The 10,000 Year Explosion
How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
by Gregory Cochran
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The 10,000 Year Explosion
Is human evolution still in progress today? Many scholars—including the late Stephen Jay Gould—thought not. But as Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending report in The 10,000 Year Explosion, insights from genomics now suggest otherwise. Here they present findings from “evolutionary genomics,” arguing that human evolution has actually accelerated over the past 10,000 years, driven in part by (as well as driving) a series of advances in human society.
Consider the advent of agriculture. This not only led to a vast population explosion but greatly increased the rate of adaptive mutations. “There are more genetic innovations,” the authors write, “in [a] larger population.” By the start of recorded history some 5,000 years ago, new adaptive mutations were occurring roughly 100 times as rapidly as in the Pleistocene. Agricultural societies hosted new infectious diseases, but humans responded by evolving much more effective genetic defenses (e.g., against malaria) than their Neolithic ancestors had. Studies reveal that some of these defense mechanisms are only about 2,000 years old.
In addition to agriculture, trade—more precisely, traders—spread new alleles along sea routes, up navigable rivers and between villages. When, for example, the Etruscans colonized northwestern Italy, they left behind alleles that affected metabolism and disease resistance. They offer as an example the village of Limone sul Garda. Out of a total of 1,000 inhabitants, 43—all distantly related—were found to share a mutation (a change in the protein APO A1) that confers substantial protection against atherosclerosis.
The 10,000 Year Explosion offers a compelling study of evolution’s continuing influence in the modern world.
HC. 304pp. 2009.
Hardcover : 304 pages
Publisher: Basic Books ( December 29, 2008 )
Item #: 12-675304
ISBN: 9780465002214
Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 inches
Product Weight: 15.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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