My European Family: The First 54,000 Years

by Karin Bojs, Fiona Graham (Translator)

Overview

The story of Europe and its people, told through its genetic legacy.

'An extraordinary book ... part travel narrative, part family history, part scientific study.' - Financial Times

Karin Bojs grew up in a small, broken family. At her mother's funeral she felt this more keenly than ever. As a science journalist she was eager to learn more about herself, her family and the interconnectedness of society. After all, we're all related. And in a sense, we are all family.

My European Family tells the story of Europe and its people through its genetic legacy, from the first wave of immigration to the present day, weaving in the latest archaeological findings. Karin goes deep in search of her genealogy; by having her DNA sequenced she was able to trace the path of her ancestors back through the Viking and Bronze ages to the Neolithic and beyond into prehistory, even back to a time when Neanderthals ran the European show. Travelling to dozens of countries to follow the story, she learns about early farmers in the Middle East and flute-playing cavemen in Germany and France, along with a whole host of other fascinating characters.

This book looks at genetics from a uniquely pan-European perspective, with the author meeting dozens of geneticists, historians and archaeologists in the course of her research. The genes of this seemingly ordinary modern European woman have a truly fascinating story to tell, and in many ways it is the true story of Europe. At a time when politics is pushing nations apart, this book shows that, ultimately, our genes will always bind us together.

Winner of the 2015 Swedish August Prize

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472941497
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/23/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Karin Bojs is an author and science journalist. She was head of the science desk at Dagens Nyheter, the leading daily newspaper in Sweden, for nearly two decades. Karin has an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University, and has received several awards, including the 2015 Swedish August Prize for My European Family.

Karin lives in Stockholm on top of a hill with a view over Lake Mälaren. She often leaves her apartment for her country house where she keeps honey bees, produces cider and maintains an orchid meadow. During the long, dark Scandinavian winter nights she enjoys dancing the tango.

@KarinBojs
Fiona Graham is Programme Director for the MA in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. She has worked as a freelance dramaturg for the last 20 years and has published a book, Performing Dramaturgy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Funeral

PART 1: THE HUNTERS
Chapter 1 : The Troll Child: 54,000 Years Ago
Chapter 2 : Neanderthals in Leipzig
Chapter 3 : The Flute Players
Chapter 4 : First on the Scene in Europe
Chapter 5 : Mammoths in Brno
Chapter 6 : Cro-Magnon
Chapter 7 : The First Dog
Chapter 8 : Doggerland
Chapter 9 : The Ice Age Ends
Chapter 10 : Dark Skin, Blue Eyes
Chapter 11 : Climate and Forests
Chapter 12 : Am I a Sami?
Chapter 13 : Pottery Makes its Appearance
Chapter 14 : The Farmers Arrive

PART 2: THE FARMERS
Chapter 15 : Syria
Chapter 16 : The Boat to Cyprus
Chapter 17 : The First Beer
Chapter 18 : The Farmers ' Westward Voyages
Chapter 19 : The Homes Built on the Graves of the Dead
Chapter 20 : Clashes in Pilsen and Mainz
Chapter 21 : Sowing and Sunrise
Chapter 22 : Farmers Arrive in Skane
Chapter 23 : Otzi the Iceman
Chapter 24 : The Falbygden Area
Chapter 25 : Hunters' and Farmers' Genes

PART 3: THE INDO-EUROPEANS
Chapter 26 : The First Stallion
Chapter 27 : DNA Sequences Provide Links with the East
Chapter 28 : Battleaxes
Chapter 29 : Bell Beakers, Celts and Stonehenge
Chapter 30 : The Nebra Sky Disc in Halle
Chapter 31 : The Rock Engravers
Chapter 32 : Iron and the Plague
Chapter 33 : Am I a Viking?
Chapter 34 : The Mothers
Chapter 35 : The Legacy of Hitler and Stalin

The Tree and the Spring
Questions and Answers about DNA
References, Further Reading and Travel Tips
Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Well-written work of popular science . . . a book to consult before swabbing, full of insight into the uses and abuses of genetics." - Kirkus Reviews

"A thoughtful and personal story for readers with an interest in early European history, genealogy, or archaeology." - Cate Hirschbiel, Library Journal

"Meticulous, up-to-date, and never tedious, [Bojs] draws from hundreds of scientific results to create a broad-brush picture of human evolution, showing us how DNA research is revolutionizing our knowledge of the past." - Karin Altenberg, The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

04/15/2017
Science journalist Bojs seeks to personalize the story of human migration and the history of habitation in Europe by providing an account of her own family. Since Bojs is Swedish, there are many Scandinavian personal and place names that U.S. readers may find unfamiliar; they will want to have a map handy as she describes many parts of Europe and beyond. The focus is on northern Europe, but the author does mention other regions, including Africa and China when relevant, particularly when addressing the development of early technologies such as sailing, pottery, and music. She also discusses humans' early relationships with animals (e.g., dogs, cats, and horses). Although the various scientists Bojs interviews often disagree about the importance of archaeology vs. genetics, she manages to weave the competing fields into a clear narrative of the history of early Europeans. She is also highly aware of the potential for such information to be used to make discriminatory claims about European superiority and faces that challenge head-on. VERDICT Overall, a thoughtful and personal story for readers with an interest in early European history, genealogy, or archaeology.—Cate Hirschbiel, Iwasaki Lib., Emerson Coll., Boston

Library Journal

2017-04-02
A science journalist searches deep for roots and finds them in the deepest helixes of her genetic code."The fact is that my forebears—in the direct maternal line—were among the anatomically modern, musical and artistic humans who first colonized Europe." That claim is laden with import. Swedish science journalist and editor Bojs has been following advances in DNA research for decades, work that, she writes, has led to interviewing some 70 scientists and visiting 10 countries. As she recounts in this well-written work of popular science, those travels have involved not just Bojs as an entity, but also her genetic inheritance: amino acids that led to the now-submerged Dogger Bank, off the coast of England; the far-flung Arctic tribes marked by the haplogroup U4; and to scattered places in the Balkans and Greece, "along the routes taken by Europe's first farmers on their way northwards toward Central Europe." Such researches lead to big-picture questions that mirror work that has been done in the prehistory of North America: for instance, as Bojs writes, were immigrants responsible for the spread of farming into what is now Scandinavia, "or was the technology itself simply adapted by local hunting populations?" As she acknowledges, although genetic studies yield insight into such matters as the role of disease in early human populations, they are also fraught with possibilities for a racialized view of the human past, whence the whole business of Aryan purity and the interest of some totalitarian regimes in establishing the primacy of favored genotypes and phenotypes. Though she begins with that proud claim of descent from modern humans, Bojs closes with darker discoveries of mental illness in her lineage. Though she reckons herself fairly lucky in the genetic lottery, she argues that genes are not "selfish," in Richard Dawkins' sense, but two-faced: "what is good or bad depends on the combination and the context." A book to consult before swabbing, full of insight into the uses and abuses of genetics.

Kirkus Reviews