On Mapping Human History by Steven Olson - Book Report/Review Example

on, the prolific science writer has done a magnificent job in mixing scientific information with appropriate journalistic factors to draft a wonderful study that explains the genetic history of human species. The author, exercising extraordinary enthusiasm on the subject, gives a graceful and comprehensible content on the topic that has been rarely handled perfectly by other writers. Mapping Human History is rich with innumerable key concepts. Speciation, natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, and several similar crucial concepts are defined for the sake of the readers.

The definitions are understandable even to high school students. For example, we find the author explaining recombination “the chromosome pairs delicately intertwine and exchange pieces in a process known as recombination. The result is two hybrid chromosomes, as if a husband and wife had exchanged arms and legs” (p. 15). The knowledge the author has in the topic is readily apparent in the perfect description he has given for the key concepts. As readers proceed along the knowledge-rich pages of the book they find the genetic evidence bearing on different crucial events in human history.

Special emphasis is offered to the contending topics of ‘out of Africa’ hypothesis and ‘multiregional’ hypothesis. After thorough studies, the author of ‘Mapping Human History’ agreed that multiregional hypothesis is more convincing that the other one. He agreed to the points of other geneticists, though he was in a hurry to conclude that archaic humans had negligible contribution in enhancing the human genetic heritage. That very chapter went into the details of origins of agriculture.

The author furnish great information before the readers by giving information-filled chapters that deal with the genetic histories of Asia, Europe, Americas, Africa and the Pacific Islands. Though the author is concentrating more on the genetic studies, he has not shown a blind eye towards the linguistic and