International Balzan Foundation Luigi Luca Cavalli

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza,
1999 Balzan Prize for Science of Human Origins
Motivation of the Prize and laudatio
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
For his comprehensive work on human evolution by integrating genetic and
cultural features.
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza is the world’s expert on human genetic diversity and
what it tells us about the phylogenetic tree of human populations.
He realised that an understanding of the evolution of mankind requires the
knowledge of both genetic mechanisms and cultural, especially linguistic, features.
By collecting genes from a great number of different populations and testing
more than a hundred different alleles, as well as by analysing historical, demographic,
linguistic, etc. data, he was able to reconstruct the origin of ancient
migration, creating a model of diffusion of culture in the Neolithic Age.
In his comprehensive works, his genetic investigations of primitive populations,
especially pygmies of Africa (one of the few remaining groups of hunters-gatherers),
played an important role.
Also, the studies of the genetic consequences of technological development,
particularly the spread of agriculture from its area of origin, the Middle-East, to
Europe, were exemplary. All this, in combination with archaeological data, allowed
the reconstruction of a complete tree of human descent, in which genes
and languages go hand in hand, demonstrating that genetic and cultural data
converge in furnishing a convincing explanation of human evolution.
In summing up, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza has created a most comprehensive
synthesis on the differentiation of populations by integrating various fields of research
and providing convincing evidence for genetic and cultural co-evolution.
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