Larry Coben on Diamond

My colleague and friend Larry Coben has a nice post over at Huffington Post books, talking about the role of authors like Jared Diamond on how anthropology and archaeology are brought out into the public by authors like Diamond, and books like The World Until Yesterday. I just had a pleasant conversation with a (non-academic) friend yesterday about Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, and this conjunction reminds me that it's so important to have something for all of us to have in common in order to have an interesting conversation. Otherwise, we are just starting the same argument again and again. Plus, I didn't realize how Larry had gotten so famous that he had his own Huffington Post column, in addition to his excellent work at the Sustainable Preservation Initiative.

Davis on Diamond

Wade Davis is an anthropologist well-known for his accessible and thoughtful writing on how anthropology relates to all kinds of issues within the modern world. He is affiliated with the National Geographic Society (keeping him well supplied with breathtaking photographs), and keeps a busy schedule of public lectures across the USA and around the world. His review of Jared Diamond's new book is published in the Guardian. I haven't read Diamond's new book yet, but his work raises important questions about the relationships between geography, history and culture, that anthropologists ought to have opinions about. I think that Davis lays out some of the basics of these issues in the review, and demonstrates why many anthropologists (including myself) are uneasy with the conclusions that Diamond draws.