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Jared Diamond - The World Until Yesterday

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Название:
The World Until Yesterday
Автор:
Jared Mason Diamond
Издательство:
Viking
Жанр:
Культурология / История / на английском языке
Год:
2012
Город:
New York
ISBN:
978-1-101-60600-1
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Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.
The World Until Yesterday This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies—after all, we are shocked by some of their practices—but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. A characteristically provocative, enlightening, and entertaining book,
will be essential and delightful reading.
Contain tables! Best viewed with CoolReader.

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Wahl, Joachim, 134

Wanigela people, 411, 439 table

Waorani Indians, 139, 163

warfare, 119–70

absence of, 155–56

definitions of, 129–31

genetic basis for, 155–57

hand-to-hand fighting in, 142–43

religion and, 356–57, 359–61, 366, 367 fig. , 368

trade and, 74, 75, 164–66, 287

warlike animals, 154–55

See also state warfare; traditional warfare

wasps, 282

water-witching, 342, 350–51, plate 46

wealth. See affluence

weaning and birth intervals, 179–81

weapons, 18

accidental wounds, 281

state warfare, 142–43, 144

trade in, 68–69 table , 69, 70, 71, 73–74

traditional warfare, 121, 135, 150, 151

weather

food availability and, 301, 302–3, 308

weather hazards, 280–81

Weber, Max, 224

WEIRD societies, 8–9

advantages, 455–57, 461–62

child development scholarship, 174–75

child-rearing practices, 180, 182–83, 184–85, 187, 189, 190–91, plate 39

defined, 6

environmental hazards in, 276–77, 279

friendship in, 51–52

individualism in, 91, 224

life expectancies, 231, 233

shortcomings of, 457–61

social bonds in, 51–52, 88, 91, 456–58

stranger contacts in, 1–2, 53

trade in, 61–65

See also specific countries

Welsh language, 409

Westernized lifestyle adoption

health and, 4, 31–32, 411–14, 432–33, 449–50

for safety and comfort, 280

See also diabetes; hypertension

Westernized societies. See WEIRD societies

widow strangling, 21, 216

widowhood, 233

Wiessner, Polly, 479

Wilson, David Sloan, 363–66

Wilson, Michael, 139

Witoto Indians, 214

Wollaston, A. F. R., 298

wolves, 154–55

women, 177, 233, 290, 298

as foragers, 187, 278

as information sources, 166–67, 291

treatment of old women, 215, 216

war and, 141, 146, 157–58, 163, 166–67

See also children

work and work ethic, 224, 353, 460

World Trade Center attack, 127, 128

World War I, 102, 127, 139–40, 142, 160–61, 361

World War II, 137, 165, 169–70, 361, 407

atomic bomb, 127, plate 37

food shortages, 314

mortality, 127, 128, 139–42

personal stories of, 238

related conflicts, 102, 130

Wrangham, Richard, 139, 155

writing, 3, 7, 18

Xingu Indians, 73–74, 419

Yahi Indians, 398

Ishi, 398, 456, plate 29

Yakut people, 215

Yamana language, 397

Yanomamo Indians, 16, 42, 203, 280, 297–98, plate 12

food availability, 301, 303

map, 27 fig.

salt intake and blood pressure, 416, 418–19

trade, 65, 67, 73, 74, 75

warfare, 132, 137, 158, 160, 163, 165, 291

Yap Islanders, 62

Yazzie, Robert, 103

Yemenite Jews, 433, 438 table , 449

Yolngu people, 26 fig. , 42, 44, 68 table

Yora Indians, 188

youth, American cult of, 225–26

Yupik Inuit, 152

Yupik languages, 397, 398

Zimmet, Paul, 443

Zulu people, 137, 148, 201

Zweig, Stefan, 239

Illustration Credits

Plate 1: Carlo Ottaviano Casana; Plate 2: © Marka/SuperStock; Plate 3: Jacob Maentz/ www.jacobimages.com; Plate 4: Olivier Blaise; Plate 5: Brian M. Wood; Plate 6: Romas Vysniauskas; Plate 7: Henrik Stabell; Plate 8: Bonnie Hewlett; Plate 9: © 2012 Jeff Schultz/AlaskaStock.com; Plate 10: Kim Hill; Plate 11: Toninho Muricy; Plate 12: © Art Wolfe/ www.artwolfe.com; Plate 13: Photograph by Michael Clark Rockefeller. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 2006.12.178.10.; Plate 14: James Tourtellotte, U.S. Customs & Border Patrol; Plate 15: © Eye Ubiquitous/SuperStock; Plate 16: J. Miles Cary, Knoxville News Sentinel ; Plate 17: Afonso Santos; Plate 18: Photo by Carole A. Kosakowski; Plate 19: Russell D. Greaves and Karen Kramer; Plate 20: Bonnie Hewlett; Plate 21: Brian M. Wood; Plate 22: Karen Kramer; Plate 23: Sun xinming/ImagineChina; Plate 24: Sheryl Dawson/Spot-On Marketing, courtesy of Starfish Resources, LLC.; Plate 25: Sisse Brimberg/National Geographic Stock; Plate 26: Bruno Zanzottera/Parallelozero; Plate 27: PunchStock; Plate 28: Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig; Plate 29: Courtesy of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of California. (Catalogue No. 15-5910.); Plate 30: Photo by Michael Leahy, from First Contact by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson (Viking, New York, 1987) courtesy of the estate of Mrs. Jeannette Leahy; Plate 31: Photo by Michael Leahy, from First Contact by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson (Viking, New York, 1987) courtesy of the estate of Mrs. Jeannette Leahy; Plate 32: Peter Hallinan; Plate 33: Blend Images/PunchStock; Plate 34: REUTERS/Yuri Maltsev; Plate 35: AP Photo/George Nikitin; Plate 36: Photograph by Karl G. Heider. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. 2006.17.1.89.2; Plate 37: Taken by Masami Oki. “Material provided by Hidetsugu Aihara,” donated by Peace Museum of Saitama. Courtesy of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum; Plate 38: Russel D. Greaves and Karen Kramer; Plate 39: Phil Ramey, Ramey Pix; Plate 40: © SuperStock; Plate 41: The Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University; Plate 42: USAID; Plate 43: Dr. James Garza; Plate 44: REUTERS/Kyodo News Agency; Plate 45: © Sarah M. J. Welch/ The Harvard Crimson ; Plate 46: Robert R. Leahey, State Archives of Florida, Florida memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/109768; Plate 47: AP Photo/Don Adams.

For more book by this author click here

Illustrations

Plate 1. A Dani man, from the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands.

Plate 2. An Australian Aboriginal man.

Plate 3. An Agta woman, from the mountain forest of Luzon Island in the Philippines.

Plate 4. An Andaman Islander, from the Bay of Bengal.

Plate 5. A Hadza man, from Tanzania.

Plate 6. A !Kung hunter, from Africa’s Kalahari Desert.

Plate 7. A Nuer woman, from the Sudan.

Plate 8. An Aka father and his child, from Africa’s equatorial forest.

Plate 9. An Inuit woman (Iñupiaq), from Alaska.

Plate 10. An Ache Indian man, from the forests of Paraguay.

Plate 11. A Piraha Indian couple and their baby, from the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil.

Plate 12. A Yanomamo Indian girl, from the forests of Venezuela.

Plate 13. A traditional border between tribes, guarded by a Dani man on a watchtower, from the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. (Pages 42 and 123)

Plate 14. A modern border between nations, guarded by remote-controlled cameras on a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol watchtower, at the border between the United States and Mexico.

Plate 15. Traditional dispute resolution, in a Ugandan village. Disputants who have already known one another personally gather to settle their dispute, in a way that will permit them to resolve their feelings and continue to encounter each other peacefully for the rest of their lives. ( Chapter 2)

Plate 16. Modern dispute resolution, in an American courtroom. A defense attorney (left) and a criminal prosecutor (right) argue a point before a judge (middle). The alleged criminal, the victim, and the victim’s family did not know each other before the alleged crime and will probably never encounter each other again. ( Chapter 2)

Plate 17. Traditional toys: Mozambique boys with toy cars that they have made themselves, thereby learning how axles and other car components are designed. Traditional toys are few, simple, made by the child or its parents, and thus educational. (Pages 205 and 459)

Plate 18. Modern toys: an American girl surrounded by her dozens of manufactured toys bought in stores, thereby depriving her of the educational value that traditional children gain from designing and making their own toys. (Page 204)

Plate 19. Traditional child autonomy: Pume Indian baby playing with a large sharp knife. Children in many traditional societies are permitted to make their own decisions, including whether to do dangerous things that most modern parents would never permit a child to do. (Page 198)

Plate 20. Traditional toy: an Aka baby carrying a home-made toy basket on his head, similar to the head-held baskets that Aka adults carry. (Page 204)

Plate 21. A Hadza grandmother foraging while carrying her grandchild. One reason old people are considered valuable in traditional societies is that they serve as care-givers and food-producers to their grandchildren. (Pages 185, 188, and 218)

Plate 22. An older Pume Indian man making arrow points. Another reason older people are considered valuable in traditional societies is that they serve as the best makers of tools, weapons, baskets, pots, and textiles. (Page 218)

Plate 23. A Chinese advertisement for Coca-Cola. The American cult of youth and the low status of the elderly, now spreading to China, are reflected even in the choice of models for ads. Old as well as young people drink soft drinks, but who ever saw an ad depicting old people exuberantly drinking Coca-Cola? (Page 226)

Plate 24. Advertisement for a consulting service specializing in senior living. Instead of older people appearing in ads to sell drinks, clothes, and new cars, they appear in ads for retirement homes, arthritis drugs, and adult diapers. (Page 226)

Plate 25. Ancient religion?: the famous rock wall paintings deep inside France’s Lascaux cave still inspire awe in modern visitors. They suggest that human religion dates back at least to the Ice Age 15,000 years ago. (Page 340)

Plate 26. Traditional feasting among Dani people in the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. Traditional feasting is very infrequent, the food consumed is not fattening (low-fat sweet potatoes in this case), and the feasters do not become obese or end up with diabetes. (Chapter 11)

Plate 27. Modern feasting. Americans and members of other affluent modern societies “feast” (i.e., consume in excess of their daily needs) three times every day, eat fattening foods (fried chicken in this case), become obese, and may end up with diabetes. ( Chapter 11)

Plate 28. A victim of diabetes?: the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. His puffy face and hands in this sole authenticated portrait, and his deteriorating handwriting and vision in his later years, are consistent with a diagnosis of diabetes. (Page 449)

Plate 29. First contact: Ishi, the last surviving Yahi Indian from California, on August 29, 1911, the day that he emerged from hiding and entered Euro-American society. He was terrified and exhausted, and expected to be killed. (Page 398)

Plate 30. First contact between New Guinea Highlanders, who had never previously seen a European, and the Australian miner Dan Leahy, in the Chuave area in 1933. ( Pages 2, 4, and 58)

Plate 31. First contact: a New Guinea Highlander weeps in terror at his first sight of a European, during the 1933 Leahy Expedition. ( Pages 2and 58)

Plate 32. Traditional trade: a canoe of New Guinea traders, carrying goods to be given to traditional trade partners in return for other goods. (Page 60)

Plate 33. Modern trade: a professional store-keeper, selling manufactured goods to anyone who enters the store, in return for the government’s money. (Page 61)

Plate 34. A modern border between nations: a Chinese trader presenting his passport and visa to a Russian police officer near the Russia-China border. (Page 37)

Plate 35. Ellie Nesler, a California woman tried for killing a man charged with sexually abusing her son. Any parent will understand Ellie’s outrage. But the essence of state justice is that government would collapse if citizens took justice into their own hands. (Page 98)

Plate 36. Traditional warfare: Dani tribesmen fighting with spears in the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. The highest one-day death toll in those wars occurred on June 4, 1966, when northern Dani killed face-to-face 125 southern Dani, many of whom the attackers would personally have known (or known of). The death toll constituted 5% of the southerners’ population. ( Chapter 3)

Plate 37. Modern warfare: the Hiroshima atomic bomb cloud of August 6, 1945. The American soldiers who dropped the bomb did not personally know their victims and did not look them in the face as they were killing them. The 100,000 Japanese killed at Hiroshima represent the highest one-day death toll in modern warfare, and constituted 0.1% of Japan’s population at that time. That is, large modern populations are associated with high absolute death tolls in modern warfare, but the methods of traditional warfare can result in much higher proportional death tolls. (Pages 127 and 142)

Plate 38. Traditional transport of children commonly places the child in immediate physical contact with the care-giver, vertically erect, looking forward, and thus seeing the same field of view as the caregiver. This is a Pume Indian baby from Venezuela being carried by an older sister. (Pages 185, 188, and 201)

Plate 39. Modern transport of children often removes the child from physical contact with the care-giver, and places the child looking backwards and reclining horizontally rather than vertically erect. This is an American baby being pushed in a baby carriage by its mother. (Page 184)

Plates 40 and 41. The composers Richard Strauss (left) and Giuseppe Verdi (right) learned how to make the best use of their musical talents as they changed with age. The results were among their greatest compositions: Strauss’s Four Last Songs, and Verdi’s operas Otello and Falstaff, completed at ages 84, 74, and 80, respectively. (Page 239)

Plate 42. Traditional dangers: a man climbing a tree to harvest açaí berries in Brazil. Falling out of a tree, or being struck by a falling tree, is a major hazard in many traditional societies. (Page 280)

Plate 43. Traditional dangers: a large crocodile that was killed after it had killed people in Indonesia. Wild animals are major hazards in most traditional societies. (Page 280)

Plate 44. Modern dangers: car crashes are a major hazard of modern life. (Page 279)

Plate 45. Risk management: Harvard University’s endowment principal and income crashed during the worldwide financial meltdown of 2008-2009. Harvard’s investment managers should have followed the risk management strategy of peasant farmers, who maximize long-term time-averaged yields only insofar as that is compatible with maintaining yields above a certain critical level. (Page 307)

Plate 46. A dowser, a person who claims that rotation of a forked stick can reveal the presence of hidden underground water for land-owners wanting to know where to dig a well. Dowsers illustrate our tendency to resort to rituals in situations whose outcomes are hard to predict. (Page 342)

Plate 47. Vanishing languages: Sophie Borodkin (died January 2008), the last speaker of Eyak, a distinctive Native American language formerly spoken in Alaska. (Page 397)

ALSO BY JARED DIAMOND