Genes, Peoples, and Languages (Penguin Press Science) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Unfortunately, due to the vastness of this topic I found the quality of information on each point to be quite superficial and unsatisfying for my needs. For example, about the Japanese he merely states that the genetics and linguistics indicate that the modern Japanese are believed to be the product of the combination of the original Jomon people represented by today's Ainu and Okinawans, and the later Yayoi people who crossed over from Korea. And on the Hungarians, he merely says that research reflects their origins in Asia. Well, anyone with even the most basic of knowledge about the early history of these peoples already KNOWS this information and it is hardly anything new. I would be more interested in learning for example whether the genetic results on the Hungarians indicate any sort of genetic input from neighbouring non-Finno-Ugrians, etc. But none of this sort of detail is ever provided.

As I read this book over the Christmas vacation, I found myself likening the experience to eating a piece of traditional Christmas fruitcake. In one paragraph, Cavalli-Sforza might begin talking about a topic of particular interest to me that I found particularly "delicious", and I would say "mmm" in anticipation. But I was then disappointed to find that by the next paragraph (or "mouthful" of information, to continue the Christmas cake analogy), he had already rushed onto another unrelated topic of a different flavour. On the whole, I found the book to be quite uneven (--or should I say "lumpy"?).

This book basically condenses the information contained in Cavalli-Sforza's classic 1994 work "The History and Geography of Human Genes", and mixes it with a dose of basic linguistics. The only new information is data on the genetics of the populations of the Caucasus region, which was previously unavailable. For me, the most useful part of the book has turned out to be its up-to-date bibliography which will directly me to the more detailed information I seek, much of it hidden away in obscure journal articles.

If you are brand new to the area of origins of peoples, this book is probably just right for you. But if you have any knowledge about prehistory or linguistics you will probably find this book as unsatisfying as I have. Overall, I'd recommend spending the extra bucks and getting the original work mentioned above. This is what I will now have to do.

Defragmentation:
Although two of the specialism, linguistics and genetics, are united there are still a lot more topic areas to unite in order to provide a fuller map to ancient prehistory, namely climate habitats over time, domesticated animals (their migration & diseases), crops, ancient astronomical/calendar knowledge analysis, seafaring, folklore and cave art.
Maybe then, we will be in a position to use more than conjecture to fill the gaps by using under-utilised or ignored artefacts to see the overlays of the various subject areas thro' time.

Short Comings:
I enjoyed his use of PCA, however this should be moved to the appendices to minimise the disruption to the flow.
Although it is well known that climate is the principal force on evolution, effecting the pulses and rhythms of crops/migrations there is no review of the climates over the period in question.
Thus snapshots thro' time showing different habitat zones, groupings ( for hunters, grazers/nomads and agriculturists) and impact on cultures would be of great use.
The analysis of agriculture and Mesolithic/pastoral nomads is scattered and fragmented over the pages.
Unsettlingly maps of Eurasia were provided showing the migrations and influence over time there was no such map provided for Africa and Oceania/Australia.
The author refers to Neanderthals and states that there was no interbreeding with modern man ? No mention is made of Java man in terms of the significance of this region, nor little reference to the, South Asian and Australian Aborigines.

The author accepts that the Australian Aborigines sailed there approx 50-60kyrs bp. Tie this into the fact that the most interesting human explorers, the Polynesian , explored and traded from Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, in the West to Rapa Nui ('Easter' Island) in the East, only 2,000 from Chile. There is no analysis of their influence in Latin America. With the Humboldt current from Peru & Chile would have brought this island within a week or two sailing.
Witness the Palaeolithic rock art and Aborigine remains found by Dr. Walter Neves (Univ. of Sao Paulo) and Marcello Caosta Souza in Brazil and Tierra del Fuego-Chile, see also 'Man Across the Sea' (Univ. of Texas ) by Riley, Kelley, Pennington.

Only one and a bit paragraphs are focused to the Dravidians of South India, recognised as having one of the oldest linguistic branches (older than the Eurasiatic languages at least).
Is it because of our Westerncentric bias, we can only see a cave-man culture in Eurasia, in Late Palaeolithic, and can't seem to enter into our 'Neanderthal' like skulls, that there were other distinctive and hospitable / tropical climates elsewhere, (e.g. Oceania, India, Middle East, Australia, etc), during the ice-age ?
I was disappointed in the blind adoption of current dogma as the earliest migrations of the modern humans into the Americas via the Bering straight ? Similarly the author contends that agriculture only came about in the last 10 ky bp (page 160).
To 'nit pick' further, the book refers the family structure favoured by the Celts in France as 'patriarchal', however anybody who is familiar with Celtic society would recognise that women ARE accepted as 'chief of the household' and one only has to look to female chieftain warriors such as Queen Bodica, who fought the authors compatriots in Roman times, to answer that view.

Unanswered Questions:-
Little or no mention was made to the hypothesis that mankind migrated on coastal routes, with it's adequate supply of food, similar habitats and fresh water supplied by river sources. Only later was the interior explored, along river routes. This provided food, water and transport mechanism, hence navigation, even to cross rivers, was an early not later skill as indicated in the book.
Were there distinct patterns to distinguish hunter-gathers, nomadic herders and farmers. Such that hunter gathers were early domesticators of dogs, while nomadic herders adopted horses and farmers held pigs ?
Very interestingly he indicated strongly that the Basques/Euskera were related to early Cro-Magnion Europeans and possibly related to the Hunza people speaking Burushaski language in Pakistan, this was all too brief and sketchy.

Conflicting Images:
I found the section the Turkish colonisation of Byzantium very interesting. What struck me was the statement that there was little genetic trace of the original conquerors, all that really changed was the 'software' (language, culture and religion).
It is a young science, but it struck me how this might effect the human discourse in the trouble spots of our 'intelligent' species
Lounes Chikhi, (UCL UK), and colleagues, are looking for markers/tracers by analysing Y mutations, Unique Event Polymorphism's (UEPs).

Future Research:-
Can we find out a bit more information on earlier and later population contacts for the Basques, Indian Dravidians, PNG, the Guanche of Canary islands and Negritos/Aborigines of Asia.
More linguistic research work of the type carried out by Joseph Greenberg on the Papua New Guneans, Aborigines of Oceania-Australia-SE Asia, and of course the Dravidians.
Research into the flow of domesticated animals, such as pigs, dogs, goats, horses etc or fruit, rice, cereals, sugar cane and sweat potatoes needs to be carried out. Witness techniques such as RAPYD (Randomly Polymorphised DNA) and plant finger-printing being carried out by Dr. Paul Keim, USA.

There was an all too brief section on Cultural Transmissions/Imprinting. How are old native cultures to survive in the hegemony of the dominant cultures, assist in conserving cultures and languages such as Basque/Euskera. inEurope and ? elsewhere !