The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee

  Further readings on Pleistocene and Early Recent cases of extinction are given under Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen. In addition, Storrs Olson reviews the extinction of island birds in an article ‘Extinction on islands: man as a catastrophe’, pp. 50–53 of Conservation for the Twenty-first Century, edited by David Western and Mary Pearl (Oxford University Press, New York, 1989). Ian Atkinson’s article on pp. 54–75 of the same book, ‘Introduced animals and extinctions’, summarizes the havoc wrought by rats and other pests.

  Epilogue

  Nothing Learned, and Everything Forgotten?

  Many excellent books discuss the present and future of the extinction crisis and the other crises now facing humanity, their causes, and what to do about them. Among them are the following:

  John J. Berger, Restoring the Earth: How Americans are Working to Renew our Damaged Environment (Knopf, New York, 1985); editor, Environmental Restoration: Science and Strategies for Restoring the Earth (Island Press, Washington DC, 1990).

  John Cairns, Jnr, Rehabilitating Damaged Ecosystems (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 1988); with K.L. Dickson and E.E. Herricks, Recovery and Restoration of Damaged Ecosystems (University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1977).

  Anne and Paul Ehrlich, Extinction (Random House, New York, 1981); Earth (Franklin Watts, New York, 1987); The Population Explosion (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1990); Healing Earth (Addison Wesley, New York, 1991).

  Paul Ehrlich et al, The Cold and the Dark (Norton, New York, 1984).

  D. Furguson and N. Furguson, Sacred Cows at the Public Trough (Maverick Publications, Bend, Oregon, 1983).

  Suzanne Head and Robert Heinzman, editors, Lessons of the Rainforest (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990).

  Jeffrey A. McNeely, Economics and Biological Diversity (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland, 1988); Jeffrey A. McNeely et al, Conserving the World’s Biological Diversity (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland, 1990).

  Norman Myers, Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests (National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, 1980); Gaia: an Atlas of Planet Management (Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1984); The Primary Source (Norton, New York, 1985).

  Michael Oppenheimer and Robert Boyle, Dead Heat: the Race against the Greenhouse Effect (Basic Books, New York, 1990).

  Walter V. Reid and Kenton R. Miller, Keeping Options Alive: the Scientific Basis for Conserving Biodiversity (World Resources Institute, Washington DC, 1989).

  Sharon L. Roan, Ozone Crisis: the Fifteen-Year Evolution of a Sudden Global Emergency (Wiley, New York, 1989).

  Robin Russell Jones and Tom Wigley, editors, Ozone Depletion: Health and Environmental Consequences (Wiley, New York, 1989).

  Steven H. Schneider, Global Warming: Are We Entering the Greenhouse Century?, second edition (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990).

  Michael E. Soulé, editor, Conservation Biology: the Science of Scarcity and Diversity (Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts, 1986).

  John Terborgh, Where Have All the Birds Gone? (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990).

  E.O. Wilson, Biophilia (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984); editor, Biodiversity (National Academy Press, Washington DC, 1988).

  Finally, readers interested enough to want to pursue further readings may also want suggestions about what to do to reduce the risk that our children’s generation will become extinct. As I explain in the text, the average citizen can do a good deal, both by being active politically and by giving even modest amounts of money to conservation organizations. Here are the names and addresses of a few of the best-known and largest such organizations, among the many that are worthy of support:

  World Wide Fund for Nature, Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1XR, UK.

  Greenpeace, 30–1 Islington Green, London, N1 8XE, UK.

  International Council for Bird Preservation, 32 Cambridge Road, Girton, Cambridge, CB3 OPJ, UK.

  International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Avenue du Mont-Blanc, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland.

  Friends of the Earth, 26–28 Underwood Street, London, N1 7JQ, UK.

  Conservation Foundation, Lowther Lodge, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, UK.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  It is a pleasure for me to acknowledge the contributions of many people to this book. My parents and my teachers at Roxbury Latin School taught me how to pursue interests along many lines simultaneously. My debt to my many New Guinean friends will be obvious from the frequency with which I cite their experiences. I owe an equal debt to my many scientist friends and professional colleagues, who patiently explained the subtleties of their subjects and read my drafts. Earlier versions of most of the chapters appeared as articles in Discover magazine and in Natural History magazine. I have been fortunate to have as my editors Leon Jaroff, Fred Golden, Gil Rogin, Paul Hoffman, and Marc Zabludoff at Discover, Alan Ternes and Ellen Goldensohn at Natural History, Thomas Miller at HarperCollins Publishers, Neil Belton at Hutchinson Radius Publishers, and my wife Marie Cohen.

  JARED M. DIAMOND

  Los Angeles

  January 1991

  INDEX

  The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.

  Aborigines 254–5

  Adams, John Quincy (US President) 277

  addiction 183

  adultery 72–83

  laws 80

  advertisements for toxic drugs 174–6

  African Genesis (Robert Ardrey) 33

  Africans, Middle Stone Age 38–40

  ageing 54, 106–19

  agriculture 122, 123–4, 163–72

  and Indo-European languages 241

  Ahlquist, Jon 16

  alarm calls, fake 131

  Alexander, Richard (biologist) 68

  Algeria, massacres 259

  Alice Springs, massacre 254

  American Indians see Indians, American

  American leaders, Indian policies of 277–8

  Americas

  colonization by Indians 304–8

  European conquest 213

  extinctions 295

  Anasazi people 297, 302

  Anatolian language 236

  Andersson, Malte (biologist) 102

  animal rights movements 24

  animals

  communication 126–36

  domestication 215–16, 242

  experiments on 24–6

  humans as 1

  murders by 261–2

  tameability 215–16

  wars 261

  Anthony, David (archaeologist) 242

  ants,

  agriculture 164

  leaf-cutter 165

  apes 13–14

  art 155

  artificial languages 134

  ethical status 23–6

  and humans, taxonomy 16–26

  life-cycle 50

  social organisation 58–9

  variation 97

  archaeology, value of 302

  Archbold Expedition (Third) 202–3

  Ardrey, Robert 33

  arranged marriages 90

  art 123

  and agriculture 170–1

  and animals 152–62

  of Cro-Magnons 42

  and sexual selection 159–60

  Arthur, G. (governor of Tasmania) 252

  artistic diversity, first contact 209

  astrapia birds of paradise 103

  Athens 301

  Aurignacian culture 45

  Australia 250–5

  European conquest 213

  extinctions 295–6

  Australopithecus spp. 29–30

  Austronesian languages 240–1

  automobiles, optimization 111

  aye-aye (primate) 191–2

  Bachman’s warbler 316

  balance of nature 280
/>
  barbarians vs Greeks 267

  Barbary macaques 74

  battle-cruisers 112

  Betancourt, Julio (paleobiologist) 297

  Bickerton, Derek (linguist) 143–4, 145

  bird songs 154

  dialects 132

  birds

  colonies 77–9

  extinctions 315

  flightless, in New Zealand 287

  taxonomy 15–16

  birds of paradise, sexual selection 103

  Bismarck, Otto von 332

  blindness, wilful 303

  ‘blitzkrieg’ theory (Paul Martin) 307–11

  body shape and social organisation 59–62

  body size 60 (fig), 61 (fig)

  bowerbirds 123, 156–8

  Brass’s friarbird 316

  Brazil

  genocide 259

  massacres of Indians 273

  breast size 61 (fig)

  British Ornithologists’ Union 204

  Broughton, William (Archdeacon of Australia) 252–3

  Bulletin, The 255

  Burley, Nancy (sociobiologist) 69

  Bushmen 166–7

  buxom redhead theory 90

  Byzantine Empire 300

  California, Indians 166

  captivity, breeding in 216

  Carolina parakeet 315

  Catholic Church, Roman 65

  Centinela Ridge (Ecuador) 317

  cereals 219

  Châtelperronian culture 45

  Chaco Canyon 297

  chemical abuse 122, 124, 173

  Cheney, Dorothy 128

  childbirth, danger 116

  child-rearing 50, 57–8

  ‘Chinese whispers’ (‘telephone’) 208

  Chomsky, Noam 145

  cichlid fishes 23

  circumcision, female 81

  civilisations

  effects of geography 214

  effects of plants 218

  longevity 194

  cladistics 20–1

  class divisions and agriculture 169–71

  climate and skin colour 99–101

  clothing 41

  Clovis people 306

  population growth 308

  Cobern, Patricia 255

  common vs pygmy chimpanzees 18

  communication 123

  of animals 126–36

  sexual selection, chemical abuse 176

  competition 199–200

  Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur 118–19

  concentration camp survivors 273–4

  Connolly & Anderson, First Contact 208–9

  conservation in Indonesia 331

  convergent evolution 187

  copulation see sexual intercourse

  corn 219

  correlation coefficients in sexual selection 86

  coyotes vs wolves 28

  creationism 1, 186

  Creeping Man, The Adventure of the (Conan Doyle) 118–19

  creole languages 138–40, 143

  Crete, extinction 295

  Cro-Magnons 40–5, 329

  vs Neanderthals 44

  sexual selection and art 160

  culture 5

  homogenization 211–12

  customs, effect of first contact 210

  Cyprus, extinctions 295

  Dani people of Grand Valley 206

  Darwin, Charles, on origin of racial variation 96, 101

  de Kooning, Willem (artist) 152

  death 54, 106–19

  deforestation 296–7

  desaparecidos (disappeared ones) 264

  dialects 231

  and bird songs 132

  Diamond, Joshua and Max (author’s sons) 3, 265

  dichotomy, ‘us’ and ‘them’ 267

  Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) 286

  disease and agriculture 168–9

  DNA

  comparison between humans and apes 16–26

  function 21

  hybridization 15

  dodo 281

  domestication of animals 215–16

  and Indo-European languages 242

  drug abuse 173

  dusky seaside sparrow 315

  Dwyer, Michael (gold-hunter) 205

  eagle, New Zealand 288, 290

  Easter Island 296–7

  ecological suicide 282

  ecology 280

  education 57

  egrets, great, on Hog Island 77–8

  eland, hunting 39

  elephant birds 293

  emperors of T’ang Dynasty 81

  Encyclopaedia Britannica 187

  endangered species 25, 320

  enemas, ritual 181–2

  energy expenditure 113

  environment

  holocaust 313

  human assault 5–6

  environmentalism

  modern 330

  of pre-industrial peoples 286

  ethical status of apes 23–6

  European conquest of Americas and Australia 213

  evolution

  convergent 187

  and game theory 110

  time scale 19–20

  exobiology 186

  experiments on animals and humans 24–6

  explanations, proximate vs ultimate 107–8

  exterminations

  of American Indians 269

  of species by other species 280–1

  of Tasmanians 252

  extinction 280–4, 295–6, 313–14

  of birds 315

  in Hawaii 291

  in Malaysia 317

  mass 318–23

  in New Zealand 287

  in Polynesia 291

  rats and 290

  ripple effects 322

  extramarital sex 53, 71–83, 85

  extraterrestrial intelligence 184–95

  fable, proto-Indo-European 248–9

  fake alarm calls 131

  Falconer, Steven 299

  Fall, Patricia 299

  family tree, evolutionary 13

  famine and agriculture 168–9

  fathers, role 58

  female circumcision 81

  Figueiredo Report, Indian massacres 273

  final solutions to power struggles 260

  Finno-Ugric languages 239–40

  First Contact (Bob Connolly & Robin Anderson) 208

  first contacts 202–12

  flightless birds in New Zealand 287

  Flinders Island 253

  food of hunter-gatherers 166–7

  Foré language 137, 210

  Foré people 84, 207

  fossil evidence, lack 14

  Franklin, Benjamin 277

  game theory 74, 76–7

  and evolution 110

  genetic blueprint for language 145–7

  genetic clocks, molecular 14

  genetic differences between types 10

  genetics, molecular 2, 12–23

  genitalia, size 62

  genocide 250–78

  in ancient history 265

  definition 255–9

  motivation 259

  by neglect 257

  provocation 259

  psychological effects 272

  and United Nations 272

  Gentry, Alwyn (botanist) 317–19

  geographic distribution of humans 198–9

  geographic variation 203

  and natural selection 98

  geography 223–4

  effects on civilisations 214

  Germanic languages 147

  gerontology 117

  giant land tortoises 293

  gibbons 13, 17–18

  variation 97

  Gimbutas, Marija (archaeologist) 245

  glottochronology 237

  Golden Age 285

  Goodall, Jane 262

  gorillas

  murder by 262

  variation 97

  grammar 135, 136

  creation 144–7

  universal 145–7

  Grand Cayman Isl
and 317–19

  Grand Valley (New Guinea) 202

  great auk 315

  Great Leap Forward 27–48, 328

  Green Bank formula 186

  group cohesion and art 160

  habitats, destruction 322

  haemoglobin 19, 21

  Haldane, J.B.S., on civilisation 214

  handicaps 178

  Harrington’s mountain goat 307

  Harrison, W.H. (US President) 277–8

  Hawaii

  creolization 143–4

  extinctions 291

  Haydn, F.J., and Rebecca Schröter 162

  Haynes, Vance (archaeologist) 306

  healing of wounds 109

  height, historical changes 168

  Henderson Island 291–2

  herbivory 192

  Herodotus, experiment of Psammeticus 138

  herons 77–8

  herring gulls in Lake Michigan 78

  Heyerdahl, Thor (explorer) 296

  Hittite language 236, 242

  Hog Island study 77–8

  Holmes, Sherlock 118–19

  holocausts

  environmental 313

  future 313–14

  Homo erectus 29–32

  Homo habilis 29

  ‘honour and shame’ 81

  Horowitz, Irving (sociologist) 256

  horses 216–17

  domestication and origin of Indo-European languages 242

  houses 41

  Hrdy, Sarah (sociobiologist) 68

  humans

  as animals 1

  and apes, taxonomy 16–26

  concealment of ovulation 65; 66–9

  experiments on 24

  geographic distribution 198–9

  Great Leap Forward 27–48

  life-cycle 4, 50–119

  longevity 115–16

  low fertility 65

  sexual selection 103–5

  sexuality 56

  hunter-gatherer lifestyle 164, 166

  hunting 32, 33–4

  big-game 32, 33–4, 41

  of bison 306–7