Who We Are and How We Got Here Review
By John Engelman The message of Who We Are and How We Got Here , by David Reich, is that we are the descendants of men who killed their enemies and took their land. That is how we got here. Sometimes our ancestors kept the females of their enemies as concubines. Sometimes they annihilated them too. Because I am a kind hearted guy I do not like thinking that my ancestors would do that. I never would. I am sure Dad never did. Unfortunately, we cannot choose our ancestors. We cannot improve their behavior. The big picture about human evolution is that it began in Africa about six million years ago when the Rift Valley developed, splitting the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. The chimps got the better half of the deal. Chimps like to eat leaves and fruit. They found these abundantly in the jungle areas they lived in. Our ancestors had to hustle to survive. The half they got dried up into areas that are grasslands to this day in eastern Africa. The first distinctly hu...