Lessons of Global Warming?
"Which kind of culture would you prefer to get traded to?" Robert Sapolsky ponders a basic dichotomy of two societies in opposing ecosystems. Rain forests and deserts are home to vastly differing societies. Rain forest dwellers tend toward polytheism; desert residents lean towards monotheism.
Forests are lush with much to offer, while deserts teach brutal lessons. Forest men do hard work, while desert women are beasts of burden. Sapolsky's article, "Are the Desert People Winning?", appears in Discover magazine, p. 38, August 2005, Volume 26, No. 8. It is based on Stanford anthropologist Robert Textor's 1967 study A Cross-Cultural Summary.
Especially interesting is the militarism of the desert. At present the Earth is dominated by descendants of the Judeo-Christian/Muslim tribes. Women of the meek may be treated better, but their men still write poetry.
For more see Robert Sapolsky's Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals, Scribner, September 2005.
Forests are lush with much to offer, while deserts teach brutal lessons. Forest men do hard work, while desert women are beasts of burden. Sapolsky's article, "Are the Desert People Winning?", appears in Discover magazine, p. 38, August 2005, Volume 26, No. 8. It is based on Stanford anthropologist Robert Textor's 1967 study A Cross-Cultural Summary.
Especially interesting is the militarism of the desert. At present the Earth is dominated by descendants of the Judeo-Christian/Muslim tribes. Women of the meek may be treated better, but their men still write poetry.
For more see Robert Sapolsky's Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals, Scribner, September 2005.