Summer Reading Assignment

The reading for rising ninth graders at Beacon includes four pieces by or about UCLA’s cultural anthropologist Jared Diamond. The readings focus on a key ninth grade themes-the rise and fall of human civilizations.

Instructions:

1. Print out readings A and B. You may also print out readings C and D, but you are not required to.

2. Read each of the readings carefully. For readings A and B, underline key sections and write questions or comments that you have in the margins.

3. Answer the questions for all four of the readings and type your answers.

4. Bring readings A and B and your typed answers to the first day of history class in the fall.

A. Why societies thrive

Jared Diamond, “Accidental Conquerors,” from The Third Chimpanzee

http://www.beaconschool.org/~bfaithfu/diamond3rdchimpanzeechpt14.pdf

1. What domesticated animals have played the most important role for human development?
2. In what ways did animals help early farmers?
3. Explain the sentence (p. 236): “Civilization is based, not only on men, but on plants and animals.”
4. Explain why plants move more easily across an east-west access than a north-south access.

B. Questioning the idea of progress in human society

Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”

http://www.beaconschool.org/~bfaithfu/The%20Worst%20Mistake%20in%20the%20History%20of%20the%20Human%20Race.pdf

1. Diamond argues that the beginning of farming (the Neolithic Revolution) may not have been beneficial for humans. Make a list of his evidence.

2. Diamond argues that the hunter gatherer life may have been "better" than later farmer life. List his evidence.

3. What do you think about Diamond's argument?

C. Why societies collapse

Malcom Gladwell’s review on Diamond’s Collapse

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/01/03/the-vanishing-2

1. Malcolm Gladwell’s review of Collapse focuses on Diamond’s chapter on Greenland. What were the factors (there were many) that led to the collapse of Norse society on Greenland?
2. Gladwell makes a point about “biological” as opposed to “cultural” survival. Explain the difference.

D. Will our society thrive or collapse?

Jared Diamond, Chapter 16, Collapse (pps 496-535 in pdf below)

http://cpor.org/ce/Diamond(2005)Collapse-HowSocietiesChooseFailureSuccess.pdf

1. Diamond point toward twelve different problems that make our contemporary society unsustainable. List them.
2. Diamond’s book Collapse is to some extent a warning to us: other societies have collapsed in the past due to environmental stresses; this could happen again to us. Which of them twelve problems alarm you the most, or are problems that you believe could lead to serious problems for our society?