Our Origin
F 2020

The genome is a palimpsest that retains strong traces of the past, so current populations can reveal something of previous population movements. Since recently (2010) it has been possible to sequence DNA directly from ancient human remains, sometimes as old as 40,000 years. Studies in ancient DNA dovetailing with archaeology and linguistics have become the best source of knowledge on prehistoric human populations and migrations.

The Indo-European languages and the genetic makeup of Europe and north India today stem from migrations around 5,000 years ago from the vast Steppe, the grass plains bordering the Black and Caspian seas. The population in any one place has changed dramatically many times since the great human post-ice age expansion, and that recognition of the essentially crossbred nature of humanity overrides any notion of some mystical, longstanding connection between people and place.

We shall study the effects of migrations and the crossbred nature of humanity using advances in DNA sequencing.

 

Part I: The deep history of our species

1 How the genome explains who we are                                                                                                  3

2 Encounters with Neanderthals                                                                                                             25

3 Ancient DNA opens the floodgates                                                                                                        53

Part II: How we got to where we are today

4 Humanity’s ghosts                                                                                                                                    77

5 The making of modern Europe                                                                                                                 99

6 The collision that formed India                                                                                                                 123

7 In search of Native American ancestors                                                                                                   155

8 The genomic origins of East Asians                                                                                                          187

9 Rejoining Africa to the human history                                                                                                        207

Part III: The disruptive genome

10 The genomics of inequality                                                                                                                       229

11 The genomics of race and identity                                                                                                            247

12 The future of ancient DNA                                                                                                                         274

Text: David Reich, Who we are and how we got here, Pantheon, 2018

 Reviews

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/books/review/david-reich-who-we-are-how-we-got-here.html

2. https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/book-review-david-reich-human-genes-reveal-history/

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHdCuhYRHqo (David Reich Lecture)

4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-vHByC14bc   (David Reich Lecture, update on book)

5 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/native-americans-polynesians-meet-180975269/

6. https://www.geneticsdigest.com/best_ancestry_genealogy_dna_test/index_july9_ctr.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwxqX4BRBhEiwAYtJX7W2kLVF6AA99rDSqP83rOadvo4o3BNf5yceyzIGP-4099JwCw85JbhoC2WQQAvD_BwE&utm_expid=.D2wLO90RQdmHMTw8aDq7SA.2&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

7. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/yaniv-erlich-genomes-pedigrees-myheritage/554441/
8. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/denisovan-genome/