Agriculture and Sex Accidental Conquerors Genocide November 18, 2014

Is Agriculture Uniquely Human? New World Ants –Plant domestication –Animal domestication

Agricultural Beginnings

Corn: Public Health Disaster American Indians from burial mounds in Illinois and Ohio River Valleys – after arrival of corn:

Agriculture = Inequality Class divisions – new class of social parasites, standing armies, land owners Americans and Europeans are social parasites Inequality for women

1492 Eurasia – iron tools, writing, agriculture, large, centralized states, oceangoing ships, and on verge of industrialization Americas – agriculture, a few large, centralized states, writing in one area, technologically and politically a few thousand years behind Eurasia Australia – stone tools

Racism “Continental differences in level of civilization arose from geography’s effect on the development of our cultural hallmarks, not from human genetics” - Diamond

“Civilization is based, not only on men, but on plants and animals” – Haldane Conquest due to worse germs, more advanced technology, writing, and political organization By 4000 BC, Eurasia domesticated sheep, goats, pigs, cows, and horses –East Asians, instead of cows, had yaks, water buffalo, gaur, and banteng Americas – dogs, turkey, guinea pig (food), alpaca (wool), and llama (pack animal)

Tasmania Cut off from rest of Australia 10,000 years ago Discovered by Europeans 1642 –

Genocide Motivation:

Genocide in Animals Social carnivorous species – ants, lions, wolves, hyenas, gorillas, common chimps (but not pygmy chimps)