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Summary: The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
Comment: If you have ever questioned where Adam and Eve started and how planet earth was populated this is a
must read. Doctor Wells located the oldest Africans he could find,took blood samples, then using his
DNA knowledge, produced DNA markers. He continued this process around the world and by examining
the DNA markers he could determine the path of primitive people and where they started. He produced
a readable technical book that leaves the lay person with a clear understanding of where we started
and where and when the first Adam and Eve left the trees and stood up on two feet.
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Summary: Clear explication of a still uncertain theory
Comment: Not much more than 50,000 years ago, something happened in East Africa that set humans on the move,
and by about 10,000 years ago they had occupied almost every place on Earth, though it took another
9,000 years or so to get to the really good spots like Maui.
At least, that is how geneticist
Spencer Wells interprets the evidence. The very short time span requires severe revision of the
archaeological evidence.
Fully modern human bones have been found in Israel that are dated to
about 100,000 years ago. Although equally modern fossils don't show up in Europe for another 60,000
years or so, the assumption has been that man's move out of Africa began at least 100,000 years
ago.
Using changes in the molecular structure of the Y-chromosome, Wells and other geneticists
believe that something -- he calls it the First Big Bang -- happened to a human, who lived somewhere
in or near Ethiopia, around 50,000-60,000 years ago. That something did not show up in our skeletons
but did mark the final evolutionary step to our current level of ability.
It could have been
behavioral, although Wells is inclined to think it was some form of structural change in the brain
that was closely tied to the beginning of language.
The new capabilities then made it possible
to survive in novel habitats, and worsening climatic conditions in East Africa made it desirable to
find some.
Genetics tells us we are all very closely related -- there is hardly any variation
in our genes as between "races," a doubtful concept in human taxonomy anyway.
Variation piles
up over time, particularly in long stretches of DNA that are, so far as anybody has been able to
determine, inactive.
When a small band of people move, they take with them only a tiny
fraction of the total variation of their larger group. Therefore, the more variation today within a
local group, the longer it has been intact.
There is more variation on the Y-chromosomes of
the men in an African village than among all the men in the rest of the world. Therefore, humans
originated in Africa.
Geneticists believe they can not only measure but time these changes,
although the timing is dependent on various assumptions that are uncertain to a degree. The goal of
researchers like Wells is to interpret the gene sequences to fit other, paleontological or
climatological, data without torturing the evidence too much.
The Y-chromosome determines male
sex and therefore passes down from father to son. There is a strictly female record of descent in
our cells, too, the mitochondrial DNA; but there is much less of it, so changes on the Y give much
more precision in measuring mutations.
In "The Journey of Man," geneticists deduce that around
50,000 years ago, Africans started migrating, sticking to the coastal areas they already knew how to
exploit. Within 10,000 years, they were in Australia.
We humans spread quickly but not equally
quickly in every direction. In some areas, humans had to wait tens of thousands of years for the
slow processes of climate to open up desert and mountain barriers that were too hard to cross. />Thus, Europe was settled very late, despite its closeness to Africa.
The same evidence says
modern humans replaced Neanderthal humans; we did not descend from them.
The Y evidence also
tends to shoot down evidence -- already equivocal -- that put humans in the New World more than
about 12,000 years ago.
And it demonstrates, Wells says, some unexpected relationships. For
example, northern Han Chinese are more closely related to their northern neighbors than they are to
southern Han Chinese, despite the closer connection of their language dialects.
These various
lines of evidence should allow us to retrace our ancestral steps, says Wells, but "many indigenous
peoples are now refusing to participate in scientific studies."
He regrets this, not only
professionally, but because the Third Big Bang -- the transportation revolution that is mixing up
populations more than ever before -- will within a couple of generations obliterate the kind of
genetic sleuthing that made "The Journey of Man" possible.
The Second Big Bang was
agriculture, and that, he says, led humans to Hawaii. Hunter-gatherers had to go where the food was;
Polynesian navigators could choose where to sail.
Wells' explication of what researchers like
Wells think they know is first rate. I remain somewhat skeptical about the accuracy of the so-called
molecular genetic clocks. Therefore, 3 stars. if the doubts about the 'clock' are resolved in the
favor of Wells et al., then the rating would bump up to 4.

Customer Rating:

Summary: We all wonder where we come from . . .
Comment: . . . and Spencer Wells provides many of the answers. Those of you who have seen his National
Geographic special, also entitled _The Journey of Man_, will recognize the outline of this book, an
exploration of what our genes (and those of people around the world) tell us about where and when
our species got started, and how and when people occupied just about every part of the world. The
book is able to go into far more detail, presenting clearly and convincingly our relatively recent
African origins and the timing and likely routes of the migrations that brought modern humans to
Australia, Europe and Asia, and, more recently, to the Americas and Polynesia. Along the way you'll
learn why our genes clearly show that the Neandertals were cousins, but not ancestors, and that
today's geographic "races" are far too closely related to have evolved from ancient to modern human
form independently. The book is graced by pages of striking photos of people from around the globe,
which add greatly to the fascinating scientific story that Wells tells. If you're at all interested
in human origins, this is a must read. Robert Adler, author of _Science Firsts_ and _Medical
Firsts_.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Very Good but
Comment: I think it is amazing with the covorage what Mr Wells is doing but with knowing the facts that
civilization originates from africa ie. The egyptians who were a colony from the south,Kenya Sudan
regions thats were they found first Pharoah and monarch in the world/ along with the symbols and
glyphs we associate with egypt
The fact that the most celebrated Greeks were tought in Egypt
by black wolly haired teachers by there own accounts. That virtually all spiritual concepts aswell
as sciences originate there.
Take a look at some Olmec heads read factual research and you
will really begin to come out of the eurocentric myth of the PRIMITIVE African. If you dont research
these facts ,Van Sertima, Diop, Carruthers it is easy to believe the Evolved European master Race
theory that one of the reviewers is engulfed in.
No wonder when they see the depth of
knowledge ancient cilivizations had which were millleniuns old that they shout Aliens.

Without knowing some of the above Spencers work will tell us were related but fall prey racists who
use it to propell myths please read Journal of African Civilization's wide variety including many
scholars from around the world
Im of mixed decent explaining this review with love and
knowlegde for all 1

Customer Rating:

Summary: Held my interest
Comment: I read this book in my free time over the course of three days, so obviously it held my interest.
One would certainly need to read further to get a real understanding of the geneticists' methods,
but this book wasn't meant to be a graduate level text. The account of human migration out of Africa
is even better when accompanied by the migratory maps on the Genographic Project's web site. Minor
criticisms: the photographs are stuck in the middle of the book without notes or explanation, and I
could have done without the obligatory recitation of the PC
we-are-all-the-same-despite-our-obvious-hereditary-differences mantra. The book has not convinced me
to submit a sample to the Genographic Project: I don't need to pay 99 bucks to be told that my
parents were European.

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