Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-275) and index.

Until just a few years ago, we knew surprisingly little about the 150,000 or so years of human existence before the advent of writing. Some of the most momentous events in our past--including our origins, our migrations across the globe, and our acquisition of language--were veiled in the uncertainty of "prehistory." That veil is being lifted at last by geneticists and other scientists. Mapping Human History is nothing less than an astonishing "history of prehistory." Best of all, the story it tells, of why groups of humans differ and what those differences mean, pertains to our lives today. Steve Olson traveled through four continents to gather insights into the development of humans and our expansion throughout the world. He describes, for example, new thinking about how centers of agriculture sprang up from disparate foraging societies at roughly the same time. He tells us why we can all claim Julius Caesar and Confucius among our forebears. He pinpoints the ways in which the story of the Jewish people jibes with, and diverges from, biblical accounts. And, using very recent genetic findings, he explodes the myth that human races are a biological reality. In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Olson's Mapping Human History offers an ambitious, original, and convincing narrative that reveals where we came from and how we became who we are possibly have biological origins.

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