Book Reviewed: Evolution: The Human Story by Alice Roberts

Ancient history of humans Ancient relics such as fossils, stone tools, bones, footprints, genetic and hereditary information contained in DNA shed light on human ancestors. In few decades, a substantial amount of new evidence suggests origins and the demise of several closely related hominin species that lived in the last seven millions years. Modern humans are new kids on the block who are around for only about 200,000 years on a planet that created life 3.8 billion years ago. The palaeobiological and genetic studies have shown that the origins of modern human beings included interactions with other species like Neanderthals and Denisovans before they went extinct. Hominin species evolved in response to the numerous challenges of nature and selection pressures. Almost all species of hominin are now extinct except for Homo sapiens. Many of extinct species are now known from fossil remains, Homo Neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals), Denisovans, Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, and various species of Australopithecus. Hominins are distinguished from other primates from their erect posture, bipedal locomotion, larger brains, and behavioral characteristics such as specialized tool use and communication. The living primates most closely related to hominins today are Chimpanzees and Bonobos. This book is essentially a monograph of history and archaeology of hominin species, and it features numerous colored images of closely related species and the paleoenvironments that included many modern-day wild animals. Their adventures invite us to think about becoming a human species and speculate on the natural section pressures on gene evolution on several dimensions. The reconstructions of extinct hominin species from their anatomical and skeletal remains tell the evolutionary history. There is a lot to learn about how hominin species and their habitats. Next time, when you are in New York City and If you have time, I recommend visiting the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History and look at the exhibits. It features four life-sized tableaux of Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Cro-Magnons in its natural habitat.

Book Reviewed: A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe

Agriculture and farming lead to genetic changes in Europe Recent studies in archeology and genetics significantly helped our understanding of human evolution in terms of race and culture in Europe. In this book, the authors address the question of how multiculturalism and racial diversity in ancient world gave rise to the Caucasian race, a distinctive feature of modern-day Europeans. Much has been learnt in the last two decades by studying DNA from skeletons of ancient humans. These results suggest that the light skin seen across Europe today is due to the introduction of agriculture 8,500 years ago. Human genome underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system, and skin color. For example, the LCT gene evolved after intense natural selection to make humans lactose tolerant. Before agriculture and farming, humans ate meat and fish, but the need for LCT gene arose after they started consuming milk from farm animals. In the last 200,000 years of human history, Homo Sapiens were dark skinned for about 192,000 years. The hunter-gatherers, human descendants from Africa migrated to Europe 40,000 years ago. They remained dark as recently as 8,500 years ago, but farmers arriving from Anatolia were light-skinned, and this trait spread through Europe. A shift to agriculture reduced the intake of vitamin D, which may have triggered a change in skin color that were found in Anatolian farmers who migrated from West Asia, a region that includes modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt. Later, about 5,000 years ago a second wave of migration of Yamnaya population occurred from the steppes, north of the Black Sea, a region near the modern-day Ukraine. They had the knowledge of using bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. They also brought Indo-European languages to Europe that evolved into various European languages. The Yamnaya population were also pale-skinned and taller than the farmers from Anatolia, and both were even taller than hunter-gatherers. The European hunter-gatherers had dark skin throughout their stay in the cold climate. They had enough supply of vitamin D in their meal that consisted of meat and fish and did not need paler skin to synthesize vitamin D. A change in diet, and in parallel the living style and social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans. Farmers lived longer and had more children than hunter-gatherers. Among hunter-gatherers, the natural selection pressure did not arise to change skin color despite the fact they were in northern latitudes in cold climates. But it became dominant when they stopped the intake of meat & fish and started consuming agriculture and dairy products. The skin tone of early farmers came under selection pressure, only those with lighter skin could manufacture enough vitamin D. Several mutations were required to produce lighter skin. The gene variants like SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 lead to skin-depigmentation, and HERC2/OCA2 is also responsible for blue eyes, light skin, and blond hair. Among Anatolians in whom these genes first emerged were healthier, lived longer, and taller than hunter-gatherers. The farmers also had more children and less stressful life. A recent paper in New Scientist claims that social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans. The authors strenuously argue that since modern Europeans originated from a melting pot created by the human migration, earlier from Africa and the later two migrations due to Anatolian farmers and Yamnaya population. They observe that one must sustain the current wave of migrations from Africa and the Middles East. But I like to point out that human migration in the past occurred due to natural and environmental challenges, but the current migrations are influenced by politics, West-European colonialism, and religion, mainly Islam and Christianism. Manufactured religions have done much harm to human beings and my impact the evolutionary trends.

Book Reviewed: After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements by Erin Vearncombe et al.

Reflections of the first two hundred years of Christianism by Jesus Seminar During the first two centuries following the death of Jesus, Christianism and the New Testament did not exist as we know today. In fact, the Christian movement began from disciples of Jesus who tried to make sense of what they had experienced with him and what will happen to his ministry. There were splinter groups who followed other spiritual leaders like John the Baptist. There was much more flexibility and diversity within Jesus’s movement before it became a religious doctrine. The gnostic Christians had varied and diverse opinions about parables, crucifixion, and resurrection. Some of the earliest followers of Jesus were apocalyptic Jews. According to the Book of Acts, there were two groups; those who observed laws of Torah, and others welcomed gentiles without imposing any restrictions of Jewish laws. The authors of this book are the new breed of scholars of well-known Jesus Seminar and Westar Institute which was founded in 1985 by the late Biblical scholar Robert W. Funk and other leading academics of his time. In this book, this young breed of authors tries to continue the great tradition of unbiased scholarship in the historical evaluation of canonized gospels, gnostic gospels, Acts and Pauline Epistles. One of the questions addressed by the authors is the understandings of sexuality, family values, gender & gender fluidity. The authors observe that there was a resurgence of morality and new world order after Jesus Christ. Histories, traditions, and legends are discussed and debated in ways that I have not read in apocrypha or other history books of ancient Israel. They claim that followers of Jesus resisted the Roman Empire in defiance by practicing gender fluidity and flexibility; and lived with chosen non-traditional families. There were diverse races, beliefs and they believed that dying for a specific cause was a noble idea. The authors cite First Corinthians for the ambiguities about gender within early Jesus associations, and Gospel of Matthew is interpreted as an experiment with family. The earlier books by the Jesus Seminar were scholarly, highly readable, and extensively annotated with historical facts. They embarked on a new translation and assessment of the gospels including Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of more than fifteen hundred sayings attributed to him. However, the narratives in this book contrast the work of earlier scholars, and one chapter does not connect well with the next. The authors have overworked themselves as new breed of “woke” academics to cancel the existing culture. As you read this book you realize that they strenuously argue that gender fluidity and non-traditional families were common in ancient Israel. This does not reflect well on Jesus Seminar that worked fearlessly to challenge the dominance of Christian church. This book invents things that didn’t exist. At this rate one would like to question, what next for Jesus Seminar? Jesus was a gay guy?