How is culture passed on ? Is it possible to reconstruct the history of the evolution of the human species using genetic information from existing populations ? Is there a relationship between the evolution of languages and genetic evolution ? Drawing on several disciplines (genetics, archaeology, geography, linguistics), Luca Cavalli-Sforza invites us on an extraordinary journey in time and space in the course of which we are led to interrogate ourselves on the origins and the future of mankind.

A professor at the University of Stanford, in the United States, Luca Cavalli-Sforza has achieved worldwide renown for his research on the genetics of populations. He is particularly interested in the relationship between biological and cultural evolution, in intermarrying, in the cultural significance of first and surnames, and in the question of the innate versus the acquired.