World History
I just finished this excellent book which was written by Nicholas Wade. The author is a science reporter for the New York Times. The book covers a lot but the essence of the book is how the study of the human genome is allowing scientists and historians to learn more about the early origins of humanity.
Wade's coverage includes the ancient near extinction of humanity (DNA analysis shows at one point there were only 5000 humans left after a mass die off), human migration, and intra-human relations between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. He also talks about the idea of race and the violent warmaking nature of human society.
On race, a Publisher's Weekly review noted, "And while 'race' is often a dirty word in science, one of the book's best chapters shows how racial differences can be marked genetically and why this is important, not least for the treatment of diseases."
As can be expected, those who dislike the notion of race do not like this book. One reviewer at Amazon wrote, "I hate to bad rap a book but this one seems to begin with the false premise that there is such a thing as 'race'. Geneticists, biologists and anthropologists have relegated the concept of race to the intellectual dung heap of pseudoscience." This review is of course misleading. The idea that race is not a sociological invention is still being debated. And whether you want to call it "race" or not, there are genetic differences in human populations and these can be used to trace the origins of the species, understand how mankind migrated, and help doctors treat diseases today.
Others are objecting to the emphasis on early humans as being natural born killers. An anonymous reviewer in The Week wrote, "Wade is on particularly shaky ground when he insists that the ancient past was a time of unrelenting violence." Yet, for the vast majority of human history, humans lived as primitives and existed in a violent natural world. It took a long time for humans to develop what we would regard as civilization. Are we supposed to believe that the ancient humans were pacifists? That is unlikely. Intuitively, it would make sense to argue that the early humans would be more violent than we are today to deal with a hostile natural world. Wade can not prove this but it is a sound hypothesis.
All in all, this is a good book. It is well written and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.
- The Horse
Although you may not have thought a lot about it, the relationship between the horse and humans has been rather successful for both parties. No other riding animal has had as much impact. Sure, Hannibal had elephants but they didn't do him much good...
- Review - Under A Green Sky
I just finished reading Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future. It was written by Peter D. Ward. I found it interesting but somewhat hard to read due to some choices the author...
- Human Evolution Speeding Up?
Ralph E. Schmid at Time has an article titled Human Evolution Speeding Up? In it he wrote, "People are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, with residents of various continents becoming increasingly different from one another, researchers say."...
- Violent Atheists Of The 20th Century
I read an article in the September 11th, 2006 issue of Newsweek. It is called "The New Naysayers" and it discusses the arguments of several scholars who are currently advocating atheism. In the article, it describes the arguments of Richard Dawkins who...
- From Art And Tools Came Human Origins
From Art and Tools Came Human Origins. Larry Barham reports in British Archaeology that evidence of modern human behaviour 200,000 years old may have been found in Africa. From the site: Until fairly recently, modern humans were thought to have emerged...
World History
Before the Dawn : Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
I just finished this excellent book which was written by Nicholas Wade. The author is a science reporter for the New York Times. The book covers a lot but the essence of the book is how the study of the human genome is allowing scientists and historians to learn more about the early origins of humanity.Wade's coverage includes the ancient near extinction of humanity (DNA analysis shows at one point there were only 5000 humans left after a mass die off), human migration, and intra-human relations between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. He also talks about the idea of race and the violent warmaking nature of human society.
On race, a Publisher's Weekly review noted, "And while 'race' is often a dirty word in science, one of the book's best chapters shows how racial differences can be marked genetically and why this is important, not least for the treatment of diseases."
As can be expected, those who dislike the notion of race do not like this book. One reviewer at Amazon wrote, "I hate to bad rap a book but this one seems to begin with the false premise that there is such a thing as 'race'. Geneticists, biologists and anthropologists have relegated the concept of race to the intellectual dung heap of pseudoscience." This review is of course misleading. The idea that race is not a sociological invention is still being debated. And whether you want to call it "race" or not, there are genetic differences in human populations and these can be used to trace the origins of the species, understand how mankind migrated, and help doctors treat diseases today.
Others are objecting to the emphasis on early humans as being natural born killers. An anonymous reviewer in The Week wrote, "Wade is on particularly shaky ground when he insists that the ancient past was a time of unrelenting violence." Yet, for the vast majority of human history, humans lived as primitives and existed in a violent natural world. It took a long time for humans to develop what we would regard as civilization. Are we supposed to believe that the ancient humans were pacifists? That is unlikely. Intuitively, it would make sense to argue that the early humans would be more violent than we are today to deal with a hostile natural world. Wade can not prove this but it is a sound hypothesis.
All in all, this is a good book. It is well written and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.
- The Horse
Although you may not have thought a lot about it, the relationship between the horse and humans has been rather successful for both parties. No other riding animal has had as much impact. Sure, Hannibal had elephants but they didn't do him much good...
- Review - Under A Green Sky
I just finished reading Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future. It was written by Peter D. Ward. I found it interesting but somewhat hard to read due to some choices the author...
- Human Evolution Speeding Up?
Ralph E. Schmid at Time has an article titled Human Evolution Speeding Up? In it he wrote, "People are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, with residents of various continents becoming increasingly different from one another, researchers say."...
- Violent Atheists Of The 20th Century
I read an article in the September 11th, 2006 issue of Newsweek. It is called "The New Naysayers" and it discusses the arguments of several scholars who are currently advocating atheism. In the article, it describes the arguments of Richard Dawkins who...
- From Art And Tools Came Human Origins
From Art and Tools Came Human Origins. Larry Barham reports in British Archaeology that evidence of modern human behaviour 200,000 years old may have been found in Africa. From the site: Until fairly recently, modern humans were thought to have emerged...