Finished the prologue. The author's goal is to explain why societies, which have all started as hunter-gatherers, have progressed at different rates. Genetic differences cannot explain this, so the author's main thesis is that geographical differences have led to differential development leading up to major conquests in 1500 AD (I guess when cultures really started to clash) and ultimately to today's cultural/political landscape.
Ultimately, the reason for a society's success over another has to do with the development of guns, germs and steel. Why did some cultures develop and implement these over others? Geography.
An interesting point he mentioned was the different selection pressures between societies in New Guinea and industrialized, high-density European cities. Dense populations are afflicted by disease and thus there was strong selection pressure for disease resistance. On the other hand, death in tribal life is caused mostly murder, warfare and trouble obtaining food. Thus, intelligence had stronger selection pressure. He also talks about the definition of intelligence and how that relates to the depiction of tribes as primitive.
I'm looking forward to his explanation about the Westernization of Australia. For thousands of years the Aborigines existed with little development, and when Europeans came in, industrialized society flourished. Yet Diamond says that the immigrants don't deserve the credit.
Hopefully my posts won't be so long as I get used to this.
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