I read an interesting book on this topic recently, but I couldn't remember the title. A friend kindly reminded me. Since his email mentioned a few other books that may be of interest, I've quoted the relevant paragraph in full. I have assumed his permission to do this. Another book, which I only perused, "Guns, Germs and Steel," by Jared Diamond, suggests that the claim of the importance of matrilineal (mitochondrial) DNA has been *somewhat* debunked, but the passage concerning this did not say how, who, or why.
The book I think you are referring to is called "The seven daughters of Eve." by Brian Sykes. I don't remember recommending it as I have not actually read this particular book. Related reading that I do know is "The Journey of man" by Spencer wells which traces the human Diaspora via the Male chromosome rather than mDNA. For technical reasons (which he explains) you get a finer detail from this method. His book is rather popular, a companion to a PBS offering but still informative and a quick read. And if you haven't read it already "Genome" by Matt Ridley is a superb overall look at what our genes can tell us about our evolutionary past and well worth reading (as are any of his other books. for example I just finished "The agile gene" his latest, which is an stimulating philosophical discussion of the current academic wars over nurture versus nature. The original title in England was "Nature via Nurture" by for obscure reasons the American publisher decided to change it.)
"Seven Daughters" attempts establish seven major genetic populations globally, by tracing their mitochondrial DNA to seven women descended from a single woman who passed out of -- is it the "Horn" of Africa -- perhaps (and I may be mistaken) 200,000 years ago. That there were 7 women is arrived at by deduction, and, in that since, they are only hypothetical. However, if the theory is true, seven such women did actually exist, and we are each decended from one of them. It is like the question of who Homer was: Homer was whoever wrote "The Odessy." A question which, differently phrased, is similar in form, is not analogous to "Who wrote Shakespeare?" But I digress.
Speaking of drama, urgency is added to deliberations by imprisonment: I speak of the jury's own.
Edit: "Seven Daughters" was published in 2001; "Guns, [etc.]" was published in 1997
