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 HISTORY
AND GEOGRAPHY OF HUMAN GENES
L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza and his collaborators Paolo Menozzi and
Alberto Piazza have devoted fourteen years to one of the most compelling
scientific projects of our time: the reconstruction of where human
populations originated and the paths by which they spread throughout
the world. In this volume, the culmination of their research, the
authors explain their pathbreaking use of genetic data, which they
integrate with insights from geography, ecology, archaeology, physical
anthropology, and linguistics to create the first full-scale account
of human evolution as it occurred across all continents. This interdisciplinary
approach enables them to address a wide range of issues that continue
to incite debate: the timing of the first appearance of our species,
the problem of African origins and the significance of work recently
done on mitochondrial DNA and the popular notion of an "African
Eve," the controversy pertaining to the peopling of the Americas,
and the reason for the presence of non-Indo-European languages--Basque,
Finnish, and Hungarian--in Europe.
The authors reconstruct the history of our evolution by focusing
on genetic divergence among human groups. Using genetic information
accumulated over the last fifty years, they examined over 110 different
inherited traits, such as blood types, HLA factors, proteins, and
DNA markers, in over eighteen hundred, primarily aboriginal, populations.
By mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of the genes, the
scientists are now able to chart migrations and, in exploring genetic
distance, devise a clock by which to date evolutionary history:
the longer two populations are separated, the greater their genetic
difference should be. This volume highlights the authors' contributions
to genetic geography, particularly their technique for making geographic
maps of gene frequencies and their synthetic method of detecting
ancient migrations, as for example the migration of Neolithic farmers
from the Middle East toward Europe, West Asia, and North Africa.
Beginning with an explanation of their major sources of data and
concepts, the authors give an interdisciplinary account of human
evolution at the world level. Chapters are then devoted to evolution
on single continents and include analyses of genetic data and how
these data relate to geographic, ecological, archaeological, anthropological,
and linguistic information. Comprising a wide range of viewpoints,
a vast store of new and recent information on genetics, and a generous
supply of visual elements, including 522 geographic maps, this book
is a unique source of facts and a catalyst for further debate and
research.
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The
History and Geography of Human Genes
(Princeton University Press)
by L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza,
Paolo Menozzi, and Alberto Piazza
Winner of the 1994 R.R. Hawkins Award
Time magazine
Nothing less than the first genetic atlas of the world....
[This] landmark global study flattens The Bell Curve, proving
that racial differences are only skin deep.
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