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Who We Are and How We Got Here

Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
Aug 12, 2018pmaison rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
5 STARS - Fascinating read ! David Reich paints an up-to-date picture of how our human ancestors spread out of Africa and around the globe. It's not a simple picture, involving layers of migration, intermixing, back-migrations, and has many ground shaking implications. 1) "ethnic purity" is in most cases wishful thinking 2) "race" is a fuzzy - and increasingly less meaningful - biological concept 3) ideas of ethnic or racial superiority are undercut by (1) and (2). This picture is based on the work by bone hunters, population geneticists and , more recently, by molecular biologists using DNA analysis. The result is a revolution in our ability to peer far into humanity's past. Most exciting is that we're not done exploring and the picture will change as we discover new evidence of extinct human lineages. I hope this book get widely read - especially in our schools.