Geography

Yali's question (Cargo)
1. IQ/Genetics Myth (False)
  1. IQ test culturally conditioned
  2. 100kya: Modern humans evolve/disperse throughout Africa
    1. 5-7 million years, still 97-99% DNA with chimpanzees (100k years cant differentiate)
    2. 50kya: Migrate-->Eurasia/Australasia
      1. Replacement: no interbreeding with archaic humans
      2. Assimilation: combo of migration/mating (Gene flow)
      3. Hybridization: modern humans mated RARELY, or hybridized with archaic
      4. Homo erectus, Neanderthals, Homo Sapiens(spread across globe)
        Upper Paleolithic had culture
        Burials, arts, sculptures, crafted stone tools
        Megafaunas(bigass animals)
        Australia/Americas extinct after human arrival, cuz weren't afraid
        African M.F Co-evolved, survived hunting
        Africa should have most domesticable animals, why Europe got ahead?
Proximate: guns/germs/population/tech/social organization/military training
1. Chatham Islands (Isolate near new zealand)
  1. Maori 1000 A.D Arrival went from Fisherman to hunter gatherer
    1. Moa extinct
    2. Complex chiefdoms
      1. Crafts/division of labor, advanced military, had forts, stashed food
    3. 900 Maori, enslaved Moriori, killed 300, "accrodance to our custom"
      1. CONCLUSION
        Same original population, diverged enormously in short time due to resources available/environment
  2. Moriori b4 1500 A.D
    1. Isolated-->lost tech/culture
      1. Peaceful, simple tech, no specialists/warefare, simple watercraft (no need for seafaring)
2. Cajamarca
  1. Pizarro
    1. 1528, finds N.Peru has riches
      1. Goes back tp spain to obtain permission to conquer Inca, set out at 1530
    2. Why Spaniards Prevaiiled
      1. Ambush + Captured Atahualpa
      2. Guns/Swords (Steel vs bronze/quilt)
      3. Horse vs llama (Cavalry charge horses scare)
      4. Smallpox led to instability of Inca empire
  2. Atahualpa
    1. Inca emperor Huayna Capac dies from Smallpox 1527
    2. Becomes new emperor after fight with bro, 1532
Ultimate: Resources/Domesticable Animals/Food production
Fertile crescent
1. Spread around Eurasia First
2. California/Australia agriculture never developed
3. Problems to switch to Agriculture (Early Farmers)
  1. Lived shorter lvies
  2. Got sick more
  3. Got attacked more
  4. Less social/leisure time (stress/witchcraft beliefs)
  5. Farmers one child per 2 years
    1. Fast population growth, led to undernourishment as externality
      1. Stuck in farming, because population too big to support without farming
        Control land/surplus support militaries/craftsmen etc.
      2. Farming
        Fertile Crescent, head start due to: Climate/biodiversity
        European package, better suited for humans (nutritionally)
        Different adoption due to availability
  6. Foragers(H.G) every 4 years)
Animal domestication
1. Herbivorous Domestic Animals
  1. 7/14 Southwest Asia
  2. 5 in Fertile Crescent
  3. 1 outside Eurasia (llama/Alpaca))
  4. Domesticable dependant on traits: Cheetahs won't mate in captivity/"Cats" can't be herded/Elephants long to raise etc
    1. Eurasia had better candidates
Crops
1. East-West Axis
  1. Same latitude for Fertile crescent/North India/Japan
  2. Same crops/animals work all over
  3. Roman Empire
    1. Fertile Crescent package + apples/Chicken/rice(China) sesame/cucumber(India)
    2. Spread until northern Europe, crop stopped cuz too cold
    3. Spread: Wheels Carts, Trade, Accounting, Writing
2. North west Axis
  1. Americas
    1. Difficult to spread crops
    2. Major natural barriers
      1. The Andes(mountain)
      2. Rocky mountains
      3. Panama
  2. Africa
    1. West Africa
      1. Independent tropical crops
    2. Sahara barrier to spread
Germs
1. Europe
  1. large herds of animals
  2. Eat meat/ use manure/ frequent contact
  3. Dense population, created "CROWD" diseases
    1. needed to immigrate to maintain population level
  4. Bubonic Plague from China(Trade big causes)
2. Africa
  1. primates related to humans, more vectors for diseases
    1. tse tse flies, mosquitoes
Writing
1. Logograms (characters/pictures for whole words)
2. Syllabaries (Characters to represent syllables)
3. Alphabets (Characters to represent individual phonemes) **won in long run**
  1. Why Writing developed
    1. Preludes Bureaucracies/Religions
    2. Keep track of things/people (important for farming not H.G)
    3. Food production, prereq for adoption/diffusion of writring
  2. Why some never invented writing
    1. Very complex (only happenned twice)
    2. some societies (Incas/Tongas/Hawaiians)complex didnt even invent it
    3. Some were isolated/ no chance to adopt (Incas got wiped)
    4. Hindered by same reason as food (axis/mountains/deserts)
4. Encourage new technology
  1. Idea adoption
  2. Blueprint copying
    1. Semetic know egyptian alphabet --> drops logograms
      1. Greek adopts Semetic alphabet, cementing individual letters for vowels
        Etruscans and Romans adopt Greek alphabet
5. Developed in Sumer (iraq/kuwait)/Mexico independently
  1. Maybe in China and Egypt as well
    1. Egypt logograms (might have been based off of Sumerian)
  2. Farmers settle Sumer 4000/5000 B.C
    1. 3000 B.C had accounting system
      1. Led to Logographic writing
        over 2500 years, more complex poetry/myths/histories(syllabic system)
  3. Behistun inscription
    1. Scribed three cuneiform scripts about Darius the Great
      1. knowledge of old persian, allowed Elamite/Babylonian versions to be deciphered and read
Inventions
1. Many things invented without the need for them (not "useful" until later
  1. Gramophones(records)
2. Number Zero (indians/Mayans)
3. The wheel, only Eurasia
4. Some societies more receptive to inventions (cultural inventiveness)
5. Luck
  1. "Germ theory of disease" discovered from carelessly left potato
  2. Penicillin, discovered from messy sink
6. Recombonation
  1. Wright brother airplane (mangliders/unmanned airplanes)
7. Complex societies
  1. New insights
  2. Recombinations more likely
  3. Lucky errors more likely
  4. More uses for technology (printing usful in Renaissance Europe)
8. Society/Culture
  1. Progressive: sustain recombo/more transmission errors
  2. Conservative: forfeit chances, tech lags
9. Interconnectedness
  1. Transport(Horse/ship/road)
  2. Communication (Shared lang/Writing/internet)
  3. Peaceful social relationships
  4. Eurasia more connected than America/Africa
  5. Tasmania LOST tech, after glacial period ended 10,000 years ago (cut off from australia)
Social Organizations
1. Bands/Tribes
2. Chiefdoms
3. States
  1. Earliest ones: Mesotampia Mesoamerica China /The Andes /West Africa
4. Why more complex?
  1. Conquest
    1. Zulus-->conquer other chiefdoms, establish state-like system
  2. Threat of conquest
    1. Cherokee(independent chiefdoms) Had to form single chiefdom to fight whites, developed writing
  3. "States made war, war made states"
  4. Complex societies prevails over simple ones, not due to individual benefits

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	Created by Brian Chak about 8 years ago