Genealogy Books - The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey

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Customer Rating:

Summary: Very useful book
Comment: 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.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Journey of Man - An Epic
Comment: What an exciting subject! A theory about the dispersal of humanity through the Earth, all who
descended from one man -Adam. Honestly presented by a very qualified geneticist. Good humor and
"down to Earth" insights throughout. Semi technical yet understandable. Written with the passion of
the author, who has analyzed DNA from blood around the world in theorizing that all of mankind
originated in Africa some 2000 generations ago. The theory accounts for EVERYBODY alive today. The
author accepts the evidence as it comes in, controversial or not - for instance he finds that female
genetic markers predate Adam making "Eve" older than "Adam," not exactly biblical.... Who knows:
Maybe Well's "Adam" in the book was really Noah.... A good read.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Interesting book
Comment: I would say that you could get the basic argument of the book in a 20-page summary or from reading
the other reviews. Especially early in the book, the technical terms can be a little confusing. It
was a fine and interesting book, I just wouldn't give it the highest rating.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Two complementary books
Comment: I read "The Journey of Man" by Spencer Wells because I saw his documentary on PBS a few weeks
earlier. I immediately followed up by reading "The Seven Daughrters of Eve" by Bryan Sykes (2001)
because the web site called my attention to it. I'm glad I read Wells first. He covers the
direct-male-line of the human race as traced by the Y-chromosome, constructing a family tree of the
whole world outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Sykes makes more sense with Wells's study in mind because
he traces only a European family tree based on mytochondrial DNA, which shows the direct-female-line
of descent. He devotes only a brief chapter at the end to fill out the family tree of the rest of
the human race, including sub-Saharan Africa. It's clear from a page in Sykes's book that there has
been some animosity between the two schools of thought (the authors have opposite links to Luca
Cavalli-Sforza). Yet it's easy to fit Sykes's argument into Wells's thinking if you read Wells
first; the opposite works less well. The two books are complementary; one does not refute the other.
Both authors agree that more genetic sampling is needed to complete the picture; the work has just
begun.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Just Incredible
Comment: This book will blow you away. In clear, easy-to-follow language, with helpful analogies, Wells
describes a scientific and geographical journey wherein, by means of DNA analysis, he and his fellow
scientists tracked the contemporary "Y" chromosome from two common ancestors in Africa to the DNA of
every living human being. Unbelievably, there really was one "Adam" and one "Eve" -- although they
lived more than 100,000 years apart -- whose descendants left Africa about 40,000 years ago and,
over 2000 subsequent generations, were the origin of us all. The understanding that we are all
related -- cousins many thousands of times removed, if you will -- may not have any immediate effect
on politics and social relations, but it does put our human conflicts into a different context, as
well as blast away most genetically-based theories of race. Although cultures may differ in many
respects, and human beings may subscribe to different value and belief systems, we really are,
genetically, one human family. I read this book cover-to-cover in one day, and found it
fascinating, astonishing and inspiring. Kudos to Wells and his crew. Also, those of you who have
kids who may be too young to follow the science in this book should try the video.

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