The study of population genetics is an important factor in a broad range of fields, including medical genetics, public health, physical anthropology, sociology, and psychology. That is the premise underlying this thorough, advanced treatment of the nature and source of inherited characteristics, which provides the reader with a sound introduction to population genetics, including the mathematical techniques useful in this discipline. Prior to the publication of this book, no comprehensive treatment of the genetics of human populations emphasized the interpretation of data in relation to the theoretical models. This book fills the need for such a treatment. Beginning with the basic concepts of genetics, the authors — both world famous geneticists — advance to discussions of Mendelian populations, mutations, transient and balanced polymorphisms, genetic demography and natural selection, and inbreeding. A review of population structure (focusing on genetic drift and migration) is followed by chapters on sexual dimorphism and human evolution; the book concludes with an examination of eugenics, euphenics, and human welfare. The authors presume only a minimal background in mathematics, but they have provided additional material for readers with more extensive training in mathematical probability, segregation, and linkage analysis in human pedigrees and the estimation of gene frequencies, and sample problems. The result is an exceptionally advanced and comprehensive treatment of the subject that ranks as one of the standard teaching and reference works in its field.

The Genetics of Human Populations

Literature & Fiction

Bodmer, W. F.

Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.

Short Stories & Anthologies

Dover Publications

Hailed as a breakthrough in the understanding of human evolution, The History and Geography of Human Genes offers the first full-scale reconstruction of where human populations originated and the paths by which they spread throughout the world. By mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of genes for over 110 traits in over 1800 primarily aboriginal populations, the authors charted migrations and devised a clock by which to date evolutionary history. This monumental work is now available in a more affordable paperback edition without the myriad illustrations and maps, but containing the full text and partial appendices of the authors' pathbreaking endeavor.

The History and Geography of Human Genes: Abridged paperback Edition

Politics & Social Sciences

Menozzi, Paolo

Piazza, Alberto

Social Sciences

Princeton University Press

A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science.
 The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.

Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach. (MPB-16) (Monographs in Population Biology, 16)

Feldman, Marcus W.

Cultural Transmission and Evolution

Feldman, Marcus

This book explores the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture as a way of life and the implications of this neolithic transition for the genetic structure of European populations.
Originally published in 1984.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe (Princeton Legacy Library, 836)

Ammerman, Albert J.

Anthropology

L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza and his collaborators Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza have devoted fourteen years to one of the most compelling scientific projects of our time: the reconstruction of where human populations originated and the paths by which they spread throughout the world. In this volume, the culmination of their research, the authors explain their pathbreaking use of genetic data, which they integrate with insights from geography, ecology, archaeology, physical anthropology, and linguistics to create the first full-scale account of human evolution as it occurred across all continents. This interdisciplinary approach enables them to address a wide range of issues that continue to incite debate: the timing of the first appearance of our species, the problem of African origins and the significance of work recently done on mitochondrial DNA and the popular notion of an "African Eve," the controversy pertaining to the peopling of the Americas, and the reason for the presence of non-Indo-European languages--Basque, Finnish, and Hungarian--in Europe.
 The authors reconstruct the history of our evolution by focusing on genetic divergence among human groups. Using genetic information accumulated over the last fifty years, they examined over 110 different inherited traits, such as blood types, HLA factors, proteins, and DNA markers, in over eighteen hundred, primarily aboriginal, populations. By mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of the genes, the scientists are now able to chart migrations and, in exploring genetic distance, devise a clock by which to date evolutionary history: the longer two populations are separated, the greater their genetic difference should be. This volume highlights the authors' contributions to genetic geography, particularly their technique for making geographic maps of gene frequencies and their synthetic method of detecting ancient migrations, as for example the migration of Neolithic farmers from the Middle East toward Europe, West Asia, and North Africa.
 Beginning with an explanation of their major sources of data and concepts, the authors give an interdisciplinary account of human evolution at the world level. Chapters are then devoted to evolution on single continents and include analyses of genetic data and how these data relate to geographic, ecological, archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic information. Comprising a wide range of viewpoints, a vast store of new and recent information on genetics, and a generous supply of visual elements, including 522 geographic maps, this book is a unique source of facts and a catalyst for further debate and research.

The History and Geography of Human Genes

Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Genetic Drift in Italy (Monographs in Population Biology, 39)

In 1951, the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was teaching in Parma when a student--a priest named Antonio Moroni--told him about rich church records of demography and marriages between relatives. After convincing the Church to open its records, Cavalli-Sforza, Moroni, and Gianna Zei embarked on a landmark study that would last fifty years and cover all of Italy. This book assembles and analyzes the team's research for the first time.
 Using blood testing as well as church records, the team investigated the frequency of consanguineous marriages and its use for estimating inbreeding and studying the relations between inbreeding and drift. They tested the importance of random genetic drift by studying population structure through demography of the last three centuries, using it to predict the spatial variation of frequencies of genetic markers. The authors find that drift-related genetic variation, including its stabilization by migration, is best predicted by computer simulation. They also analyze the usefulness and limits of the concept of deme for defining Mendelian populations. The genetic effect of consanguineous marriage on recessive genetic diseases and for the detection of dominance in metric characters are also studied.
 Ultimately bringing together the many strands of their massive project, Cavalli-Sforza, Moroni, and Zei are able to map genetic drift in all of Italy's approximately 8,000 communes and to demonstrate the relationship between each locality's drift and various ecological and demographic factors. In terms of both methods and findings, their accomplishment is tremendously important for understanding human social structure and the genetic effects of drift and inbreeding.

Science & Math

Moroni, Antonio

Zei, Gianna

Biological Sciences

The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe (Princeton Legacy Library)

This book explores the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture as a way of life and the implications of this neolithic transition for the genetic structure of European populations.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Sociology

The study of population genetics is an important factor in a broad range of fields, including medical genetics, public health, physical anthropology, sociology, and psychology. That is the premise underlying this thorough, advanced treatment of the nature and source of inherited characteristics, which provides the reader with a sound introduction to population genetics, including the mathematical techniques useful in this discipline. Prior to the publication of this book, no comprehensive treatment of the genetics of human populations emphasized the interpretation of data in relation to the theoretical models. This book fills the need for such a treatment.Beginning with the basic concepts of genetics, the authors — both world famous geneticists — advance to discussions of Mendelian populations, mutations, transient and balanced polymorphisms, genetic demography and natural selection, and inbreeding. A review of population structure (focusing on genetic drift and migration) is followed by chapters on sexual dimorphism and human evolution; the book concludes with an examination of eugenics, euphenics, and human welfare.The authors presume only a minimal background in mathematics, but they have provided additional material for readers with more extensive training in mathematical probability, segregation, and linkage analysis in human pedigrees and the estimation of gene frequencies, and sample problems. The result is an exceptionally advanced and comprehensive treatment of the subject that ranks as one of the standard teaching and reference works in its field.

Bodmer, Walter F.

Evolution

W.H.Freeman & Co.

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