Tasmanian history is a study of human isolation unprecedented except in science fiction - namely, complete isolation from other humans for 10,000 years. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Put another way, the chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Recent discoveries about apes suggest, however, that a gorilla or common chimp stands at least as good a chance being murdered as… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents for the last 13,000 years? — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Human societies vary in lots of independent factors affecting their openness to innovation. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Much of human history has consisted of unequal conflicts between the haves and the have-nots. — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
All human societies go through fads in which they temporarily either adopt practices of little use or else abandon practices of considerable… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Think of all the human suffering caused by the sad truth that beautiful sexy women or handsome Porsche-owning men often prove to… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Introspection and preserved writings give us far more insight into the ways of past humans than we have into the ways of… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Measles and TB evolved from diseases of our cattle, influenza from a disease of pigs, and smallpox possibly from a disease of… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Thousands of years ago, humans domesticated every possible large wild mammal species fulfilling all those criteria and worth domesticating, with the result… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
To dismiss the current extinction wave on the grounds that extinctions are normal events is like ignoring a genocidal massacre on the… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Throughout history, adultery has had few rivals as a cause of murder and human misery. The reason we tend to resemble our… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our Earth is not the center of the… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
But this was the only way of life that humans knew for their first 6m years on the planet. In giving it… — Jared Diamond Copy Share Image
Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
What did the last Easter Islander say as he chopped down the last tree? The Easter Islanders didnt have anthropologists. — Jared Diamond Copy Share
“We come to conquer this land by his command, that all may come to a knowledge of God and of His Holy Catholic Faith;… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
“With the rise of chiefdoms around 7,500 years ago, people had to learn, for the first time in history, how to encounter strangers regularly… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
Human societies vary in lots of independent factors affecting their openness to innovation. — Jared Diamond Copy Share
No government is here forever. And there are other forces - the most potent force in our society, in fact, big business - doing… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
“Those parasites pass to a person from an eaten animal, but the virus causing laughing sickness (kuru) in the New Guinea highlands used to… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
“...invokes the supposed stimulatory effects of their homeland's cold climate and the inhibitory effects of hot, humid, tropical climates on human creativity and energy.… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
“Throughout the Americas, diseases introduced with Europeans spread from tribe to tribe far in advance of the Europeans themselves, killing an estimated 95 percent… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves — Jared Diamond Copy Share
We study the injustices of history for the same reason that we study genocide, and for the same reason that psychologists study the minds… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
I decided that now is the time to start doing the things that really interest me and I find important. It was in the… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
“As a result of that confined distribution, peoples who pride themselves on being civilized have always viewed writing as the sharpest distinction raising them… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
Infectious diseases introduced with Europeans, like smallpox and measles, spread from one Indian tribe to another, far in advance of Europeans themselves, and killed… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
In fact, everywhere in the world there has been a flux between big and small societies. Big political units are constantly being formed, later… — Jared Diamond Copy Share
