Companion Book To Guns, Germs, And Steel - (The Allele Perspective)

books:

	• The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending Basic Books, 2009 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Illuminating but slightly unconvincing

This book is very interesting and presented a fascinating theory. I enjoyed the no-holds barred look at the truth, regardless of whether the findings will be popular and politically correct. Such should be the essence of science. Most of the time I found myself nodding in agreement but as much as I would like this hypothesis to be true, I couldn't help but feeling as if the author's evidence was at times on shaky ground. Granted, most of the work is well supported and readily apparent. It just felt like some parts were insufficiently argued. This is often because the area hasn't been studied thoroughly enough or it is difficult, nigh impossible to find results. But overall a very interesting read that presents a compelling case for their hypothesis. For years, the recent evolution of humanity has been off limits as if everybody knew there was nothing to study, but yet nobody had studied it. The authors present a compelling case for why this should deserve scrutiny.

for more information click here

Human genetic adaptation continues

We continue to be simply a work in progress. Is not what you've always heard, is it? That the major ongoing changes are cultural, not genetic. But the premise is that the rise of agriculture as far back as nearly 10,000 years ago selected agriculturists (us, their descendants) with certain qualities best adapted to that life. To its diseases, its wars, its politics, its carbohydrates, its property rights, its poorer nutrition (Yes!), its technologies, its anti-egalitarianism, its suppression of women's power, its schools, its markets, its trading, its money, its explorations.

All these things were agencies of selection for the genes present in the human gene pool since hunter/gatherer times which would best adapt the human species exposed to agriculture. And we did adapt. We don't challenge authority much; instead we cower, cringe, obey. Until relatively recently in modern history we were much shorter than prehistoric modern humans. We developed genetic adaptations to numerous diseases the etiology of which was urban crowding.

Those who, of necessity, were restricted to "mind work" occupations such as money lending prospered, had more children survive, and passed on the higher mental abilities required for that work. This is a theory about how the Ashkenazy Jews ended up having not an average IQ of 100, but rather up around 114, with the consequence that as a result of the bell shaped curve of the range of IQ in a population they had a higher percentage of really bright people (they far outshine other populations in that respect).

Our western European adaptation to disease was the proximate cause of terrible epidemics in the native populations of the Americas when Pilgrims and Conquistadors arrived in the New World. Additionally, the hunter/gatherer peoples of the New World had genetic baggage useful to them in their way of life but not optimally adapted to the European lifestyle. Some refused to be slaves (the way we are). They refused to breed more slaves or work in mines, and even killed themselves. They shared; we don't. They were hierarchy deficient; we are hierarchy rich.

The 10,000 Year Explosion is readable. It has a plausible thesis. It will explain to you more about why we are the way we are. That devil, agriculture-driven civilization, made us do it - explore the world and even leap into space. We are the domesticated version of Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

for more information click here

Companion Book To Guns, Germs, And Steel - (The Allele Perspective)

If you have had the pleasure to read Guns, Germs, And Steel, then this work of 'The 10,000 Year Explosion' is what I would call a companion to Jared Diamond's fine book. Where Guns, Germs, And Steel covers the time frame from roughly 13,000 B.C. (calibrated) of human migration and agriculture, including of course guns, germs, and steel to answer the following question, or native New Guinean Yali's question. The question was "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" -- The 10,000 Year Explosion covers the similar time frame of roughly 8,000 B.C. (i.e. 10,000 years) and answers the same question. However, the author's answer to the question comes from the gene perspective versus migration. More specifically from the "Allele" perspective which is a particular sequence of the nucleotide occupying a given position on a chromosome.

As a few of the critics of the book point out, some of the topics are hypothetical. Irrespective of the criticism, it is not that much of a leap (if any) to understand the consequences of specific alleles successfully propagating thru ones culture with the help of natural selection. A few quick evidence points one can point to are sickle cell for malaria protection and lactose tolerance because of agriculture are hard to argue with. For more examples to help one understand the world around them, both now and for the future, this book and the authors provide a compelling and enjoyable read to do just that.

If you have not read Guns, Germs, And Steel, than it comes highly recommended prior to reading this book. In addition and as a side note, I am of the belief that Jared's prequel, The Third Chimpanzee, is a much under appreciated book and should also be given consideration for future reading as well.

for more information click here

Convincing argument for between-population genomic differences

The "blank slate" view of human nature has vanished from cutting-edge social science. It has been replaced by the view that humans are identically endowed with evolved cognitive modules; that those modules respond to environmental cues; and that behavioral differences across populations are simply due to different environments. Biology has been introduced into the discourse, but the prevailing view still maintains that human populations do not vary from each other in their genome--the current assumption is that human adaptive evolution stopped 50,000 years ago, with the last major migration out of Africa.

But, as Cochran and Harpending point out, two factors suggest that human evolution has actually accelerated, especially over the last 10,000 years: first, the increasing size of populations increases the number of mutations available for selection; and second, the migration into extremely varied habitats, as well as the changes in diet and social organization associated with agriculture, have created new environments to which humans must adapt. For example, the grindingly hard work of agriculture would give a selective advantage to genes for endurance, rather than genes for sharp bursts of speed (which would be advantageous for hunters). One can therefore reasonably expect many genomic differences between populations, especially between populations of foragers and populations with a long history of farming.

The authors are able to ground most of their speculations in data from the many genomic studies of the past decade. And though much of what they say has already been published (and summarized in places such as the GeneExpression blog), the book puts it all together in a very readable and convincing way. Parts of the book are really exciting--I was particularly impressed by their persuasive argument that introgression of genes from archaic humans may have accounted for the Upper Paleolithic revolution.

for more information click here

The (controversial) outcome of natural selection

I found the style of the book a bit arrogant and somewhat stuffy, but the conclusions, and the entire exposition, have tremendous weight. This is very good science, sure to generate much controversy. The point(s) the authors make will be hard to disprove, and may soon become mainstream in Evolutionary theory, even if the points may seem offensive to many people (which would be a wrong interpretation). Facts are facts, and on interpreting facts is that science progresses. That's what the authors are doing in this book.

Once you get past the stylistic problem, you appreciate the importance of this book.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Resistance to malaria. Blue eyes. Lactose tolerance. What do all of these traits have in common? Every one of them has emerged in the last 10,000 years.

Scientists have long believed that the ?great leap forward? that occurred some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago in Europe marked end of significant biological evolution in humans. In this stunningly original account of our evolutionary history, top scholars Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending reject this conventional wisdom and reveal that the human species has undergone a storm of genetic change much more recently. Human evolution in fact accelerated after civilization arose, they contend, and these ongoing changes have played a pivotal role in human history. They argue that biology explains the expansion of the Indo-Europeans, the European conquest of the Americas, and European Jews' rise to intellectual prominence. In each of these cases, the key was recent genetic change: adult milk tolerance in the early Indo-Europeans that allowed for a new way of life, increased disease resistance among the Europeans settling America, and new versions of neurological genes among European Jews.

Ranging across subjects as diverse as human domestication, Neanderthal hybridization, and IQ tests, Cochran and Harpending's analysis demonstrates convincingly that human genetics have changed and can continue to change much more rapidly than scientists have previously believed. A provocative and fascinating new look at human evolution that turns conventional wisdom on its head, The 10,000 Year Explosion reveals the ongoing interplay between culture and biology in the making of the human race.

for more information click here

hot