Genealogy Books - The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: great information on a fascinating topic
Comment: Spencer Wells is a leading scientist in the genetic study of human ancestry, and he explains his
topic very well. In fact, the book is so excellent that I really have nothing to say about the book
itself, only about the information in it.

First of all, Wells explains why most
researchers have given up the hypothesis of multi-regional human evolution in favor of the migration
out-of-Africa hypothesis. He quickly tells us what we need to know about human evolution for this
book's purposes, and moves on to charting that migration.

He also helpfully reviews
what is known about Mitochondrial DNA and African Eve.

The main part of the book, of
course, is about how different versions of the genetic information on the Y-chromosome can help us
chart our ancestry and ancient human migrations. He covers about twelve significant variations,
which correspond to ancestors of different groups of people around the world. For example, most
European/White men have a marker known as M173, which first appeared in Central Asia about 30,000
years ago. So I and other white people can trace our paternal ancestry to a single man in Central
Asia 30,000 years ago. That's remarkable. He gives a similar account for people all over the
globe--except Africa, unfortunately.

He deals with a few controversial points, such as
the origins of Native Americans and Basque people. He's not overly careful politically, but he
sticks to the science.

He tells us a little about comparative linguistics and
hypotheses about the evolution of languages, and how that's relevant to human migration. However,
this part of the book raises more questions than answers, especially when it deals with the
Indo-European languages, which seems to reflect the current state of knowledge rather than any fault
of the author's.

He also deals with a little archaeology, only when it helps to clarify
a situation. For instance, it appears that the spread of a particular genetic marker corresponds to
the spread of rice cultivation.

My main complaint is that I'd like a lot more detail;
but then the book wouldn't be so popular, would it? It's short and sweet as it is. But I wonder, for
instance, if there is any remaining genetic evidence of Alexander's or Genghis Khan's "conquests."
Did they leave much of a mark? How much? Since I live in Korea, I wonder how many Koreans really are
descended from ancient Korean kings? And how far back, exactly? How closely are Koreans related to
Japanese or Mongolians or the Manchus? In terms of my own ancestry, can Wells identify the offspring
of various invasions of the British Isles? I'd be fascinated to know whether my paternal ancestors
were Celts or Romans or Normans or what. There are so many ethnicities in the world, and I wonder
what we know about them. And, as I said above, unfortunately he didn't even begin to cover Africa.
I'm sure that sorting out these details is very very complex, but also very interesting. I look
forward to more books on these topics within a few years.

Wells did deal with the
interesting topic of patrilocality (wives moving into husbands' communities) and the misconception
of men sowing their oats broadly and wildly. And he points out that a few men tend to reproduce much
more than other men. These points raise interesting questions, at least in my mind, about human
nature. But Wells does not get philosophical; folks like me have to look to other authors for that,
such as Jared Diamond and Matt Ridley.

But I was very fascinated to read, in a recent
National Geographic, that we can order a kit from Wells and have our own DNA checked, and find out
what we can about our own ancestry. Amazing and wonderful! I hope that will involve much greater
detail! (If this interests you, I believe it was in the May 2005 issue; and I'm not sure about the
details. A previous issue dealt with Wells' research into the Phoenicians.)

Customer Rating:

Summary: Setting The Record Straight on Human Evolution & Migration
Comment: I first came across Spencer's `Journey of Man' via the PBS presentation of it and I was so taken by
the implications and answers to such long standing and heretofore, speculated on questions such as:
how long have we been humans?, where and what did we originate from?, what are our true historical
migration patterns, and very importantly- that our DNA links us directly to every other human on the
planet and traces our shared origins back to Africa. We are truly one human family.
/>After viewing the PBS presentation (available on DVD and VHS), I immediately got this companion
book which has more info, details and technical data, but is very understandable to a general
audience. The book has several color plates of people from various cultures around the world along
with graphs and illustrations of DNA and migration maps detailing our distribution from our starting
point in Africa thousands of years ago- an excellent migration map is on pages 182-183.
/>My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Spencer Wells and his staff for this outstanding and immensely
important project!

Today, April 13, 2005, there was an article in the Los Angeles
Times: "Gene Project To Trace Migration" which reports that Dr. Wells has teamed up with National
Geographic to launch a world-wide DNA analysis project to get an even more exacting map of human
migration patterns. Those who would like to participate in this project can go to
www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic and purchase a DNA sampling kit. There is also a notice about
the DNA project in the May, 2005 N.G. Magazine on the "Behind the Scenes" page (GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT)
along with 4 photos of people from different cultures and a world map illustrating human migration
out of Africa, circa 200,000 years ago.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A genetic mystery...
Comment: I saw Spencer Wells on Book TV talking about his book and TV special, so when I found the book in
paperback I snapped it up. And I am very happy I did. I knew a lot of the history he went over to
explain why and how the Y-chromosome could be used to trace human evolution and how humans spread
over the world. The reason I enjoyed it so much is that I have many of the books he used as sources
and it allowed me to read without those full halts that sometimes happens when you hide an idea or
fact you never heard of before.
But even people who have no knowledge how DNA works or have no
idea how our prehistoric forefathers lived will find the book interesting and easy to absorb. />The Y-chromosome not only helps us trace the male DNA back to Africa, it is also shown to help
answer once and all questions about language families and even how the knowledge of farming
spread.
The language used in the book is easy to understand and Mr. Wells knows how to explain
even complex issues with humor and clarity.
Some information about Homo erectus/ergaster in
Asia MIGHT be out-dated with the discovery of Homo floresiensis (Hobbits), but the data about Homo
sapiens is still sound.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Required Reading
Comment:
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.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good journey, lousy maps
Comment: I enjoyed reading in this book how scientists worked out the migration patterns of prehistoric
humans through the dissection of Y-chromosome (and the ladies' mtDNA too) genetic markers. The
author's analogies to explain the various genetic theories are fairly good at explaining the
concepts.

My problem with the paperback edition (I have not seen the hardcover)is that
the maps are horrendous. They look like they were photocopied from color originals with a really old
machine. I cannot read the text on the arrows of the Big Summary Map at all, and have been writing
in the genetic markers on the map in the book as I go along to see if I can figure it out for
myself. And I never, never, never write in my books. This is very frustrating and the publisher
should ensure that the maps are recreated with gray-scale halftones in the next edition.
/>I recommend looking into whether the hardcover edition maps are any better and get that if they
are.

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