The World Until Yesterday : What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (Hardcover)

from quiBee

This book, by Jared Diamond, looks at traditional societies and the way they look/looked at the world and points out that our Western ways of doing things is not the only way of looking at the world, or solving problems. Diamond is an American scientist who has spent a lot of time in New Guinea a...

from charlie68

An enveloping read on traditional cultures, ranging from New Guinea to South American Indians, and comparing them to modern mainly American society. Doesn't romanticize either and highlights in interesting ways the differences between the two. Topics from warfare to child rearing and health are e...

from ErlangerFactionless

 Jared Diamond draws from many disciplines - biology, geography, ethnography, history - in writing enjoyable, insightful books about human civilization. This one is simply a pleasure to read. Relying heavily on his decades of experience among the peoples of New Guinea, he compares cultures and id...

from LisCarey

In what ways are traditional societies similar to each other, and modern state-based societies similar to each other? In what ways do modern and traditional societies resemble and differ from each other--and is there anything that we can learn from the surviving traditional societies before they ...

from mbmackay

Jared Diamonds reflects on the aspects of hunter gatherer societies that might be usefully applied to the modern western world. This is not his best book, but he sets such a high standard, so his near misses are better than most books. There seems to be a surplus of facts in the early chapters an...