Margaret Mead & Jared Diamond
What makes Jared Diamond possible? Discussant commentary for the panel “Margaret Mead and Jared Diamond: Past Publics, Current Engagements.”
Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond is not an anthropologist or an archaeologist. Nevertheless, Diamond rose to fame as a popularizer of anthropology and archaeology. But for Living Anthropologically it is important to realize how Diamond promotes misguided ideas. I contend that Guns, Germs, and Steel displaced the much better and stronger account offered by Eric Wolf in Europe and the People Without History (see my Geographies, States, Empires for a longer discussion).
Pages on Jared Diamond
There are two critical pages on Jared Diamond: Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race examines the still-trendy 1987 article that in many ways launched Diamond as a popularizing science writer. Guns, Germs, and Steel: Against History takes up Diamond’s most influential book.
Also watch my interview on Diamond.
Teaching Jared Diamond
We need to be very careful when using Diamond’s work in the classroom. I still find it useful to assign the “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” in my current Intro-to-Anthropology 2021 course. But that’s about it.
For Intro-to-Anthropology classroom resources, see this YouTube lecture on Worst Mistake. See also this attempt to critique Jared Diamond with a YouTube lecture on “Marketing Conquest” by Michael Wilcox. These lectures accompany the textbook Anthropology: What does it mean to be human?
The 2020 equivalents are this Worst Mistake and this lecture on Wilcox. Those classes are based on the textbook Through the Lens of Anthropology. It is true that both of those textbooks support some of Jared Diamond’s points. It’s not that his points are all wrong, it is that they are borrowed and distorted from anthropology, while missing some of the most important aspects of human history.
Blog Posts (newest first)
Is the State Relevant?
Globalization was supposed to render the national state irrelevant. Such claims had already been disproved by an anthropology of the state.
The Concept of Culture
Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture translated Boasian Anthropology and its concept of culture to a mass audience. Plus problematic cultural wholes.
Anthropology Is Your Ally
An impassioned plea to lower the arrogance decibels. In the wake of Steven Pinker’s “Science Is Not Your Enemy” assessing humanities & science together.
We Cannot Abandon Humanity
When Bill Gates recommends Jared Diamond & Steven Pinker, reiterate anthropology’s calling: “the fate of no human group can be irrelevant to humankind” (Trouillot).
Epigenetics & Human Nature
Could epigenetics finally re-write the script about human nature? Maybe, but first we have to go over The Edge’s promotional tribute to Napoleon Chagnon.
Links to the Highly Improbable
An anthropologist caught between “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” and “Marginal Revolution: Small Steps Toward a Much Better World.”
Party Like It’s 1999… with Napoleon Chagnon!
If “anthropology’s future depends largely on its ability to contest the Savage slot” (Trouillot) then what about Napoleon Chagnon?
Gun Control & Shoddy Anthropology
Arguments against gun control are rooted in shoddy anthropology: ideas about human nature, culture & history which anthropology does not support.
Childcare, Culture & Power
Meredith Small, “Our Babies, Ourselves” introduces many ways to raise babies, the biocultural of neurologically unfinished infants. But does this elide power?
War, Peace, & Human Nature
Wonderful recent volume shows how views of human nature as inherently warlike stem not from the facts but from cultural views embedded in Western thinking.
Jared Diamond, Science, Violence & the Facts
The Ax Fight shows how Yanomami used steel axes long before anthropologists arrive. The Jared Diamond violence calculations must consider interconnection.
Angry Papuan leaders demand Jared Diamond apologizes – Survival Intl
Papuan leaders jump into the discussion, as Stephen Corry and Survival International challenge two very public figures–Jared Diamond and Steven Pinker.
Indigenous Allies & Politics of Empire
The indigenous allies in Matthew Restall’s Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest point to contingent histories, not the inevitability of guns, germs & steel.
Geography, States, Empires
Eric Wolf’s Europe and the People Without History attempts to answer Yali’s Question – Why Europe? It’s time to rediscover the history of Eric Wolf.
Patterns of Culture (1934) wins Jared Diamond (2012)
Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture wins Jared Diamond for conceptual clarity, writing style, ethnographic example, and impact. Pretty good for 1934.
The World Until Yesterday
Jared Diamond’s 2012 book, The World Until Yesterday encloses people in traditional cultures rather than dynamic Interconnection.
Valuing & Devaluing Anthropology
How might sharing anthropology change anthropological research and presentation? An anthropology of value and the value of anthropology during devaluation.
Anthropology & Politics in 2012 Elections
Anthropology should be front and center–the 2012 Obama Romney election concerns race, culture, history, and power, key issues for political anthropology.
Race IQ – Game Over: It was always all about wealth
The publication of “Race, IQ, and Wealth” by Ron Unz effectively is game over for Race IQ peddlers–it was always about wealth & inequality.
Jared Diamond won’t beat Mitt Romney
The really scary part of the Diamond Romney dustup is how Romney recaps Diamond: European imperialism is accidental but societies choose to fail.
Teaching Race
Updated sources for teaching race anthropologically. Race is a social construction, but we need to understand that racism is what makes race salient.
Jared Diamond & Richard Lee
The 1987 Jared Diamond article “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” takes from Richard B. Lee–mongongo nuts without credit.
Teaching: Latin America & Caribbean 2012
Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean is less about “peoples and cultures” and more about processes at work across the Americas.
Four Field Manifesto
Anthropology’s Moral Optimism: Four Field Manifesto & alternative visions of humanity. Capitalism is not the most beautiful or respectful of shared planet.