Luca's books

A catalogue of his works

Luca’s research ranged from bacterial recombination to the reconstruction of human evolution based on genetic data and to the study of the interlacement between cultural and biological evolution. In parallel, he worked on blood groups and on various medical issues, such as thalassemia and the biological component of many diseases: schizophrenia, cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Wilson disease, autism.

His work showed the importance of the role of drift (a source of chance in biological evolution), generated the first methods to draw the evolutionary trees, and applied to human evolution a multidisciplinary approach including archeology, demography, linguistics and other disciplines.
Books
CHOOSE CATEGORY

A TOTAL OF 6 BOOKS
The History and Geography of Human Genes

The History and Geography of Human Genes

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Menozzi, P. and Piazza, A.

Languages: English, Italian

Year: 1994

Details:

In this monumental work, the three authors reconstruct human evolution by mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of genes for over 110 traits in over 1800 primarily aboriginal populations.
This is the first overall description of the diffusion and migrations of Homo sapiens.

Genetica, evoluzione, uomo (Voll. 1-3)

Genetica, evoluzione, uomo (Voll. 1-3)

By: Bodmer, W.F. and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 1976

Details:

Italian translation of The Genetics of Human Populations, in 3 volumes. It offers the same material of the original English text, in a slightly abridged form.

Introduzione alla genetica umana

Introduzione alla genetica umana

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 1974

Details:

An introduction to Human Genetics. Italian translation of the relevant part of The Genetics of Human Populations. By Albamaria Ramazzotti, the author’s wife.

The Genetics of Human Populations

The Genetics of Human Populations

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Bodmer, W.F.

Languages: English

Year: 1971

Details:

This volume established a new discipline, the Genetics of Human Populations. It introduces the reader to the basics of genetics, and it provides the conceptual and mathematical tools to study population structure and the dynamics of human evolution. Since 1971, it has been a standard teaching and reference work in its field.

Analisi statistica per medici e biologi

Analisi statistica per medici e biologi

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 1961

Details:

A basic introduction to statistics and its tools, meant expressly for physicians and researchers in biology, but equally useful to anybody who would like to master the discipline and to profit from the usefulness of its methods, in research of any kind.

Teoria dell’urto ed unità biologiche elementari

Teoria dell’urto ed unità biologiche elementari

By: Buzzati Traverso, A. and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 1947

Details:

In this book of 1947, Adriano Buzzati Traverso and his pupil Luigi Luca Cavalli (not yet Sforza) introduce the biophysical approach to heredity.


A TOTAL OF 5 BOOKS
Evoluzione culturale

Evoluzione culturale

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2019

Details:

An essay on cultural transmission and evolution: definition of culture; animal culture; mechanisms, dynamics and factors of cultural transmission; interactions between biological and cultural transmission.

La cultura italiana, I-XII

La cultura italiana, I-XII

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Piazza, A.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2009

Details:

The Italian Culture is a 12-volume encyclopedia, directed by Cavalli-Sforza, devoted to all sides of Italian living and culture: I – Land and Peoples; II – Tongues and Languages; III – House, Town, and Landscape; IV – Economy and Communication; V – Social Structure, Values, and Politics; VI – Food, Games, Feasts, and Fashion; VII – Culture. A Humanistic Inclination; VIII – Sciences and Technologies; IX – Music, Spectacle, Photography, and Design; X – Art and Visuals / Subject Index; XI – Dictionary of Culture A-L; XII – Dictionary of Culture M-Z. The whole of the nation’s history is explored, for the very first time.

Il caso e la necessità. Ragioni e limiti della diversità genetica

Il caso e la necessità. Ragioni e limiti della diversità genetica

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2007

Details:

A scientist’s enquiry into the tools that allow us to look into the human past: genetic transmission and molecular biology, demography and statistics, archeology and linguistics. The progress of the species, between chance and necessity. How the co-operation among different disciplines may help us to understand the marks left by our evolutionary history.

L’evoluzione della cultura

L’evoluzione della cultura

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2004

Details:

The evolution of culture, studied in its distinctiveness as well as in its affinities with biological evolution. The first book to deal with culture as an evolutionary force in its own right, and to approach the interlacement between biology and culture, and its driving effect on the evolution of our species.

Cultural Transmission and Evolution

Cultural Transmission and Evolution

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Feldman, M.W.

Languages: English

Year: 1981

Details:

A quantitative approach to cultural transmission and evolution, introducing mathematical models to account for the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits.


A TOTAL OF 4 BOOKS
Consanguinity, inbreeding, and genetic drift in Italy

Consanguinity, inbreeding, and genetic drift in Italy

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Moroni A. and Zei, G.

Languages: English

Year: 2004

Details:

A case study, nation-wide: consanguineous marriages and inbreeding in Italy in the past centuries, reconstructed through parish-book genealogies and the use of surnames as a genetic marker, along with the application of sophisticated statistical tools.

Genes, Peoples, and Languages

Genes, Peoples, and Languages

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: English, Italian

Year: 1996

Details:

A sweeping study into human biocultural evolution, showing how it may best be understood by comparing the results of different sciences: genetics, demography, statistics, anthropology, archeology, linguistics… An introduction for the layman, food for thought to the researcher.

African Pygmies

African Pygmies

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. (ed.)

Languages: English

Year: 1986

Details:

The findings of twenty years of reasearch on African Pygmies are collated into an all-round anthropological study of biological and cultural traits of Pygmy tribes from the Equatorial forest.

The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe

The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe

By: Ammerman, A.J. and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: English, Italian

Year: 1986

Details:

Bringing together the data gathered by archeology and by genetics, the book reconstructs the peopling of Europe by farmers, showing their diffusion across the continent at the time of the shift from hunting-gathering to a farming and breeding economy. A successful example of co-operation between different fields of research.


A TOTAL OF 6 BOOKS
Chi siamo. La storia della diversità umana

Chi siamo. La storia della diversità umana

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian, English

Year: 2013

Details:

Human diversity: the factors behind it and how it emerged in the course of time. How we change through succeeding generations. Genetics and molecular biology, archaeology, anthropology and linguistics come together to address the question of where we came from and how we became what we are.

Razzismo e noismo. Le declinazioni del noi e l’esclusione dell’altro

Razzismo e noismo. Le declinazioni del noi e l’esclusione dell’altro

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Padoan, D.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2013

Details:

A study on the roots of racism and the refusal of “the other”. “Weness”, the sense of strength, safety and superiority provided by the group we identify with, and some of its dire consequences in XXth century history.

Homo Sapiens. La grande storia della diversità umana

Homo Sapiens. La grande storia della diversità umana

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Pievani, T.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2011

Details:

Born as a catalogue to the exhibit Homo sapiens, La grande storia della diversità umana, held in Rome in 2011, the book traces the history of humankind, as reconstructed through the disciplines that investigate our past. The narration is supported by the exhibit’s displays.
Pagina esposizione

La specie prepotente

La specie prepotente

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2010

Details:

How a clever, arrogant human species came to colonize the planet, through a variety of biological and cultural adaptations, leading to waves of radiation as a consequence of demographic success, and to the differentiation of Homo sapiens into many thousand peoples across the continents. From molecules to customs.

La scienza della felicità. Ragioni e valori della nostra vita

La scienza della felicità. Ragioni e valori della nostra vita

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 1997

Details:

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives, goes an old saying, and the search for happiness proceeds by trial and error, very much as science itself does. A search for what makes us happy, looking at human history and our changing customs, and at the basic drives of our biological make.up. Ethical choices surrounding birth, reproduction, and death, in the light of the quest for happiness.

Razza o pregiudizio? L’evoluzione dell’uomo fra natura e storia

Razza o pregiudizio? L’evoluzione dell’uomo fra natura e storia

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Cavalli-Sforza, F. and Piazza, A.

Languages: Italian

Year: 1996

Details:

A book for the young, explaining the fundamental factors of both biological and cultural evolution, and showing their display through human history. The matter of racism and intolerance is addressed, detailing its causes, its symptoms and emergence in the course of time, and its remedies.


A TOTAL OF 8 BOOKS
Infinite forme bellissime

Infinite forme bellissime

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2013

Details:

Science Course for Junior High Schools: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Energy, Geology, Anatomy, Physiology, Biodiversity, Ecology, and Astronomy, are the main subjects dealt with.

Biologia per capire

Biologia per capire

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2011

Details:

Biology Course for Senior High Schools.

Vita in evoluzione

Vita in evoluzione

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2010

Details:

Science Course for Intermediate High Schools.

Pianeta in evoluzione

Pianeta in evoluzione

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2010

Details:

Science Course for Intermediate High Schools.

Itinerari di scienze della natura

Itinerari di scienze della natura

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2007

Details:

Science Course for Commercial High Schools.

Itinerari di scienze della Terra e biologia

Itinerari di scienze della Terra e biologia

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2007

Details:

Science Course for Technical High Schools.

Galàpagos

Galàpagos

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2005

Details:

Science Course for Junior High Schools.

Natura

Natura

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2003

Details:

Science Course for Junior High Schools.


A TOTAL OF 3 BOOKS
Ancora una volta ero io il curioso

Ancora una volta ero io il curioso

By: Frisaldi, E.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2011

Details:

Excerpts from the travels and the life on the field, in the lab and in the academy , of L.L. Cavalli-Sforza. Pictures and travelogues: the Pygmies and the African forests, the crossing of the Sahara, scientists and family, Cambridge and Stanford. The unquenchable curiosity of a researcher.

Genes, Culture, and Human Evolution: A Synthesis

Genes, Culture, and Human Evolution: A Synthesis

By: Stone, L., Lurquin, P. and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L.

Languages: English

Year: 2007

Details:

The scientific research of L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, unifying the study of genetics and of culture, as seen through the eyes of an anthropologist and of a geneticist (with an introduction by Cavalli-Sforza).

Perché la scienza. L’avventura di un ricercatore

Perché la scienza. L’avventura di un ricercatore

By: Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and Cavalli-Sforza, F.

Languages: Italian

Year: 2005

Details:

A researcher’s adventure. An auto-biography of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza: how he discovered Genetics as a young medicine student, and how from the study of bacterial recombination he progressed to founding Human Population Genetics and to the parallel study of biological and cultural human evolution. A section of the book is dedicated to what science is and is not, and to the reasons for practising it.