutionary change is accelerated by a larger population size. Mutations are the change agents in evolution, but mutations are extremely rare. Either a mistake is made in the sexual reproduction process or cosmic rays change the code of a nucleotide. However as population size increases, the occurrence of mutations increases too. The agricultural revolution increased food production and allowed the population to rapidly expand. Since then, innovation after innovation has accelerated the control humans have over their lives. Today the world population is at 7.4 billion people. The number of favorable mutations occurring worldwide must be mind-boggling. Many of these genetic changes affect mental capability. The more useful the genetic change is, the faster it will spread through the population. It appears that we have not stopped evolving, we are evolving faster and faster.
Ralph D. Hermansen, March 27, 2016
- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; Reprint edition (October 19, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0465020429
- ISBN-13: 978-0465020423
- Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 169 customer reviews
-
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#157,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in Primatology
- #146 in Molecular Biology (Books)
- #178 in Scientific Research
Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?
