Funnily enough my very first foray into internet kerfufflery was through writing a critique of his _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ ... on an anthropology blog in 2005. It blew up a bit in that much tinier world we Ancient Ones used to call the "blogosphere". The blog in question has since changed its name from the clever but supposedly offensiv…
Funnily enough my very first foray into internet kerfufflery was through writing a critique of his _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ ... on an anthropology blog in 2005. It blew up a bit in that much tinier world we Ancient Ones used to call the "blogosphere". The blog in question has since changed its name from the clever but supposedly offensive "Savage Minds" to the intestinally-evocative "Anthrodendum" and has recently denounced me as a TERF.
Anyway. Certainly Diamond's thesis was provocative, but it relied on quite a few circular propositions. A big one was "lack of domesticated plants and animals reflects a paucity of potentially domesticable plants and animals". Very few domesticates would have looked like likely prospects before they were domesticated, so making such judgements is a mug's game.
I agree that anthropology is pretty far down the primrose path but not that finding Diamond dubious was a stop along the way.
Interesting. Guns, Germs and Steel was so weak IMHO that it rather reinforced my 'racism' -- I'm more sure now than before reading it that if the population of New Guinea were moved magically to France, that in two generations they'd be ... exactly the same head-shrinking cannibals that they are now.
Funnily enough my very first foray into internet kerfufflery was through writing a critique of his _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ ... on an anthropology blog in 2005. It blew up a bit in that much tinier world we Ancient Ones used to call the "blogosphere". The blog in question has since changed its name from the clever but supposedly offensive "Savage Minds" to the intestinally-evocative "Anthrodendum" and has recently denounced me as a TERF.
Anyway. Certainly Diamond's thesis was provocative, but it relied on quite a few circular propositions. A big one was "lack of domesticated plants and animals reflects a paucity of potentially domesticable plants and animals". Very few domesticates would have looked like likely prospects before they were domesticated, so making such judgements is a mug's game.
I agree that anthropology is pretty far down the primrose path but not that finding Diamond dubious was a stop along the way.
Interesting. Guns, Germs and Steel was so weak IMHO that it rather reinforced my 'racism' -- I'm more sure now than before reading it that if the population of New Guinea were moved magically to France, that in two generations they'd be ... exactly the same head-shrinking cannibals that they are now.