In 2009, Gregory Cochran and Henry Harending used their merit as professors of anthropology at the University of Utah to publish a book detailing the recent evolutionary history. The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution argues that human evolution accelerated from civilization due to new selective pressures and an increase in sample size for mutations. While Cochran and Harending use past selective advantages such as lactose tolerance or language abilities, they lack evidence of current selective advantages evolving in the human genome. Although the book is very convincing that evolution was occurring in pre-civilized humans and early civilized humans, it lacks evidence for evolution in the present day. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The authors begin the book with an assessment of the genome of primitive people. The authors explain: “Modern humans had developed advanced linguistic abilities and were able to speak until the Neanderthals died out. » (26). This means that people evolved to the beginning of civilization because language enabled civilization. The fact that this quote implies that humans could speak while Neanderthals could not, which could only mean that we had a genetic advantage over Neanderthals, also confirmed that language was a genetic advantage rather than a cultural advantage. Changes were also evident in the fossil record: “The archaeological record of the Upper Paleolithic…is qualitatively different from anything that preceded it” (30). This means that humans not only evolved subtle features like language, but also skeletal changes that would differentiate us from Neanderthals. However, what sparked civilization must have been a change in the characteristics of human interactions to bring people together who years before would have been competing tribes. The authors also provide evidence of this when they state: “People…behaved differently from their ancestors 20,000 years earlier” (30). Changes in deeds have almost certainly occurred in the genome, as it is extremely difficult to alter the characteristics of each clan without a culture behind them. Using evidence of bodily and acting changes, the authors effectively argue that humans have evolved to the point of civilization. However, the book proves that evolution did not stop there. Changes in the human genome signal selective pressure changes that have been expressed in the human genome. The book continues: “Lactose-tolerant Europeans carry a particular mutation that is only a few thousand years old” (22). This means that the authors prove that humans adopted a milk-based diet due to early breeding and domestication. The authors also prove that hunter-gatherers did not have this mutation by explaining that “hunter-gatherers…stop producing lactose in childhood (an enzyme that digests lactose)” (77). By making a genetic distinction between hunter-gatherers and early civilized people, there is ample evidence that evolution continued as nomadic tribes abandoned spears and took up agriculture. The authors also highlight selective pressures due to agriculture by stating: “..