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Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza

Sarah Thorne

The Great Human Diasporas: The History Of Diversity and Evolution (Helix Books) Paperback – 6 Nov. 1996

by Luigi Sforza (Author), Lynn Parker (Contributor)

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Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza draws upon his lifelong work in archaeology, anthropology, genetics, molecular biology, and linguistics, to address the basic questions of human origins and diversity. Coauthored by his son, Francesco, the book answers age-old questions such as: Was there a mitochondrial Eve? Did the first humans originate in Africa or in several spots on the planet at about the same time? How did humans get onto North America, the tip of South America, and Australia?

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publication date

6 Nov. 1996
Dimensions

2.54 x 15.24 x 22.86 cm
ISBN-10

0201442310
ISBN-13

978-0201442311
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Product description

About the Author

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforzais Emeritus Professor of Genetics at Stanford University Medical School. He is the author of a number of seminal scientific books.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Perseus Books (6 Nov. 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0201442310
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0201442311
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2.54 x 15.24 x 22.86 cm

Customer reviews:
35 ratings

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Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
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Sarah Thorne
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Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		17%
3 star		9%
2 star		4%
1 star		7%

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Eric le rouge

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 6 July 2011

Verified Purchase

I just wanted to confirm the various reviews on this book.
I finished this book in a couple of days so it was keeping me interested.
The only "hic" is the last chapters to do with racism. I found them a bit naive and full of useless text.
Otherwise, definitely a "must buy"

One person found this helpful

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Karel Kovanda

This book is fascinating on its treatment of how languages ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 19 July 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is fascinating on its treatment of how languages can be grouped and how they spread around the world. On the evolution of Homo Sapiens, it is dated - having been written a couple of decades ago.

One person found this helpful

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RWalker

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 23 December 2014

Verified Purchase

very interesting tome

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 31 December 2018

Verified Purchase

Very poor condition, not as advertised.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 October 2015

excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 26 January 2015

Imagine a scientist, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, recounting his professional life to his son, Francesco Cavalli-Sforza, a creator and producer of educational films. That is more or less what this book is all about. But it is still written as a first-person account, presumably because the interview form would have been too dry. Because the author speaks to a non-scientist you can imagine that the book is not intended for specialists. Obviously a great effort was deployed to make a difficult subject, population genetics, accessible to a vast public. The chapters are quite varied and the reader may have the impression that the author is jumping from one topic to another; but this only reflects the fact that the book covers the entire career of the author and that his professional endeavours are relatively vast in scope. But the overall coherence is preserved because all the topics have something to do with population genetics, which is the common thread here.

If you are already familiar with the basic concepts of the gene you may have the impression at the beginning that the book was written for children. The author seems to assume that the reader knows next to nothing about biological sciences. If that is the case for you you will love it. But if you have already been initiated you will have to be patient and wait for the second half of the book where we enter into the meat of the subject. Here is what you can expect, as presented in the preface:

Chapter 1 discusses the pygmies and the last remaining tribes of hunter-gatherers, those who still practice the lifestyle that characterized the whole species until ten thousand years ago.

Chapters 2/3 describe what we know of the development of humans up to one hundred thousand years ago and then, with modern humans, until now.

Chapter 4 explores the theory of evolution, and the forces that have joined or divided living creatures over time.

Chapters 5/6/7 tell the story of the peoples colonizing the planet in the last one hundred thousand years, the slow, inexorable expansion of agriculture in the last ten thousand years; and the extraordinary diversification of languages that has accompanied the spread of humankind.

Chapter 8 addresses our cultural and genetic heritage.

Chapter 9 looks at the crucial topics of race and racism.

Chapter 10 is about the genetic future of humans, genetic engineering, and current attempts to describe fully the inheritance of every human being (the Human Genome Project).

After reading this book you will have a better understanding of our origins and where we are all coming from. Be prepared to loose any prejudice you might have about race, which as you will discover is a very hard to define concept. Interestingly the whole book is about genetics but in the end you will find out that this is only one third of what differentiates us as individuals. The story stops as the Human Genome Project is just getting started, so it is not up to date. And of couse it could not take into account the results of the Human Genome Diversity project which followed. Yet it remains essential reading for anyone who wants to understand our origins and is still one of the best introduction to population genetics.

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Follow the Authors

The Great Human Diasporas: The History Of Diversity and Evolution (Helix Books) Paperback – 6 Nov. 1996

Product description

About the Author

Product details

About the authors

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza

Sarah Thorne

Customer reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.