Study Guide 1:

Student's should use information from the text, essays, lectures, as well as outside readings in answering these questions. You should also provide specific examples from other literature when appropriate to support your answer. Demonstrate to me that you have indeed mastered the course material by integrating various perspectives into your own coherent answer.

What are the "primary" types of human societies? What basic criteria are used to differentiate these types?
How do societal types relate to physical environments?
What is the infrastructure? Why is it considered central in Cultural Materialism?
What roles do structural and superstructural feedback play in regard to sociocultural change?
According to CM, where do the interests and power of elites fit into an analysis of sociocultural systems?
What is the principle of infrastructural determinism? Give an example.
Describe some population options for a hunting and gathering society that is experiencing hard times. Is there any evidence that these strategies have been pursued in the past?
Describe some production options for a hunting and gathering society that is experiencing hard times. Is there any evidence that these strategies have been pursued in the past?
What are the "bio-psychological constants"? How are they used to explain both conformity and diversity between sociocultural systems?
Discuss the structure and function of the distribution/economic system of hunting and gathering societies. How is this related to other parts of the sociocultural system?
Discuss the function of the population/settlement system of hunting and gathering societies. How is this related to other parts of the sociocultural system?
Discuss the function of the division of labor of hunting and gathering societies. How is this related to other parts of the sociocultural system?
Assess the power and interests of elites in hunting and gathering societies.
What is the reciprocal relationship between population and production?
What is a "natural experiment"? Why are they important in social science?
Why is replication an important part of social science research?
What constraining effect does the physical environment have on hunting & gathering societies?
In reference to Cultural Materialism, what are the roles of ideas and structures in sociocultural stability and change? Illustrate with examples.
What general factors caused the shift from hunting and gathering to food production?
What ecological factors promote or hinder the spread of food crops?

Was the Polynesian natural experiment successful?

What structural phenomena are related to increased density?

What are the proximate factors that allowed Europeans to conquer other peoples?

Briefly outline how Diamond connects plant and animal domestication to wars of conquest.

"Food production systems evolved as a result of the accumulation of many separate decisions about allocating time and effort." Explain. Connect.

What four factors tipped the competitive advantage away from Hunting and Gathering and toward food production?

What factors account for the early domestication of crops in the Fertile Crescent?

Briefly explain the mechanisms of plant domestication.

What six characteristics are essential for the domestication of animals?

What factors affect the ease of spread of food production?

Some Diamond Questions:

What is Yali’s Question? What is the short answer to Yali’s Question? (Summarize Diamond’s book in one sentence.)
What are some alternative answers to Yali? What are the weaknesses of these answers?
What is the difference between proximate and ultimate factors?
Around 50,000 YA there occurs a "Great Leap Forward" in terms of tools, weapons, jewelry and art work. To what does Diamond attribute this leap?
What is coevolution? How is this related to megafauna extinction?
What effects do megafauna extinctions have on social evolution in the New Worlds?
Why does Diamond call Polynesia a "Natural Experiment"?
Discuss the relationship between subsistence and population density.
What are the limitations to the natural experiment of Polynesia?
"Availability of more consumable calories means more people." Explain.
How do domestic animals interact with plants to increase crop production?
How do hunter-gatherers control their population size? Why?
What does Diamond mean when he says that there are "…five areas where food production definitely arose de novo…"? Why might this be important?
How do the majority of hunting and gathering peoples acquire the ability to produce food?
What is an autocatalytic process? Give an example.
Define plant domestication.
According to Diamond, why were oak trees never domesticated?
What is ethnobiology?
What were the major factors limiting crop domestication among eastern U.S. Native Americans?
What is the "Mississippian Florescence"? What caused it?
What is the "Mexican Trinity"? What significance did it have for U.S. Native Americans?
Define animal domestication.
What are the "Major Five" domestic animals? Where are the wild ancestors of these five located?
What is the "Anna Karenina Principle" applied to the domestication of animals?
What is it about the Americas that made the spread of food production more difficult that in Eurasia?
Why was the spread of crops from the Fertile Crescent so rapid?
What is the "great man/woman" theory of the neolithic revolution? Does Diamond subscribe to this theory?
How are "germs" related to agrarian civilizations?
What are the ultimate factors that address Yali's question?
What is the significance of the east-west axis of the Eurasian continent to the spread of food crops?