The Seven Daughters of Eve[1] is a 2001 semi-fictional book by Bryan Sykes that presents the science of human origin in Africa and their dispersion to a general audience.
[9] Likewise, Sykes has invented names for an additional 29 "clan mothers" worldwide (of which four were native American, nine Japanese[10] and 12 were from Africa[11]), each corresponding to a different haplogroup identified by geneticists: "Fufei, Ina, Aiyana/Ai, Yumi, Nene, Naomi, Una, Uta, Ulrike, Uma, Ulla, Ulaana, Lara, Lamia, Lalamika, Latasha, Malaxshmi, Emiko, Gaia, Chochmingwu/Chie, Djigonasee/Sachi, Makeda, Lingaire, Lubaya, Limber, Lila, Lungile, Latifa and Layla.
"[2] Robert Kanigel in The New York Times asserted that inventing imaginary names and identities for ancient human ancestors is a fruitless endeavor, "neither solid theorizing nor fully realized fiction."
He wrote: "Sykes's book is so fine, the science so well explained, the controversies so gripping, that it is painful to report that 200 pages into it the author performs a literary experiment that flops.
"[13] Robin McKie in The Guardian concurred that the first part of the book is "an engrossing, bubbly read, a boy's own adventure", while the latter stories "try to pass off fiction as science.