ASEBL Journal – Volume 10 Issue 1, January 2014
The World until Yesterday examines the differences between modern and traditional
societies in eight different areas: peaceful dispute resolution, war, raising children,
treatment of the elderly, “constructive paranoia,” religion, multilingualism, and diet.
Diamond admits that he has left out a large number of topics that have been studied by
social scientists, but he argues that his goal is not to paint a comprehensive portrait of
all aspects of human society. That is his right, of course, although one wonders how
he chose to include the above topics while leaving out equally important ones such as
gender relations. Each section usually begins with an anecdote relevant to the subject,
often drawn from Diamond’s experiences in New Guinea, then gives an overview of
various traditional societies’ norms in this area, and concludes with the lessons that
can be gleaned from traditional practices.
The first two topics that Diamond covers are peaceful conflict resolution and war,
which in traditional societies are the two ways that individuals handle disputes. Unlike
in modern societies where disputes are usually between two or more strangers and the
government’s overarching goal is to maintain social stability, the goal of peaceful
dispute resolution in traditional, small-scale societies is to restore relationships
between two individuals who either know each other or at least know of each other.
Diamond is careful not to overemphasize the potential advantages of this traditional
system of conflict resolution as failed efforts at reconciliation frequently deteriorate
into cycles of violence and war, something that does not typically happen in state
societies. Indeed, studies show that traditional societies’ frequent conflicts result in an
average death rate from war that is three times higher than even the most war-torn
countries of the twentieth century. But Diamond does believe that modern societies
can learn a few lessons from traditional groups’ emphasis on restoring relationships.
One suggested change is to provide more mediation in conflicts where the two sides
do know each other such as divorce and inheritance disputes. Diamond argues that
even strangers should be given the option to choose mediation to resolve disputes.
Diamond next discusses how traditional societies raise children and treat the elderly.
While traditional societies’ behavior towards the elderly varies, Diamond argues that
they are remarkably similar when it comes to the basic elements of raising children.
For example, the average age of weaning in traditional societies is three, and many
hunter-gatherer groups practice continual nursing in which an infant nurses in brief
spurts every 15 minutes or so, a practice that they share with our closest primate
relatives. Diamond huffs that “modern human mothers have acquired the suckling
habits of rabbits, while retaining the lactational physiology of chimpanzees and
monkeys” (183). In climates that allow it, most hunter gatherers also retain constant
skin-to-skin with their babies, and every traditional society surveyed engages in cosleeping. Most traditional societies also deal with crying children immediately, give
their children more autonomy, encourage creative play rather than bombarding them
with toys, and practice allo-parenting in which individuals beyond the family assist in
raising a child. Diamond believes that parents in modern societies should consider
adopting all these practices, observing that “other Westerners and I are struck by the
emotional security, self-confidence, curiosity, and autonomy of members of smallscale societies, not only as adults but already as children” (208). While traditional
societies’ treatment of the elderly vary greatly, Diamond argues that many rely on the
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