Who We Are and How We Got Here Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

by REICH, DAVID

• ISBN13: 9781101873465
• ISBN10: 1101873469
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-02-05
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

A groundbreaking book about how ancient DNA has profoundly changed our understanding of human history.
 
Geneticists like David Reich have made astounding advances in the field of genomics, which is proving to be as important as archeology, linguistics, and written records as a means to understand our ancestry. 
 
In Who We Are and How We Got Here, Reich allows readers to discover how the human genome provides not only all the information a human embryo needs to develop but also the hidden story of our species. Reich delves into how the genomic revolution is transforming our understanding of modern humans and how DNA studies reveal deep inequalities among different populations, between the sexes, and among individuals. Provocatively, Reich’s book suggests that there might very well be biological differences among human populations but that these differences are unlikely to conform to common stereotypes.
 
Drawing upon revolutionary findings and unparalleled scientific studies, Who We Are and How We Got Here is a captivating glimpse into humankind—where we came from and what that says about our lives today.

Author Biography

DAVID REICH, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is one of the world’s leading pioneers in analyzing ancient human DNA. In a 2015 article in Nature, he was named one of ten people who matter in all of the sciences for his contribution to transforming ancient DNA data "from niche pursuit to industrial process." Awards he has received include the Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Dan David Prize in the Archaeological and Natural Sciences for his computational discovery of intermixing between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 
Introduction 
 
Part I The Deep History of Our Species 
1 How the Genome Explains Who We Are 
2 Encounters with Neanderthals 
3 Ancient DNA Opens the Floodgates 
 
Part II How We Got to Where We Are Today 
4 Humanity’s Ghosts 
5 The Making of Modern Europe 
6 The Collision That Formed India 
7 In Search of Native American Ancestors 
8 The Genomic Origins of East Asians  
9 Rejoining Africa to the Human Story 
 
Part III The Disruptive Genome 
10 The Genomics of Inequality 
11 The Genomics of Race and Identity 
12 The Future of Ancient DNA 
 
Notes on the Illustrations 
Notes 
Index