 | |
| Author | Stephen Oppenheimer |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Human evolutionary genetics |
| Publisher | Basic Books |
Publication date | 2003, 2004 |
| Publication place | United States, United Kingdom |
| Media type | Documentary |
| ISBN | 0-7867-1192-2 |
The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa is apopular science book about the evolution of modern humans written by BritishgeneticistStephen Oppenheimer.
The book is largely based on the"out of Africa" theory of human origins. Oppenheimer uses information from various disciplines including genetics, archaeology, anthropology and linguistics to synthesize theories on the origin of modern humans and their subsequent dispersal around the world.
TheEve in the title refers toMitochondrial Eve, a name used for themost recent common ancestor of all humans in thematrilineal (mother to daughter) line of descent.
The book was initially published under a number of different titles includingOut of Africa's Eden: the peopling of the world in January 2003,[1] andThe Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa in June 2003.[2]
In the book, Oppenheimer supports the theory that modern humans first emerged in Africa and thatmodern human behavior emerged in Africa prior to the out of Africa migration.[3]
Oppenheimer writes that there was only one migration out of Africa that contributed to the peopling of the rest of the world. Oppenheimer believes thatanatomically modern humans crossed theRed Sea from theHorn of Africa and followed the "southern coastal route" once in Asia. Thus Oppenheimer is opposed to the theory that there was another out of Africa migration using a northern route along the Nile and into theLevant as suggested by Lahr and Foley 1994.[4] The book also supports the theory that modern humans were in South Asia during theToba catastrophe.
Oppenheimer uses familiar names to describe genetic lineages. The biblical analogies of Adam and Eve are used to describe themost recent common ancestors viamitochondrial DNA and they-chromosome. Other male lineages are described as Cain, Abel and Seth.Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups are frequently described using female names from regions where the haplogroups are common. For example, thehaplogroup M is named "Manju" as it is frequent in India, and thehaplogroup N is named "Nasreen" as it is predominant inArabia.
The documentaryThe Real Eve, based on the book and known asWhere We Came From in the United Kingdom, was released in 2002. The documentary was produced by the Americancable TV network theDiscovery Channel and was narrated byDanny Glover and directed by Andrew Piddington.[5]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)| Sub-topics | |
|---|---|
| Genetic history by region | |
| Population genetics by group |
|
