The World Until Yesterday

Support for these studies was generously provided by the National Geographic Society, Conservation International, Skip and Heather Brittenham, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the Summit Foundation, and the Eve and Harvey Masonek and Samuel F. Heyman and Eve Gruber Heyman 1981 Trust Undergraduate Research Scholars Fund.

To all these people and organizations, I express my heartfelt thanks.

Further Readings

These suggestions of some selected references are for those interested in reading further. Rather than listing extensive bibliographies, I have favored citing recent publications that do provide extensive bibliographies of the earlier literature. In addition, I cite some key earlier books and articles that I think may be of particular interest to readers, or that I specifically quote in my text. A journal title (in italics) is followed by the volume number, followed after a colon by the first and last page numbers, and then by the year of publication in parentheses. Because this book is aimed at a wide audience, I have not footnoted individual statements in the text, and the references instead are designed to supplement individual topics and whole chapters. To reduce this book’s cost, I print here only the references of most general relevance: those to the whole book, and those to the Prologue. The remaining references, to Chapters 1–11 and to the Epilogue, are posted online on a freely available Web site (http://www.jareddiamondbooks.com).

References applicable to this whole book

I provide here three sets of references or comments: references to a few books especially useful for the purposes of this volume, because they provide explicitly comparative information on many societies; explanation of references to the names of individuals whom I met; and references for 39 traditional societies around the world from which I have frequently drawn examples in my book.

General comparative references. An excellent comparative study of human societies around the world especially appropriate to readers of my book is Allen Johnson and Timothy Earle, The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group to Agrarian State, 2nd ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000). This volume compares many aspects of human societies at different levels of organization, summarizes case studies of 19 specific societies, provides many references to the literature on each of those societies, and uses a more finely divided classification of societies than my four-fold classification into bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. An equally excellent comparative account of Aboriginal Australian societies is Ian Keen, Aboriginal Economy and Society: Australia at the Threshold of Colonisation (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2004). As do Johnson and Earle for the world, Keen provides seven case studies sampling the range of geography, environment, and social organization of Native Australians. Three books that specifically survey hunter-gatherer societies around the world are Richard Lee and Irven DeVore, eds., Man the Hunter (Chicago: Aldine, 1968); Frances Dahlberg, ed., Woman the Gatherer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981); and Richard Lee and Richard Daly, eds., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). A valuable cross-cultural survey often consulted by cultural anthropologists is a project of the Cross-Cultural Cumulative Coding Center established at the University of Pittsburgh under the direction of George Murdock. For hundreds of pre-industrial societies around the world, it coded over a thousand cultural variables. Tabulations of its data include George Murdock, Ethnographic Atlas (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1967); Herbert Barry III and Alice Schlegel, Cross-Cultural Samples and Codes (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980); and the Web sites http://www.yale.edu/hraf, http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu, and http://ehrafarchaeology.yale.edu.

Names of individual New Guineans. My text includes numerous anecdotes of conversations or events that transpired while I was bird-watching or chatting with individual New Guinea friends. While an anecdote by itself doesn’t establish anything, it can be a useful way to illustrate, and to put a human face on, a general point. It is standard practice among journalists to provide the true names, identifying details, and localities of individuals mentioned, so that others may contact and further question the individual and thereby obtain new knowledge. That was also formerly the practice among anthropologists, and it was my practice in the past.

However, anthropologists now appreciate that their informants may be vulnerable and may suffer harm if their behavior and views become known. Cultural misunderstandings can easily arise, for example when a New Guinea villager is contacted out of the blue by a stranger with whom the New Guinean does not have an on-going relationship, and whose motives and explanations are unclear, and who may mislead or exploit the New Guinean. Hence it is now anthropological and sociological practice to change (fictionalize) or conceal the names of study locations and informants. In any ethnographic research one is now expected to avoid revealing details that would make it possible to trace a specific source for social data. As one anthropologist friend explained it to me, “The idea behind this practice is to protect informants from others who may want to find them or harm them for a variety of reasons.” The code of ethics of the American Anthropological Association now states, “Anthropological researchers have primary ethical obligations to the people…with whom they work. Those obligations can supersede the goal of seeking new knowledge.” For these reasons, throughout this book I have followed current anthropological practice, and I have consistently removed or changed names and identifying details when I recount stories or events in the lives of my New Guinea friends.

Frequently cited studies. For the reasons explained in the Prologue, I have repeatedly cited studies of a sample of 39 traditional societies around the world, so that readers can gain a sense of how different aspects of a particular society fit together. I group together here some references for accounts of these societies, rather than providing references one by one under the chapter in which I first mention that particular society. The 39 societies include 10 from New Guinea and neighboring islands, 7 from Australia, 5 each from Eurasia and Africa and South America, and 7 from North America.

New Guinea. Dani: books by Johan Broekhuijse, Karl Heider, Robert Gardner, and Peter Matthiessen, with details given under the Further Readings for Chapter 3. Daribi: Roy Wagner, The Curse of Souw: Principles of Daribi Clan Definition and Alliance in New Guinea (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967) and Habu: The Innovation of Meaning in Daribi Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972). Enga: Polly Wiessner and Akii Tumu, Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual, and Warfare in Papua New Guinea (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998); plus references in Johnson and Earle (2000: see above), especially to the books and papers of Mervyn Meggitt. Fayu: Sabine Kuegler, Dschungelkind (Munchen: Droemer, 2005). My quotations from that book are drawn from that German edition; its slightly shortened English translation appeared as Sabine Kuegler, Child of the Jungle (New York: Warner Books, 2005). Two other books by Kuegler that discuss the Fayu are Sabine Kuegler, Ruf des Dschungels (Munchen: Droemer, 2006) and Sabine Kuegler, Jagerin und Gejagte (Munchen: Droemer, 2009). Fore: Ronald Berndt, Excess and Restraint: Social Control Among a New Guinea Mountain People (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962). Hinihon: Angella Meinerzag, Being Mande: Personhood, Land, and Naming System Among the Hinihon in the Adelbert Range/Papua New Guinea (Ph.D. dissertation,