On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Paul Echeverri wrote: >On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 18:29:15 -0800 (PST), Philip Hart ><philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> wrote: > >> This is the first I'd heard of non-ideological disagreements with >> Diamond - is there something peer-reviewed I could check out? > >Not that I can think of offhand, but he lost me in the foreword with >his Noble, Smarter than Us White People, Savages bit. You make it sound like you didn't read past the foreword. Did you? He didn't go out of his way to make the savages "noble"; indeed, he suggests that their interminable tribal warfare was halted specifically because of the arrival of civilized colonizers. And as for "smarter" - I thnk he's just stressing that they have a powerful knowledge of their local environment; plants and animals that are good to eat, and those that are hazardous. He does *suggest* smarter, and I would argue with him on using that specific terminology. An individual of the civilized world also has to keep track of thonsands of little details as well; it's just that fewer of them are directly related to finding food. Of course, most persons dropped into the savages environment would be in deep trouble unless given specific training on how to survive; so too would a savage be in trouble if dropped into civilization - but perhaps less likely to starve to death or die of poisoning. Perhaps. >> ps - "Echeverri" has a cool linguistic story, right? - maybe Basque? > >Give the man a cigar. > Are you also "circadian rhyme"? There also this post in the logs, and I find it unlikely that there are 2 Basque fans of Brust. But perhaps you are related. http://dragaera.info/mailinglists/archive.cgi/1/7046