Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee
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On Flinders Island Robinson was determined to civilize and christianize the survivors. His settlement was run like a jail, at a windy site with little fresh water. Children were separated from parents to facilitate the work of civilizing them. The regimented daily schedule included Bible reading, hymn singing, and inspection of beds and dishes for cleanness and neatness. However, the jail diet caused malnutrition, which combined with illness to make the natives die. Few infants survived more than a few weeks. The government reduced expenditures in the hope that the natives would die out. By 1869 only Truganini, one other woman, and one man remained alive. [Truganini, that last Tasmanian, died in 1876.] | On Flinders Island Robinson was determined to civilize and christianize the survivors. His settlement was run like a jail, at a windy site with little fresh water. Children were separated from parents to facilitate the work of civilizing them. The regimented daily schedule included Bible reading, hymn singing, and inspection of beds and dishes for cleanness and neatness. However, the jail diet caused malnutrition, which combined with illness to make the natives die. Few infants survived more than a few weeks. The government reduced expenditures in the hope that the natives would die out. By 1869 only Truganini, one other woman, and one man remained alive. [Truganini, that last Tasmanian, died in 1876.] | ||
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| - | In a late chapter, "The Golden Age that Never Was", Diamond talks about a myth that has long irked me: the notion that earlier people once lived in "perfect harmony" with their environment. They didn't: they exterminated species and destroyed habitat—even their own. (That destruction would be the topic of Diamond's later book [[Diamond:_Collapse | ''Collapse'']]. | + | In a late chapter, "The Golden Age that Never Was", Diamond talks about a myth that has long irked me: the notion that earlier people once lived in "perfect harmony" with their environment. They didn't: they exterminated species and destroyed habitat—even their own. (That destruction would be the topic of Diamond's later book [[Diamond:_Collapse | ''Collapse'']]). |
Mammoths once roamed North America, but they disappeared about the time that humans entered the continent across the land-bridge that once crossed the Bearing Strait. Could these earliest humans in North America, known as the Clovis people, have exterminated the mammoths? Diamond does a calculation for plausibility and concludes that it's possible, but that evidence might not be abundant. | Mammoths once roamed North America, but they disappeared about the time that humans entered the continent across the land-bridge that once crossed the Bearing Strait. Could these earliest humans in North America, known as the Clovis people, have exterminated the mammoths? Diamond does a calculation for plausibility and concludes that it's possible, but that evidence might not be abundant. | ||
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{{Notesby|JNS}} | {{Notesby|JNS}} | ||
| - | [[Category: Book Notes]] | + | [[Category: Book Notes]][[Category: JNS]] |
