Monday, November 21, 2005

Luca Cavalli-Sforza biography   posted by Razib @ 11/21/2005 09:46:00 PM
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I just found out recently that a biography of Luca Cavalli-Sforza was published this spring, A Genetic and Cultural Odyssey. I'll probably be reading it over the Thanksgiving weekend, but I thought I'd give people a heads up around here since I suspect I'm not the only fan. The History and Geography of Human Genes is one of those seminal works which has really shaped the intellectual path I have taken. Over the years I have become progressively more skeptical about reading history from alleles frequencies, but Cavalli-Sforza's work is an interdisciplinary inspiration to this day. If a readable genetic monograph is your cup of tea, I also recommend Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Genetic Drift in Italy. I picked it up a few years in Barnes & Noble in New York, and read most of it on the airplane. The frequency of aunt-nephew marriages in Sicily will make you wonder! Finally, Genetics of Human Populations is back in print, though the text isn't updated a lot of the population genetic models are becoming extremely relevant again to deal with the swarms of data that are the norm in the post-genomic era.