This one is MEATY. If you dug Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" then this will be right up your alley. Wade approaches a broad swath of subjects such as the human exodus from Africa, language, settlement, evolution and race from a genetics perspective. Using a stack of academic publication citations (351 in a 279 page book), he brings together recent research around the human genome and other academic fields to create a picture of human pre-history. Genetic drift, natural selection, and sexual selection are central themes. But the range of interesting subjects is fairly limitless: the fragmentary effect of the last glacial maximum on human settlements, conflict between homo sapiens and neanderthals, the isolated pocket of miniature homo erectus (homo florensis), Natufians: the first occupants of permanent dwellings, the reactivation of lactase production in populations descended from the funnel beaker people, skin color and the vitamin D problem, the thinning of bones (gracilization) and increased sociability in modern people, the constancy of and evolutionary basis behind primitive warfare, and my favorite: the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method of language dating. Cool! The data he cites certainly sheds light on potential answers about who we are, where we came from and what is different between us. However, I think that he goes a bit far at times with conjecture... there is just a bit too much "therefore it is not unreasonable to believe..." and similar wind ups. Overall, one of my favorite recent books. Reba actually reviewed this one for http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk but it's not been posted yet.
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That sounds like a good book. I'm going to check it out? Have you read Steven Pinker's new book yet?
love,
Sue
PS Istanbul sounded really interesting!
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