Rating: 
Summary: Required Reading
Review:
This is one book that I think everyone should read. What eye opening insights it provides into our human ancestry. As rapidly as scientific knowledge is expanding today the race to keep abreast of what we think we know about ourselves and our civilization is an ongoing battle. I'll admit that I was astonished to learn that all living humans today can be traced back to a single African female (circa 200,000 years ago) and a single African male (circa 60,000 years ago). After all, none of this was ever taught to me in high school or college. But I was more fascinated to learn how recently science has been able to utilize mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome to create the roadmap back to these origins. And I was equally fascinated by Spencer Wells' explanation as to how man subsequently migrated out of Africa, populated our known world and evolved into today's distinct cultures.
How accurate is The Journey of Man? I couldn't say since I am neither schooled in the study of genetics nor scientifically inclined. But I can appreciate that Spencer Wells wrote this book in a manner that is easily understandable to the layperson like me. And in doing so, he stimulated my interest and made me want to read more about this subject. And any book that has this effect has to rate 5-stars.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: ... The book gives recent solutions to the problems of the origins of mankind--where, when, and how. I couldn't stop reading. I set aside what I was supposed to do to finish the book in two days. The book really locks the ancient past into place. Every page is fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: "Y" is the answer - not the question
Review: A few years ago a furor arose over the announcement that a calculation of mitochondrial DNA mutation rate formulated an "African Eve". Since then other genetic ancestral studies have been undertaken. Most notable of these was the determination that Neanderthal was not a direct ancestor of modern humans. Spencer Wells provides an enthralling overview of the research tracking changes in the Y [male] chromosome. The studies verify again that our origins are African. Somewhere, around 60 000 years ago, lived one man, a flesh and blood individual, from whom we've all descended. His progeny, in an amazingly short span, scattered around the globe. The scattering isn't news, but the verification of the paths and chronology is lucid and vividly outlined in this book. The key to the tracking, as Wells makes abundantly clear, are various polymorphisms [changes] in the Y chromosome. These mutations are reflected in today's populations and the rate of their diversity indicates the approximate age of the various regional groups. These changes, nearly all prefixed "M" [male?] are used as ingredients in recipes Wells offers as illustrative metaphor. It's a clever ploy, so long as you remember ingredients may only be added, never removed nor replaced. That's how genetics works, he reminds us. He portrays the build-up of recipe ingredients with maps and diagrams. The diagrams are almost redundant as the clarity of his prose enables you to envision them. Following the paths of migration, Wells shows how some archaeological finds offer support for the patterns he sees. Fossils are rare, elusive and sometimes misunderstood. Genetics, buried deep in our cells, are unequivocal in providing their evidence. Dating methods are briefly described and their shortcomings mercilessly paraded. Wells doesn't give the paleoanthropologists much voice. His story needs telling and the reader may go elsewhere for countering information. Yet he acknowledges the importance of confirming information from various digs around the world. Wells firmly addresses a great anomaly - if modern humans arose from the evolutionary bouillabaisse about 60 millennia ago, how did the Aborigines arrive in Australia at nearly the same time? His answer is that the track followed shore routes, not inland ones. Hunter-gatherer groups, subject to the whims of climate, food resources and population pressure took the softest trail. Africa to Australia during ice ages was a gentle, if lengthy, stroll. Nit-picking department: Wells' opening gun is turned on the racial "expert" Carleton Coon, who asserted the human races each followed a separate evolutionary path. Coon has been refuted in so many ways by so many researchers, Wells' effort seems superfluous. There are more competent scientists adhering to the "Multiregional" thesis. Some of these researchers might have been given a small voice in an annotated bibliography. While Wells offers a reading list for each chapter, a full bibliography would be an enhancement. Many of his references are remote. That doesn't tarnish the value of this book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: "Y" is the answer - not the question
Review: A few years ago a furor arose over the announcement that a calculation of mitochondrial DNA mutation rate formulated an "African Eve". Since then other genetic ancestral studies have been undertaken. Most notable of these was the determination that Neanderthal was not a direct ancestor of modern humans. Spencer Wells provides an enthralling overview of the research tracking changes in the Y [male] chromosome. The studies verify again that our origins are African. Somewhere, around 60 000 years ago, lived one man, a flesh and blood individual, from whom we've all descended. His progeny, in an amazingly short span, scattered around the globe. The scattering isn't news, but the verification of the paths and chronology is lucid and vividly outlined in this book. The key to the tracking, as Wells makes abundantly clear, are various polymorphisms [changes] in the Y chromosome. These mutations are reflected in today's populations and the rate of their diversity indicates the approximate age of the various regional groups. These changes, nearly all prefixed "M" [male?] are used as ingredients in recipes Wells offers as illustrative metaphor. It's a clever ploy, so long as you remember ingredients may only be added, never removed nor replaced. That's how genetics works, he reminds us. He portrays the build-up of recipe ingredients with maps and diagrams. The diagrams are almost redundant as the clarity of his prose enables you to envision them. Following the paths of migration, Wells shows how some archaeological finds offer support for the patterns he sees. Fossils are rare, elusive and sometimes misunderstood. Genetics, buried deep in our cells, are unequivocal in providing their evidence. Dating methods are briefly described and their shortcomings mercilessly paraded. Wells doesn't give the paleoanthropologists much voice. His story needs telling and the reader may go elsewhere for countering information. Yet he acknowledges the importance of confirming information from various digs around the world. Wells firmly addresses a great anomaly - if modern humans arose from the evolutionary bouillabaisse about 60 millennia ago, how did the Aborigines arrive in Australia at nearly the same time? His answer is that the track followed shore routes, not inland ones. Hunter-gatherer groups, subject to the whims of climate, food resources and population pressure took the softest trail. Africa to Australia during ice ages was a gentle, if lengthy, stroll. Nit-picking department: Wells' opening gun is turned on the racial "expert" Carleton Coon, who asserted the human races each followed a separate evolutionary path. Coon has been refuted in so many ways by so many researchers, Wells' effort seems superfluous. There are more competent scientists adhering to the "Multiregional" thesis. Some of these researchers might have been given a small voice in an annotated bibliography. While Wells offers a reading list for each chapter, a full bibliography would be an enhancement. Many of his references are remote. That doesn't tarnish the value of this book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: Death Blow for the Multiregionalists
Review: After reading this book, I don't know how anyone can seriously entertain the theory of multiregionalism anymore. The genetic evidence is conclusive and proves that we have all descended from a band of anatomically modern humans somewhere in Africa 50,000 years ago. Wells has written a cogent and persuasive book that looks at every phase and aspect of the human odyssey from these African origins to modern times. If I have any criticism, however, it's that the book tends to slow down a bit after the settlement of the Americas is discussed. The chapters on the spread of agriculture and the evolution of language were less coherent than the others and seemed to digress from the central thesis. Still, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the recent origins of modern man. It shows that only 2000 generations ago, we were all one family living in one place. The racial differences we all note today are thus very recent and very superficial. This is all the more important to understand now that the world is heading toward genetic convergence rather than genetic divergence. In another couple thousand years, we will probably all look like Tiger Woods (one of the multi-racial examples Wells cites in his book).
Rating: 
Summary: Response to "Journey Of Man"
Review: Although the topic of the show was one that interests me enormously (I am a professor of History), I was truly shocked by the blatant sexism of the content. Were there no women involved in the early journeys of (as you kept repeating) "mankind"? It is not necessary to keep up some boring his/her referencing, but it is necessary to throw in the occasional woman as a member of the human race.
E. Healey
Princeton, NJ
Rating:
Summary: Astounding.
Review: Apparently, modern humans began in Africa, and migrated in successive waves, filling the world. It is astounding how much can be learned about this from analysis of difference in the Y chromosome between populations in different areas. Wells does an excellent job with this topic, bringing to bear his own research background and personal anecdotes, his ability to write clearly, and his sense of what is interesting. Thus, even if not quite all the material is strictly germane, it is always interesting. Development and buttressing of theories requires knowledge of: geography and climate, and how it has changed over the last 100,000 years or so; archaeology; linguistic analysis, and theories of how language families evolved and dispersed. Wells does an excellent job with all these areas, and appears quite objective in discussing the controversies surrounding some of his conclusions. Wells treats some of the genetic science underlying the analysis in a somewhat cursory manner, so the reader without the proper background will undoubtedly be confused, or simply miss the point about such topics as to what breakthroughs, e.g. DNA hybridization, were required before the Y chromosome could be conveniently be used for population studies. Wells could have done better without making the subject boring or too difficult. The book also suffers very much from inadequate use of graphics. There is a graphic depicting the major population migrations toward the end of the book, but it should have been referred to much earlier, and I suggest the reader find it and refer to it early on. Further, while Wells refers to the current population make up of areas such as India, the material is never brought together: the book would benefit greatly from individual graphics showing migrations, over time, into India, into China, and so on.
Rating:
Summary: How All of Us Got Here
Review: Archeologists dig all over the earth to find the history of people who existed too early to leave a written history. There is a new sort of archeology, however, that is changing our long-range view of human pre-history. Scientists are digging into cells, into the genes that everyone knows make us what we are. The details from this new research have given revolutionary insight into where humans came from, how they spread, and the origin and superficiality of races. In _The Journey of Man_ (Princeton University Press), Spencer Wells, a population geneticist, has written a wonderfully clear book of origins, drawing upon not just genes but history, geography, archeology, and linguistics. In part, the book is a summary of refutations against the ideas of anthropologists who maintained that different races were subspecies that arose in different regions at different times. No such hypotheses could be tested in the time they were issued, and now they can. DNA in the cells from mitochondria, and the DNA in the male Y chromosome do not shuffle the way ordinary chromosomes do, and thus are very stable from one generation to the next. Mutations happen, and accumulate, and may be used to see how closely related humans from different regions of the world are. The genetic results of both mitochondrial and Y chromosome research confirm each other, and are unambiguous. We are all out of Africa. We stayed in Africa as humans for generations, and almost all the genetic variation we were going to get was within us at that time. Then around 40,000 years ago, propelled perhaps because of weather changes, we started our travels. _Journey_ has good diagrams, but a map showing the flow of different Y chromosome linkages around the world can be regarded with awe, for the history it shows and for the scientific advances that have made such a diagram possible. Our current way of living has wrought changes in plenty of the subjects in this book. The trail of languages in many ways parallels the trail of genes around the world, but as we develop a global culture, languages are dying out at a faster rate than ever before. Also, there is greater mixing of genes from different cultures now that easy travel makes possible the meeting of members of tribes that would never have met before. It could be that we have passed the heyday for the sort of research reported here, as populations swap genes in unprecedented ways. Nonetheless, Wells's book is full of enthusiasm for basic research, and the results described here are fascinating. We can look back at our origins with new respect for how long and how strange a journey it has been, and with the increasing realization that that our one species has one shared history.
Rating:
Summary: Not Science
Review: First of all, one must clearly understand that the science of genetics is in its infancy, and is vastly more complicated than this author would lead you to believe. At this stage in the game a scientist simply cannot be confident that he properly understands the extremely limited data that he is analyzing. Any geneticist claiming to be able to make any but the most tentative conclusions at this date is simply a liar or a fool. Second, one must also understand that all scientists, but particularly those studying the genetics of man, are under great social pressure to conform their findings to the myths of the day. The predominant myth of the day is that the races of mankind don't exist; or that if they do, the differences between the races are only "skin deep." In reality, racial differences are not only morphological, but intellectual and temperamental. It is simply ridiculous to claim that racial differences are superficial because they are relatively recent (and I doubt they are as recent as the author believes, in any case). Proof of this is easily found in another species: the domesticated dog, the current races of which are all more recent than the races of mankind. Dogs are even more genetically similar than man, and yet the various races (breeds) exhibit great differences in morphology, intellegince and temperament. A few allele variations here and there can make a huge difference. It is amusing to see that the very people are so desperate to minimize racial differences are usually the same people who claim to celebrate "diversity." If race doesn't really exist, or is only "skin deep," then there is actually no diversity to celebrate. But, of course, race DOES exist; and even those who claim not to believe this actually do, or they would swoon with rapture over the (silly) idea of the world's Homo Sapiens gene pool blending into one huge "Tiger Woods" race. So much for diversity! Now, as for the "Out of Africa" versus "Multiregional" debate. First, genetic evidence alone cannot prove on what continent a species or subspecies arose. Fossil evidence indicates that Homo Erectus arose in Africa, but it also indicates that Homo Sapiens arose in Eurasia. The eventual concensus theory will probably be that the Homo Erectus evolved into Homo Sapiens in Eurasia, and then spread out and interbred with existing Homo Erectus groups in Africa and Asia, thus giving rise to the present races of man. This is the theory that best fits the current fossil AND genetic evidence. In any case, and in the final analysis, the entire debate about WHERE mankind arose is important only as an intellectual puzzle, and is completely irrelvant to help resolve any of today's social issues. There appears to be an strong irrational urge on the part of many people to want to believe that some genetic "Adam" or "Eve" was African. Perhaps this urge is a vestige of European guilt for culturally dominating the world; whether this is true or not, it should be understood that an African ancestor would not have been Negroid, because Negroid racial characteristics are an adaptation to a specific rain forest habitat that did not exist in mankind's postulated East African playpen. In summation, this is another of the dismal books being churned out these days in which science is misused to achieve social ends or to conform to social ideals. The state of genetics is NOT at the point today that we can state when or where Homo Sapiens came into existence (even provided would could agree on the dividing line between Erectus and Sapiens). We CAN state that racial differences are more than "skin deep." These facts are anathema to the author of this book, and obviously to most of the other reviewers, but in fact none of these facts implies any value judgements. It is quite true that people will always seek to use science to achieve social change, but the misuse of science for such purposes can objectively be only called propaganda, not science. I, like many people, hope that mankind can some day build a worldwide social structure that will ensure justice and bread for every single person on earth, regardless of race or any social factors; but such a structure, if it is to endure, must be built upon the solid bedrock of truth rather than upon the shifting sands of propaganda.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful book
Review: I am administering a genetic genealogical project for my family, and started studying to learn about historical genetics for the project. This book was extremely useful in clarifying what Y-DAN does and does not show and gives a good picture of prehistoric human history on the male side. Couple it with Brian Sykes "The 7 Daughters of Eve" and you get a pretty good picture of the evolution of early modern man.
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