Grizzom
22nd June 2010, 03:51
http://i46.tinypic.com/21nqxp0.jpg
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Why is it that Europeans ended up conquering so much of the world? Or, as one of Diamond's New Guinean friends asks him, why do they have all the "cargo"? Despite all the contrary evidence from anthropology and human biology, many persist in attributing the differing political and economic successes of the world's peoples to biological, "racial" differences. Others appeal to cultural differences or to historical contingency. But Diamond sees the fundamental causes as environmental, resting ultimately on ecological differences between the continents. An extended argument for this, Guns, Germs and Steel is nothing less than a history of Homo sapiens on a scale of continents and millennia.
Diamond begins with a survey of human pre-history, covering the spread of humans around the world down to 11000 BC. He then introduces Polynesia as a "natural experiment", an illustration on a smaller scale of his overall thesis. In the Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific, settlers from the one cultural and ethnic background ended up in vastly different environments, ranging from continental New Zealand, through volcanic islands of various sizes, to barren atolls and remote Easter Island. Hunter-gatherer societies eventuated on some islands — and sophisticated states and proto-empires on others.
As an exemplar of contact between different societies, Diamond chooses the meeting of the Spanish conquistador Pizarro and the Inca Atahuallpa at Cajamarca in 1532. This resulted in Pizarro's victory, despite a numerical disadvantage, and the capture of Atahuallpa. The proximate causes of this were germs, technology (guns and steel weapons, ships), domestic animals (horses), and writing. Hence the title.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4008293090480628280#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6846344734969027300#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3449100874735282191#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4092265217728346257#
The Lost Pyramids Of Caral
The magnificent ancient city of pyramids at Caral in Peru hit the headlines in 2001. The site is a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation in the Americas and, at 2,627 BC, is as old as the pyramids of Egypt. Many now believe it is the fabled missing link of archaeology - a 'mother city'. If so, then these extraordinary findings could finally answer one of the great questions of archaeology: why did humans become civilised? A lot has been discussed since this was put out. From Seattle Times (December 23, 2004): "A Peruvian site previously reported as the oldest city in the Americas actually is a much larger complex of as many as 20 cities with huge pyramids and sunken plazas sprawled over three river valleys, researchers report." Construction began in 3000 B.C (300-400 years before the people of Kemet/Egypt began the Pyramid of Djoser). These cities flourished peacefully for more than 1,200 years.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8213001278676327450
Legacy Origins of Civilization
Host Michael Wood traces the rise of both Asian and Western civilization in one global perspective in these thought-provoking videos. From the crumbling ruins in the Iraqi desert to those of Greece and Rome, viewers contemplate thriving cities and complex societies that have vanished, a reminder that other nations prospered for thousands of years. Now all that remains is their legacy. 1. Iraq: Cradle of Civilization After thousands of years as a hunter/gatherer, man built the first cities 5,000 years ago on the banks of the Euphrates River. Civilization as we know it began with the glorious cultures of Ur, Nineveh, and Babylon.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7632385287998589429
Ancient Civilisation and the Golden Age, Serpent Knowledge of the Shining Ones, the Watchers and the Druids Edmund Marriage, Independent Researcher, shows how the re-interpretation of ancient texts and modern science reveals extraordinary skills in the development of sophisticated agriculture and social organisation in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East 11,300 years ago. He shows that the domestication of plants and animals can be traced back to the Sumerian Kharsag (head enclosure) also known as the Garden of Eden, and gives an update on the research confirming the location of the site north of Mt Hermon in Southern Lebanon.
http://i45.tinypic.com/4qlbw6.jpg
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Why is it that Europeans ended up conquering so much of the world? Or, as one of Diamond's New Guinean friends asks him, why do they have all the "cargo"? Despite all the contrary evidence from anthropology and human biology, many persist in attributing the differing political and economic successes of the world's peoples to biological, "racial" differences. Others appeal to cultural differences or to historical contingency. But Diamond sees the fundamental causes as environmental, resting ultimately on ecological differences between the continents. An extended argument for this, Guns, Germs and Steel is nothing less than a history of Homo sapiens on a scale of continents and millennia.
Diamond begins with a survey of human pre-history, covering the spread of humans around the world down to 11000 BC. He then introduces Polynesia as a "natural experiment", an illustration on a smaller scale of his overall thesis. In the Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific, settlers from the one cultural and ethnic background ended up in vastly different environments, ranging from continental New Zealand, through volcanic islands of various sizes, to barren atolls and remote Easter Island. Hunter-gatherer societies eventuated on some islands — and sophisticated states and proto-empires on others.
As an exemplar of contact between different societies, Diamond chooses the meeting of the Spanish conquistador Pizarro and the Inca Atahuallpa at Cajamarca in 1532. This resulted in Pizarro's victory, despite a numerical disadvantage, and the capture of Atahuallpa. The proximate causes of this were germs, technology (guns and steel weapons, ships), domestic animals (horses), and writing. Hence the title.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4008293090480628280#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6846344734969027300#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3449100874735282191#
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4092265217728346257#
The Lost Pyramids Of Caral
The magnificent ancient city of pyramids at Caral in Peru hit the headlines in 2001. The site is a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation in the Americas and, at 2,627 BC, is as old as the pyramids of Egypt. Many now believe it is the fabled missing link of archaeology - a 'mother city'. If so, then these extraordinary findings could finally answer one of the great questions of archaeology: why did humans become civilised? A lot has been discussed since this was put out. From Seattle Times (December 23, 2004): "A Peruvian site previously reported as the oldest city in the Americas actually is a much larger complex of as many as 20 cities with huge pyramids and sunken plazas sprawled over three river valleys, researchers report." Construction began in 3000 B.C (300-400 years before the people of Kemet/Egypt began the Pyramid of Djoser). These cities flourished peacefully for more than 1,200 years.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8213001278676327450
Legacy Origins of Civilization
Host Michael Wood traces the rise of both Asian and Western civilization in one global perspective in these thought-provoking videos. From the crumbling ruins in the Iraqi desert to those of Greece and Rome, viewers contemplate thriving cities and complex societies that have vanished, a reminder that other nations prospered for thousands of years. Now all that remains is their legacy. 1. Iraq: Cradle of Civilization After thousands of years as a hunter/gatherer, man built the first cities 5,000 years ago on the banks of the Euphrates River. Civilization as we know it began with the glorious cultures of Ur, Nineveh, and Babylon.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7632385287998589429
Ancient Civilisation and the Golden Age, Serpent Knowledge of the Shining Ones, the Watchers and the Druids Edmund Marriage, Independent Researcher, shows how the re-interpretation of ancient texts and modern science reveals extraordinary skills in the development of sophisticated agriculture and social organisation in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East 11,300 years ago. He shows that the domestication of plants and animals can be traced back to the Sumerian Kharsag (head enclosure) also known as the Garden of Eden, and gives an update on the research confirming the location of the site north of Mt Hermon in Southern Lebanon.
http://i45.tinypic.com/4qlbw6.jpg