Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of CivilizationSpencer Wells
Random House, June 2010
ISBN: 978-1400062157
"Spencer Wells-explorer, geneticist, geographer, and author-takes us on an exciting tour of the last 10,000 years of our history in order to forewarn us of what we shall have to deal with in the next 50 years."
-Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
"Spencer Wells has a provocative and timely message. He argues that we are at a critical juncture where our culture could destroy the very essence of what it means to be human...Everyone with a stake in humanity's future should read this book."
-Brian Fagan, author of The Great Warming
From the author of Journey of Man, National Geographic's Spencer Wells, comes Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization. Using his background in population genetics, Wells takes us on an anthropological tour of early man's transition from hunter-gatherer to an agricultural basis, about 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic revolution. Spencer Wells is one of the foremost practitioners applying population genetics to refine our understanding of distant human history. He points to the huge shifts in human behavior and organization that were required to make the shift from hunting and gathering societies, into non-nomadic societies. Wells makes the case that in opting for the settled lives of farmers our early ancestors set us on a path toward civilization, and set in motion a momentous chain of events that could not have been foreseen at the time. Wells set out to delineate the costs of civilization and not the benefits.
The biological perspective on history has been bountiful in recent years. In this case Wells begins by covering new genetic evidence of the biological transformations associated with the shift to agriculture. Humans guided the evolution of the plants and animals that they domesticated, but there is now genetic evidence that shows that humans were in turn themselves affected by these changes. Geneticists have now discovered numerous recent mutations to the human genome which resulted from the abrupt change in our environment and our diet. Wells builds on the basic evolutionary idea that when the environment changes not all of the genes suitable for the previous environment necessarily remain advantageous. The story which the author develops explains in detail both the scope of these changes and the fact that the impact of those genetic mutations and the dramatic shift in the human environment is still unfolding.
Because it is Spencer Wells, who has pioneered with such impressive research into human evolution, i.e., "The Journey of Man", exploring the deep genetics of human evolution and global migration patterns, this latest work comes to the table with high expectations. There are a mix of interesting topics discussed, from emergence of diseases, to changes in DNA, and the potential impacts of global warming. Although similar ideas have been put forth by others, Wells does a fine job of finding the crux of the matter, and flushing it out. He draws on scholarly publications not typically read by non-specialists, performing a service for general readers. There are more than a dozen charts, mostly easy to interpret. Approach it with an open-mind, reflect on the thesis and the supporting evidence, and then draw your own conclusions. Love it or hate it, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
SPENCER WELLS is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of ’56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads the Genographic Project, which is collecting and analyzing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people around the world in order to decipher how our ancestors populated the planet. Wells received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and Oxford. He has written two books, The Journey of Man and Deep Ancestry. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, a documentary filmmaker.
