jared diamond’s new book

jared diamond has a new book out: The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

it gets a very favorable review in the guardian. here’s a taste of what’s in it:

“Diamond has studied traditional societies in Africa, Asia, South and North America and the Arctic, but most of his analysis comes from his observations of his old scientific stamping grounds in New Guinea, a process that has not been without its tribulations. Several years ago, Diamond met a tribesman called Daniel Wemp who said he had organised a clan war in New Guinea to avenge the death of an uncle….

“The issue of vengeance is central to Diamond’s book. In the west, when a person is robbed or injured in an attack, the state – in the form of the police – take responsibility for tracking and punishing the culprit. Traditional societies take a very different approach. Minor offences are normally settled by payment of compensation – the pig is the traditional currency in New Guinea – or by holding a feast to signal the re-establishment of friendly relations. For more serious offences, including murder, a family will seek to make alliances with others to help track down and kill their relative’s murderer. This usually triggers an identical response from the murdered murderer’s family and the process is repeated. The west’s depersonalised system of justice looks a lot better from this perspective.”

well, looks like i’m gonna have to buy the book. d*mn! (~_^)

see also: Vengeance is Ours: What can tribal societies tell us about our need to get even? [pdf]

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linkfest – 05/08/11

The Reason We Reason << read this!

Ug! Neanderthals were mostly right-handed … and may have had a proper language too

Better brain wiring linked to family genes – via roissy

The eternal infant – “[H]umans are different. We never grow up. As adults, we retain this infant-like mental plasticity…. Geneticists are now a step closer to understanding this evolutionary change. A team led by David Kingsley of Stanford has shown that ancestral humans lost a key piece of DNA that switches on GADD45G, a gene that stifles growth of brain tissue.” @evo and proud via diversity is chaos.

Who knows you best? Not you, say psychologists

Combination of ADHD and poor emotional control runs in families. see also: Stress in pregnancy ‘makes child unruly’: Mother’s anxiety can raise baby’s risk of ADHD

More than 20 percent of atheist scientists are spiritual – spiritual atheists. wait. what?

Female-to-male transsexual people have more autistic traits – “Simon Baron-Cohen interpreted the results as follows: ‘Girls with a higher than average number level of autistic traits tend to have male-typical interests, showing a preference for systems over emotions. They prefer not to socialise with typical girls because they have different interests, and because typical girls on average have more advanced social skills. Both of these factors may lead girls with a higher number of autistic traits to socialize with boys, to believe they have a boy’s mind in a girl’s body, and to attribute their unhappiness to being a girl.’”

Hearts Beat as One in a Daring Ritual – cool!

Does Revenge Serve an Evolutionary Purpose?

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