Pandora's Seed: Why the Hunter-Gatherer Holds the Key to Our Survival

I have to hand it to Spencer Wells. He's a master at explaining scientific data and making a subject that might seem dry and academic come alive. In Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization he takes on the topic of early man's transition from hunter-gatherer to an argicultural basis 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic revolution. Using his background in population genetics, Wells makes the case that in opting for the settled lives of farmers our early ancestors set us on a path toward civilization.Little did our ancestors know that along with farming, they were also sowing the seeds of overpopulation, disease, obesity, mental illness, climate change and even violent fundamentalism. At least according to Pandora's Seed.I enjoyed the early chanpters of this book where Wells discussed early man. His points about farming and early urbanization are clearly made, as are his ideas that the plentiful supply of food that could be grown rather than searched for set the stage for the development of diseases like diabetes. But as he delved into other topics it seemed like his ideas were less based on science and more on conjecture. I first noticed this in his chapter on mental illness, but it carried through the rest of the book.By the time I finished the chapters on climate change and religious fundamentalism it felt like Wells was stretching his ideas almost to the breaking point. Granted, he didn't say anything I disagree with; but it was starting to feel less like science and more like an agenda.Wells has much of interest to say. I just wish he'd be a little more clear when he's speaking for science and when he's speaking for himself.

The clarity of Spencer Wells thinking is eye opening. I'm now on my second read and it still makes pause and think about each chapter. The thoughts ring true and it's disturbing to see the progression of mankind. Well's evidence and solid reasoning and fly in the face of religious wing-nuts who are using biblical prophesy to explain the problems of society. The evolution of man is man's own evolution and not the work of some deity who has never been seen. We, as a species, may or may not survive in the next million years, but it will be evolution and not some divine plan. Man has the ability to reason and so can change to meet the challenges. If we are part of a divine plan then drop your money in the plate on Sunday and take the consequences. I prefer the former. Hello?!

This is a very interesting subject. Spencer wells is a terrible writer but this is the best of his three books. I would imagine that he is learning how to write for the masses. The problem with this topic is that every day something newIs discovered. Sometimes the new knowledge simply adds to his book and other times it contradicts what he has written. I think wells would be the first to admit that. Loved the book anyway. Let me recommend Guns, Germs,And Steel by Jacob Diamond. He looks at this topic from a different perspective.

This is the most detailed study (available to the non-scientific community) that gives one a good overview of the HapMap project and the on-going and vital study of the human diet. If one isn't looking around at the state of our fellow humans and the effects of the modern diet, you must be asleep at the wheel. The current food chain has been set up for profit and is not based on solid science or concern for the future of the species. Wells has a proven background in both the human genome and genetics. He is bringing intelligent vision to what we are doing to ourselves and how we must identify and make course correction for the same of humanity - not for profit - but for the sake of the planet.

If you are even remotely interested in how we (humans) arrived at our present state, this book will prove to be as fascinating as anything you have ever read. I won't go into the details other than to say that the author's ability to explain the complexities of population genetics is in large part one of the books' values. I found it worth reading several times- the first time as the MP3 audio version and then as a paper book so that I could mull over some of the more complex topics. Absolutely worth several reads and the author himself is excellent at narrating it.

A wonderful book, easy to read, as all his books are. I read The Journey of Man first, which shows how man moved around, Pandora’s Seed shows why man settled, (agriculture) and the consequences of doing that ( government, religion, bad health, etc)

I really rated this book down because of academic dishonesty. In the last chapter, Wells addresses Lawrence Keeley's arguments about the violence of pre-modern civilizations. He discredits them by pointing out that Keeley's sample contained both early agricultural societies and hunter-gatherer societies lumped in together, and by saying that the hunter-gatherers had a 30% chance of being peaceful, implying that the remaining 70% were corrupted by exposure to agricultural neighbors. However, this is a dishonest twisting of Keeley's argument; Keeley points out that the 30% who were peaceful lived in total isolation with limited resources, mainly on islands, whereas the 70% who were violent lived in more realistic conditions, with neighbors prepared to fight with them for resources.Thus, Wells leaves out his opponent's rebuttal to support his own rather weak and improbable final argument; that pre-agricultural societies were a kind of egalitarian, Rousseau-like 'Noble savage' society in their basic structure, and that agriculture, through the introduction of property, actually made our lives worse. This is an old philosophical idea resurrected by Wells in the dress of ecology. Don't take it seriously.

I found this book to be an outstanding contribution to a better understanding the history and nature of humankind. I look forward to reading other works by this author.

Spencer makes a good point very well. The key to happiness and contentment is to want less and be happy about it.

I started by listening to the audio version of this book.The reader had a "recto tono" voice which was, at first, a little annoying, but the material is dense & deep! After hitting the "chapter restart" button a few times to get what the author was compactly presenting, I can of got in tune with his thinking and I learned a lot of information on genetics, our species long history, the surprising unforeseen consequences of the "recent" Agriculture Revolution (10 k years ago, while biped homos had been walking and hunting-gathering for 100 k to 200 k years ago...) in the very cells of our bodies...So "dense" (compact) that I decided that I needed to get my hands on a paper edition to look-up the details.

all good

I couldn't be more satisfied. Great explanation for people from other fields but who are curious, and also very interesting for experts. Really liked it.