The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human EvolutionResistance 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. |
What people are saying - Write a review
User ratings
5 stars |
| ||
4 stars |
| ||
3 stars |
| ||
2 stars |
| ||
1 star |
|
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
LibraryThing Review
User Review - BillRob - LibraryThingGreat book showing how the development of "modern" human practices drove evolution into our current Modern practices that we all love today. Several thought leaders today would label this book as ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - vpfluke - LibraryThingIn contrast to many biologists, this book sets out to show that human evolution has moved faster since the onslaught of civilization. The difference between races is more than cultural, but to some ... Read full review
Other editions - View all
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Gregory Cochran,Henry Harpending No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
adaptive admixture advantage Africa agriculture alleles American Amerindians anatomically modern humans ancestors ancestry archaic humans Ashkenazi Jews Asia average bees behavior behavioral modernity biological brain cause cells centuries Châtelperronian chromosome common copies cultural derthals diet dogs domesticated dystrophin early effects elites ethnic Europe European eventually evidence evolutionary example expansion farmers farming favorable mutations FOXP2 frequency gene flow genetic changes genetic diseases genetic variation genome growth haplotype happened hemoglobin Homo Human Genetics human populations hunter-gatherers important increased individuals Indo-European infectious disease innovation intelligence introgression Jared Diamond Jewish Journal of Human language metabolic Microcephalin Middle East mtDNA mutations natural selection Nean Neanderthals neighbors northern OCA2 originated particular pattern percent protein Proto-Indo-Europeans recent regions role Sarmatians selective pressures skin color social societies species sphingolipid spread sub-Saharan there’s tion traits University Press Upper Paleolithic variants Y chromosome York