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The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey | 
 enlarge | Author: Spencer Wells
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $6.33
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Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 29325
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0812971469
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.938
EAN: 9780812971460
ASIN: 0812971469
Publication Date: February 17, 2004
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Condition: good overall condition, ships fast!
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Amazon.com Review
Spencer Wells traces human evolution back to our very first ancestor in The Journey of Man. Along the way, he sums up the explosive effect of new techniques in genetics on the field of evolutionary biology and all available evidence from the fossil record. Wells's seemingly sexist title is purposeful: he argues that the Y chromosome gives us a unique opportunity to follow our migratory heritage back to a sort of Adam, just as earlier work in mitochondrial DNA allowed the identification of Eve, mother of all Homo sapiens. While his descriptions of the advances made by such luminary scientists as Richard Lewontin and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza can be dry, Wells comes through with sparkling metaphors when it counts, as when he compares genetic drift to a bouillabaisse recipe handed down through a village's generations. Though finding our primal male is an exciting prospect, the real revolution Wells describes is racial. Or rather, nonracial, as he reiterates the scientific truth that our notions of what makes us different from each other are purely cultural, not based in biology. The case for an "out of Africa" scenario of human migration is solid in this book, though Wells makes it clear when he is hypothesizing anything controversial. Readers interested in a fairly technical, but not overwhelming, summary of the remarkable conclusions of 21st-century human evolutionary biology will find The Journey of Man a perfect primer. --Therese Littleton
Product Description
Around 60,000 years ago, a man—genetically identical to us—lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up as the father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races?
Examining the hidden secrets of human evolution in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the revolutionary science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. Replete with marvelous anecdotes and remarkable information, from the truth about the real Adam and Eve to the way differing racial types emerged, The Journey of Man is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
 Too dumbed-down August 29, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a major letdown. While one might be somewhat entertained by it, you won't come away from it with any understanding of anything. The writing is vague and the scientific methods are hardly mentioned. I suppose the author or his editors were afraid of scaring people. Here's the entire description of restriction enzymes: "...biochemical techniques can generate DNA fragments of a particular length based on their sequence." That's it. He manages to take a few sentences to vaguely describe gel electrophoresis, but of course never bothers to use the term "gel electrophoresis." Don't bother with this one.
 Great Companion to the PBS Video! February 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I came to know about Dr Wells' work through the PBS documentary and I made sure that I got it on video so that I could slowly digest the information in it. I was amazed at the findings that we all have a common ancestor from Africa and as recently as only 60 thousand years ago! As the documentary stated at the end, any notions of racism and bigotry based on race after this discovery is just plain wrong and parochial and the implications is that we have no excuse to try and segregate but instead it makes more sense to integrate and work to a common cause: the betterment of the human race.
Still, as any movie is constrained by time, I was sure that there must have been more to this than was presented and so I decided to get the book as well. I wasn't disappointed; there are loads more information here that added to my understanding from what I learned from the video. Although it is around 200 pages long, I found it to be an easy read for the layman like myself with little technical jargon used that is not fully explained.
Wells has got a talent for simplifying complex ideas for lay understanding. If you liked the PBS documentary and want to understand further then this book is the one to get.
Highly recommended.
 really interesting January 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really got a lot out of this book--it's a bit of a dry read at times, and some of the genetic science gets a little bit heavy (particularly in the beginning), but I learned a lot from reading. A lot of quotable new ideas in here that I wanted to talk about with friends immediately--the extinction of Neanderthals, the early advent of modern humans in Australia, the difference between human and animal as appreciated by a simple grammatical structure, and the ability to track lineage from placental and Y chromosom DNA being some things that spring immediately to mind. Worth dipping into.
Loved it! December 18, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I absolutely loved this book! I think the Genographic Project is amazing. Sadly I wish more people could accept Evolution. It's just hard for some to break away from indoctrination.
I want to know my genetic markers! November 22, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent reading and documentary. This subject really fascinate me because it provide important information about the origins of population in the whole world -- and I was interested in knowing more about the origins of the Indians of South America. The author's impressive work, allow us to trace our origins via some genetic markers, from the Y chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and is interesting how, for example, we can establish that Neanderthal could not have mixed with Cromagnons since mtDNA differs a great deal compare to Homosapiens and also because there is no indicative marker in European people about the event in the period of possible mixing between the two "species", so in this way we can discard a likely interbreeding between a male Neanderthal and a female Homosapiens --- though we cannot say that interbreeding was not possible.
The author also makes use of the the history of languages to explain its correlation with our genetic patterns, another very interesting subject to read about (for example, the book "A Short History of Languages"). After reading this book I really would like to know my markers, but at least I have a hint of them.
Note: I already have my Y Chromosome Analysis if anyone with same lastname wants to compare.
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