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Summary: Do you know who your mommy is?
Review: Sykes expands on genetic theory, using evidence of his own research to theorize that all Europeans descend from one of seven women. He discusses events leading up to the creation of his postulates and what he and his staff did to further prove these ideas.An interesting thesis, this writing would make, but Sykes ventures into literary overload by providing sixty or so pages of creative writing, describing what he would suppose was the life of each of these seven women. Overall, the claims he makes are riddled with holes and shortcomings, but still an interesting notion to read about. If dear reader, having found some enthusiasm for one man's obsession is curious as to his own maternal lineage, he may consult the Sykes website and order his own de-luxe package. With admission of a mitochondrial DNA sample, it will point to what his staff concludes is one of the seven maternal links to the past... all for a very exorbitant price, that is.
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Summary: Great story.
Review: This book has lots of technical, scientific knowledge that takes time to study and comprehend for the lay person, yet the theory is so intriguing, I found it hard to put the book down. As a reader of Jean Auel, I was impressed by the stories of each of the seven earth mothers presented in the book. It makes each one real, and you'll want to know which of them is your ancestoral mother.
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Summary: Wonderful book about DNA
Review: Bryan Sykes was one of the leaders of a great revolution in anthropology and the social sciences; the tool which he used to advance this revolution was the analysis of mitochondrial DNA. While DNA in the cell nucleus is continually recombined at each generation, the DNA of the mitochondria remain constant -- they are passed from mother to child with only very minimal mutations (a rate of 1 every 10,000 years in the areas Sykes studied). This means that you have, stretching back into the mists of time, an unbroken chain of maternal relationships recorded in your genes. The applications of this that Sykes comes up with are interesting: he can prove that the woman who claimed to be the princess Anastasia was not related to the tsar's family, he can show that Polynesia was settled from Asia rather than from South America (as Thor Heyerdahl conjectured), and most astonishingly, he can break down most modern europeans as belonging to one of seven maternal clans. This information was used to solve a mystery in anthropology -- whether farmers from the near east drove the hunter-gatherer population out of Europe or whether the hunter gatherers adopted agriculture and remained -- Sykes concludes the latter. As an entertaining way of expressing the concept of the seven different clan mothers, Sykes calls them the seven daughters of Eve, and gives them names and a brief description of their "lives". This is clearly done from a sense of whimsy, and although some feel it distracts from his scholarly tone throughout most of the book, I found it a charming was of expressing the concept -- as well as a somewhat chilling description of what life in the stone age was really like. This a wonderful summer book to bring to the beach -- enough science to be interesting, but light and entertaining enough for the beach. Highly recommended.
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Summary: interesting but a bit scatter shot execution
Review: Sykes brings together an interesting new way of examining our genetic heritage, especially from an European perspective. He sheds light on a study of genetics that I was not familiar with. The problem is that Sykes can't stay in a good scientific examination. Much of the book seems self promoting, and while he is a pioneer in much of this, it seemed that he built his credentials more on the media than on his academics. He brings his research to an interesting conclusion tracking genes back to seven original "mothers" in Europe. But then he tries to tell us the stories of these seven women, and things just fall apart. It is an abrupt shift from this scientific quest to the creation of fictional stories of the lives of these women. He could have served his cause better if he had stuck to fact instead of writing narrative conjecture. Still, an interesting book and a fascinating look into one slice of the science of genetics.
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Summary: Interesting but self-serving
Review: This book was a fascinating read, although Sykes is inclined throughout to much self-promotion. The chapters on the lives of the various "daughters of Eve" are a bit contrived and seem out of place in a book that is really more of a popularized science narrative. The rest of the book is good, a fast read and somewhat lacking in scientific details as it was obviously intended to be. While others who have written reviews here think that this will shake some people's faith in the Bible, I find that it fits squarely with Biblical history with the exception of Syke's time lines, which, of course, are based on his extrapolation of mutation rates within the mitochondrial DNA. In having my interest piqued, I have done more checking and have found out there is recent work showing much faster mutation rates than used by Sykes for his chronology, which, in essence, compresses the time frame much further than asserted in the book. Sykes does not mention any of this work, although it has been published since 1997. Evolutionary biologists are mystified by these results, but there are those of us who are not surprised at all.
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Summary: From whom do we originate?
Review: I thought this was a really neat book. This book is about the geneology of humankind. There is little doubt in my mind that genetics will prove to be the definitive tool for all sorts of mysteries. Archeology will never be the same as a result of these inroads by genetics. Dr. Sykes' detective sleuthing of the Polynesian migration led nicely into the more challenging task of Europe and eventually the world. It is very humbling, although not surprising, to know that the billions of people alive today are all relatives. The majority of the work is devoted to the ancestry of Europeans showing that over 80% of them are derived from a mere seven women. These types of studies will become a necessary tool in the reconstruction of history and will allow a better confidence level in the results. This book is easy to read and enjoyable besides.
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Summary: Some good info but self-serving and unreferenced
Review: Sykes has done good work in the fast-moving field of historical genetics. However, The Seven Daughters of Eve is terribly self-serving, lacks references, gives too little credit to other workers, and is unbalanced. Better choices or to purge yourself from Sykes' work, I suggest you read 'Mapping Human History' by Steve Olson or 'Genes Languages and People' by Luca Cavalli-Sforza. Both give a balanced view of the field, are deeply referenced, and are easy reads. Sykes' mitochondrial DNA approach was not always honored or perhaps even fairly received; Sykes is probably correct in feeling himself unfairly treated. However, there is too much "get back" in this book. It is, however, a fast read and gives some good background in validating mtDNA as a reliable science.
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Summary: Excellent study of our Genetic history!
Review: Sykes (genetics, Oxford Univ.; editor, Human Inheritance: Genes, Language, and Evolution) is passionate about his work in decoding mitochondrial DNA and about using this knowledge to trace the path of human evolution. To lure readers into this specialized work, he relates personal and historical anecdotes, offering familiar ground from which to consider the science. A discussion of the history of genetics and descriptions of the early landmark work of Sykes and his associates culminate with his finding that 90 percent of modern Europeans are descendents of just seven women who lived 45,000 to 10,000 years ago. Brief biographies serve to place these "seven daughters" into historical context as understood by archaeology. This is an example of good popular science writing that makes difficult concepts accessible and relevant to the general reader. Recommended for public libraries.
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Summary: Excellent study of our Genetic history
Review: The title is taken from Genesis and ironically science has confirmed that account in that we are all descended from the same people. Sykes gives a detailed and easy-to understand look at the quest to discover man's origins. He, like most, does overlook the implications of man being younger than previously thought (150,000 years old). Darwinists will claim that man "broke off" at this point from older bipedal primates. However, that is speculation on their part without and soild evidence. And we are finding we are not related to the more recent Neaderthal group. On page 112, Sykes claims that Darwin's book started crumbling Genesis as literal truth. How so? Genesis doesn't teach against an ancient man! Sykes must be referring to the psuedoscientific young-earth creationism beliefs of some. An accurate rendering of Genesis shows it supports an ancient man. See "The Genesis Question" and "Creation and Time."
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Summary: all bluster and little substance
Review: I spent two weeks waiting for this book to get to me. I kept bouncing up and down, and when it finally arrived I read it all in less than 24 hours. In other words, I found the subject matter just a tad exciting. Truthfully, it was a good book. However, like some of the previous reviewers, I was somewhat dissappointed by the author's rather storybook explanation of how he derived the reliability of mitochondrial DNA as stable enough to use for genetic lineage research and dating. All too frequently I found myself the reluctant witness to his professional shenanigans, rather than the student endeavoring to learn more about this fascinating field. He spent 13 chapters tracing gossip and contentions with a former female colleague, and precious little time focusing on the science that in theory made up his discussion. Then he chose to spend the last 10 chapters making up, albeit accurately from an anthropological point of view, speculative stories on the so-called daughters. If you can live with his entirely too chatty and gossipy banter you can discover underneath it all some small mitochondrial-sized kernel of knowledge. If you are looking for a more traditional science tome however, this is not the way to go.
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