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10000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human 10,000 YEAR EXPLOSION: HOW CIVILIZATION ACCELERATED HUMAN EVOLUTION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Gregory Cochran,Henry Harpending | 256 pages | 18 Nov 2010 | The Perseus Books Group | 9780465020423 | English | New York, United States 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution PDF Book I read this book right before reading The Sports Gene, by David Epstein, which follows the same threads to help explain why extraordinary athletes seem to cluster in certain populations. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Not only is a delay in self- gratification needed, but also qualities like the ability to make long range plans and possessiveness not sharing your wheat with neighbors. I can certainly agree that it seems like there's been an increase in traits favoring abstract reasoning since the Bronze Age. And transcription factors can be and often are triggered by environment! Dewey Decimal. As soon as I opened up this book and started to read, I I have a long held interest in evolution and anthropology. Your children may mutate though. Where the usual geographical analysis treats the distribution of genes as an effect of history, in the authors' view, the genes themselves are a major cause: Two variants in the same gene do not necessarily have the same effect, and their relative, selective benefits will control the spread of genes through populations in both space and time. According to Cochran and Harpending, it supports the idea that modern humans could have benefited by acquiring adaptive alleles evolved by our Neanderthal relatives - in this case, microcephalin , an adaptive allele associated with brain development. Apr 15, Paul R. It made me think about whether ADD is an illness or simply an adaptation to our faster and faster paced media barrage. The fact that Cochran is listed as "a physicist and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology" gives a hint at the boundary-crossing nature of this book's point of view. The conclusions and arguments outlined in these sections are often provocative, but in the "post-genomic era" we are already taking steps toward consilience , so this is only the first of no doubt many intellectual endeavors to navigate the waters between disciplines. Not only that, but the human "environment" is to a large extent self-created, our species' expansion to northern climes only being enabled by the utilization of clothing derived from other animals. There were far fewer citations than appropriate, and many claims were presented as fact without a shred of supporting evidence. US Show more US. So then one can argue that many changes in species are not the result of genetic changes but rather environmental changes that trigger different transcription mechanisms. This book is thrilling to read because its authors have the courage to take on the establishment, but this book is eerie to read because it mixes facts with probability statements, and because it opens a door to some shadowy and even dangerous innuendo. The authors speculate that the scientific and Industrial Revolutions came about in part due to genetic changes in Europe over the past millennium, the absence of which had limited the progress of science in Ancient Greece. European ones. It was a complete game-changer in terms of sustenance, culture, warfare, and our relationship to the environment. So far, so good, but then the 10, Year Explosion went completely off the rails, starting with hypotheses based on existing facts ok so far , then extrapolating hypotheses on top of those and continuing on a train of reasoning with slim to know factual support to arrive at Modern society might also create many avenues for misusing those traits of abstract reasoning and logical deduction endless fan-wiki pages on obscure TV shows are a good example of these faculties gone awry - this is on a surface level identical to doing real knowledge work, but is completely sterile , however it seems reasonable to say that, Idiocracy aside, smarter people might have a definite reproductive advantage in environments that reward cleverness over the long haul. Evolutionary genetics presented in a practical accessible manner. Sign in. In itself, this argument represents a paradigm shift , albeit one that now has clear data to back it up. It's the high point of their lives. Th Conventional wisdom holds that genetic evolution takes place over extremely long periods of time--thousands of years--so that, in the 10K years since the beginning of agriculture, humans' gene-culture coevolution has been overwhelmingly dominated by the cultural component. The authors are eager to attribute things to genetics that have no obvious connection to reproductive fitness again with little or no evidence and do more than just flirt with discredited notions of racial intelligence. Despite the abstruse theoretical frameworks, the concreteness of the specific illustrations as well as the clean and compact prose renders The 10, Year Explosion a relatively quickly read, and so an excellent introduction to the discoveries of the new century. This weakened their theories and arguments. It made me think about what it is that puts organisms into a different sub-species and I found it can be significant not necessarily large physical changes or behavioral changes, like the differences in behavior from one type of honeybee to another. The devil is in the details, however, and this is where the book comes up short. These may include tendencies towards for example reduced physical strength, enhanced long-term planning, or increased docility, all of which may have been counter-productive in hunter-gatherer societies, but become favoured adaptations in a world of agriculture and its resulting trade, governments and urbanization. I'd certainly take a class with Dr. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Enlarge cover. Therefore, this book, which believes that biological evolution is continuing, or even speeding up, is argumentative, important, controversial, and stirring. Jul 08, Stephen rated it it was amazing. Sep 17, Lou Schuler rated it it was amazing Shelves: history , nonfiction , health. Over the period from 10, BC to AD 1, the world population increased about a hundredfold - estimates range from 40 to times. I am not a believer in eugenics in any way, shape or form. The authors repeatedly assert that conventional wisdom stipulates that no evolution has occurred in recent human history, and that current anthropological thought indicates that all patterns and changes in the last 10, years may be ascribed to cultural or environmental forces rather than biological ones. The gap between ethnic groups is not closing in this country. Read more Anthropologist Cadell Last wrote that by using race as a natural fact, the book "undermines the attempt to find a legitimate scientific approach to understanding recent human evolution and conceptualizing human genetic diversity" and that it was "unfortunate" that it had received "praise from prominent, influential well-established biological anthropologists" such as John D. 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Writer The book also touched on the biggest taboo of all and made a very convincing case intelligence and genetics- in particular the intelligence of Jews. Except, as it turns out, agriculture was a force for rapid and continued evolution. If I wanted to read racist pseudoscience, I would look up something from s Germany. This had the interesting consequence that the better off were reproductively more successful than the poor. A real eye opener. Team or Enterprise Premium FT. Overall, I felt that this book was lacking in scientific soundness. That dominant belief is also comforting, since it is based upon the idea that all human gene pools form one essential entity, and that there are no important genetic group differences among us. The advent of agriculture propelled human evolution, not to mention a huge population boom. In The 10, Year Explosion Greg Cochran and Henry Harpending suggest that the rise of complex societies, and in particular agriculture, increased the tempo of evolution! Related Articles. My Science Shop Elements Flashcards. And believe me, people have been frantically looking for one for sixty, seventy years. Unfortunately, they present no evidence. About Henry Harpending. Three such threats will be discussed at this conference. Just don't insult my intelligence by building such a poor case with such strong and decisive language. Today one only has to look at the numbers to see the enormous contribution the Ashkenazi Jews have made to the world. Friend Reviews. For that matter, we know that things like skin color have evolved in the time since some humans left Africa and others stayed behind , so one begins to wonder why scientists ever thought that there was no difference in the genetics of modern humans and those of 50, years ago. 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Reviews We looked for the answer, and Peter Wilson's The Domestication of the Human Species seemed promising it treated a cultural, rather than genetic, history, however, which was disappointing. Infectious diseases were another consequence of the early urban populations and soon became a new source of selection pressures. If you enjoy this book half as much as I did, you will have enjoyed it indeed. That dominant belief is also comforting, since it is based upon the idea that all human gene pools form one essential entity, and that there are no important genetic group differences among us. I will not give it away here. I was very frustrated by this book's or I was seriously underwhelmed by this work. When you view your parents or grandparents, and you know that they're retired, they could relax. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
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