Scientists can now trace, using the DNA of a louse, when people first began wearing clothes. They can trace our ancestors to 5,000 people who lived in Northern Africa 45,000 years ago. Using mitochondrial DNA, scientists have identified three main branches of humankind bearing the mutation markers L1, L2, and L3. L3's progeny, bearing the markers M or N, crossed the Red Sea, probably at the south end, followed the coastline and eventually settled in India. From there they spread out, some venturing toward the west, others east, usually in bands of 150 or so hunters and gatherers.

Scientists can also trace back remnants of the original language men spoke to two African tribes, Hadza and !Kung speakers, two of the most ancient populations in the world. Nicholas Wade argues that the development of language was an impetus to the ancestral population’s leaving Africa.

If they were to survive, these wanderers needed to treat strangers as kin. Religion was a helpful institution in that respect. They also retained certain traits from their primate past; protecting their territory and war. Then they learned to cultivate wheat, probably accidentally. This led to storage and to settlement and domestication of animals. With settlement our ancestors gave up their egalitarian lifestyles. Headmen and kings, priests, administrators were needed for ceremonies and to manage affairs. Specialization of roles followed.

Probably the most interesting aspect of BEFORE THE DAWN is the solid evidence Wade offers that evolution is a fact. Ironically blood diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, protect against diseases like malaria. Another recent mutation, as recent as 1300 years ago, protects against smallpox. Then there’s the ability to drink cow’s milk. We only became lactose tolerant 6,000 years ago. More solid evidence arises when we consider the Ashkenazi Jews, who have an I.Q. averaging at least a standard deviation higher than the rest of us. Some scientists argue that this resulted from the Ashkenazi being barred from all trades except monetary ones, which required complex thinking processes. Others maintain that because they were constantly being persecuted they had to be smarter to survive; natural selection took care of the rest.

Wade argues that evolution is an ongoing process. He predicts that in the future people will look different than they do today. They may be stockier and more compact due to the next ice ago. We may establish colonies on Mars and Europia and because of genetic drift these people would look different, much as the Chinese developed different skin color and eye folds due to isolation. Wade also foresees genetic engineering which may add another chromosome which would prevent old age and known diseases.

Wade also provides evidence that evolution can result from not only a physical environment but also a cultural environment. In that way, man is, to some degree, responsible for his own evolution. Charles Darwin said in THE DESCENT OF MAN, "Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future."