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Title: The Seven Daughters of Eve
ISBN: 0393323145
Author:
Bryan Sykes
Publicate Date: 2002-05
Publish: 2002-05
List Price: $16.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $9.55
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.76
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.53
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1: Genetics, human migration and archeaological findings
Mr. Skyes narrates his lifetime investigations and his team's discoveries in genetics and merges them with his knowledge of history, archaeological findings (like pottery style and design) and human migrations. This part I found very interesting, although I know there are diverging opinions regarding the two main migrations that are described; in each of the two cases this book is an excellent account of one side of the debate. Mr. Skyes writes with such passion about his point of view and the wrongness of the other scientists, that it makes the story far more interesting and I am definitely compelled to read the other side of it.
The book explains in an easy to read and understandable way the basics of DNA markers and how we can trace our female ancestors through mitochondrial DNA. By means of analyzing the mutations in mitochondrial DNA, scientists can estimate the approximate time and place when the human race appeared on earth and how they expanded from Africa to Asia and Europe. The concept of the seven daughters of Eve, of which the European women descend is also quite interesting, since it does not mean that all women of their tribe had the same DNA (there could have been others), but this seven woman were the only ones to have descendants until our time.
The first part of this book is one of the best books I have read. The author writes as if it were a novel and succeeds to transmit his passion for the subject. The book may oversimplify things a bit and some conclusions might have been taken too far, but in any case it is an interesting and thought provoking reading. Now I will try to find something about Adam...
The second part of the book seems as if the author did not find enough material to complete it, so he introduced short narratives about the life in "clans" of the 7 daughters of Eve. Mr. Skyes should have asked Jean M. Auel to co-author the second part of the book, then if the stories were not to add value to the scientific part of the book, at least they would have been more entertaining. In the end, it doesn't matter, the first part is well worth the reading, just skip the rest.
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2: Who is Your Mommy?
I read this book because I had read about National Geographic's Genome Project including the book by the Project Director Spencer Wells. I wanted to learn more on the subject and get other points of view.
The first part of Sykes' book is the most interesting because he summarizes the major advances especially on the maternal side better than Wells without being too technical. The other book was shorter but more technical. Sykes really writes an informative book that takes us step by step through the advances in genetics following the mother's mitochondrial DNA in a kind of "gee whiz" manner about the dicoveries. I accepted that enthusiasm because he does tell you at the beginning that he is a scientist, but his writing is understandable. He elaborates on the scientific debates as a way to communicate the shadings of judgement that go into advancing this frontier of science. The application of genetics to ancestry is fascinating stuff to me..a non scientist. It is...within a short period of time...opening a new door and accelerating the study of Mankind and the evolution of our species. You also get a picture of past Ice Ages and a discussion of "What Happened to the Neanderthals."
In the second part of the book, Sykes speculates on the day to day lives of the seven daughters. After reading the first of these I skipped to the last 2 chapters, then closed the book. I am glad I read the chapters I did.
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3: Eve
This book is great for the average person. What a way to explain our DNA & what was impressive to me was how he came about narrowing down our ancestors & particularly how we all are related back to Eve's children! I would love to know which one is my ancestral Mom! Mother's are special, and he makes us realize it more!
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4: Fascinating on many levels
Bryan Sykes has an exceptionally clear and engaging writing style and he has lot of interesting material to share. I found this book very interesting on multiple levels:
a. Exceptionally interesting DNA case studies of the Hamsters, the last Russian Czars, the Polynesians and Europians in particular as well as other ones comparing Homo Sapiens (us) with the Neanderthals. As an aside - the history fo the hamsters described is very interesting - did you know that these are originally from Syria and that all the millions of pet hamsters living today are the direct descendants of a single feamle hamster that lived in 1930! This whole interesting story is one among many described in this interesting book.
b. Very good perspective from a top scientist - the incredible rigor involved, the difficult questions to address and how solutions were slowly developed by his team, the competition, the challenges from the establishment and others alike, the emotions involved.....
c. Exceptionally clear explanations of the actual genetics involved - very clear and concise descriptions of concepts that are all too often glossed over in many other books written for the general reader
d. The actual recreations of the 7 Eves - an approach that several reviewers have objected to, however, i found those chapters insightful as well
Some reviewers have taken exception to the "self-centered approach" but in my view that is part and parcel of describing several ground-breaking and cutting-edge studies in the first person.
Overall, a very interesting book and one that has got me thinking of getting my own DNA analyzed as well. I expect to read other books from Bryan Sykes as well. Can't recommend it strongly enough.
-Sudip Chahal
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5: A good book, but with flaws
Overall, I found the book to be good. The author's descriptions of DNA replication, the role of proteins, the epochs of prehistory (e.g. Paleolithic) were all done well, providing reference material for later inquiry. I enjoyed the author's stories of discovery including the impact of politics, chance and misfortune. As with religion, politics have a big impact on the progress of science. Fortunately for science, the methodology eventually reveals the correct conclusions, regardless of who might dominate the field, unless, of course, the methodology is politically repressed as was done in the Dark Ages.
The author's account of human evolution seemed plausible but with overemphasis on mitochondrial DNA and the maternal line of descent. He strove to build a story that satisfied (as much as possible) his stated objective of finding one woman as the ancestor of all living people. Doing so appeared to warp the story of human descent. He used the term "clan" for all the people who descended from the same woman. I think of "clan" as being a group of related people living together at the same time. Every one of his Eves lived in a tribe including other woman who may have contributed as much DNA to subsequent generations as that Eve, only doing so via nuclear versus mitochondrial DNA.
It seems implausible that all living people came from one Eve at the dawn of humanity. By the author's own construction, that Eve would have lived among many other women. Using very rough figures, drawn from the book, there might have been 2000 people in the "first" human population 150,000 years ago. That population, as the author suggests, came from earlier human-like ancestors. If I accept the figure of 2000 people, about half, or 1000 were women. It seems implausible that only one of these women would be the female ancestor of all living humans. But even if that were true, it would probably have taken many thousands of years for the mitochondrial descendants of the other women to die out. So, it's not like there was a single Eve who, from the beginning, was the ancestor of all subsequent generations.
Otherwise, the author's accounts deduced from mitochondrial DNA seemed essentially valid and enlightening, for example, in the way he settled some arguments. However, I felt he may have overreached in some of his conclusions, based on the available data. But then we all do that. We fill in the blanks as best we can within our own minds in order to construct a whole. (That's how we get religion.) The author indicates that the presence of Polynesian-type genes in South America resulted from a somewhat obscure coastal migration northward along the east coast of Asia and then south along the west coast of the Americas. This may be correct, but Easter Island, which he recognizes as populated by Polynesians via the direct ocean route, is relatively close to South America (and is now a territory of Chile).
The author dismisses the existence of human races, seemingly prompted by political correctness in recent times. Scientists point out that there is more genetic variation within races than between them, thus claiming that the term "race" is meaningless. But the term "race" was used long before anyone ever knew what DNA was. Race does indeed define segments of humanity which have relatively distinct characteristics and geographical origins. Perhaps races evolved as humans spread out over the world and their populations became isolated from one another. Races were probably on their way to becoming separate species when "civilization" and technology arose and brought the races back together while they could still interbreed.
There should have been more charts and some maps to support text. It was difficult to follow some descriptions without such aids.
I did not find the seven fictional chapters on the seven daughters of Eve to be helpful. A scientific discussion of their place in time would have sufficed.
It will be very interesting to see how the story of mankind unfolds as more discoveries are found and the nuclear DNA history is unraveled. I don't believe that the "hobbit" had been discovered when the author wrote his book. I'm referring to fossils of the miniature man found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003. This miniature hominid is currently classified as homo floresiensis and may have lived only 18,000 years ago, contemporaneously with modern humans, similar to Neanderthal Man.
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