No man is an island

Professor MaryAnn Glendon argues (in her book Rights Talk) that the "isolated free man" (aka "noble savage) that many use to undermine traditional laws in the name of "freedom" never existed.

From what I know about working with AmerIndians (Objibwe, Sioux, Navajo, Apache) and in Africa (Karanga Mashona) I know that it's true. You simply can't exist in isolation: and the presence of French names in American Indians suggests that the "isolated mountain man" mythology was also a bunch of crap (most of them had Indian "wives" to do the dirty work).

So today, SavageMinds blogs has a link to a book review of Jared Diamond's newest book, the world until yesterday.

The reviewer critizes Diamond for assuming that today's hunter gatherers were like the primitive ones, and he argues against that. He blames the evil west, thereby proving he doesn't know how to think or analyze, but merely prefers to parrot marxist rhetoric than bother to look at reality.

Hello: Hairy Ainu anyone? The Han genocides as they expanded the Chinese empire?

The reviewer also discusses why war is a "new" idea of civilization:

Maybe, but the Yale course on population suggests that violence predates civilization, and even predates homo sapiens.

of course, I may agree with them after I read the book, but then blogs are about blasting people based on content out of context, aren' t they?