Ancient History
Book Review: Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
(out of 5 stars)
Science journalist Nicholas Wade has delivered an exploration of human genetics in the spirit of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. Wade works backwards in time, using genetic clues to discover knowledge about prehistoric human societies. Before the Dawn offers a breadth of knowledge about current genetic research into human populations and migrations, and draws some fascinating conclusions about the rise and dispersal of early human societies.
Wade's narrative largely follows research into genetic variations found in the Y chromosome and in mitochondrial DNA. These variations, the distribution of which allows researchers to track common ancestry and branching, are used to narrow the likely periods of human movement out of Africa to points beyond. A bit of time is spent on the earliest culturally modern humans in Africa before moving on latter periods of migration and settlement. Potential interactions with hominid relatives is discussed, as is the impact of various cold spells and ice ages.
Wade explores social behavior as well, showing how researchers have applied darwinian natural selection and genetic drift to account for both universal and isolated behaviors. Later, language is considered, with significant caveats as to its effectiveness in signalling fundamental shifts in human population. The discussion on race is well crafted. Wade does not bow to social pressure in describing genetic variations found among the races, including a fascinating discussion of the intellectual prowess of Ashkenazi Jews. Just to be clear, Wade is not advocating superiority of any race, he wants only to point out that there are significant data indicating genetic differences of isolated human populations can produce measurably different abilities.
I found Before the Dawn to be fascinating, and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. Wade may not be a scientist, but he has conducted a thorough investigation into the ongoing research of population genetics and offers the reader a tremendous treat of science and history. Five stars.
