Guns, Germs, and Steel: Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the provided notes, with concise definitions drawn from the text.

Band

The smallest social unit of hunter-gatherers (roughly 5–80 people), with no formal leadership, shared land, and an egalitarian social system.

Tribe

A larger social group than a band (hundreds of people) with fixed settlements and multiple kin groups, typically lacking a formal office but sometimes with influential leaders like a big-man.

Chiefdom

A political unit headed by a hereditary chief, featuring centralized authority, land control, tribute/redistribution, and often elaborate public works and social stratification.

State

A large, centralized political organization with bureaucratic governance, professional administrators, taxes/tribute, and often writing and standing armies.

Founder crops

Crops first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent that launched agriculture there (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley; plus lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch; flax).

Founder crops

(see above) The crops that began food production in the Fertile Crescent.

Founder package

The complete set that launched food production: founder crops plus four domestic animals (goat, sheep, pig, cow) and flax.

Founder package (animals)

The four domestic animals included in the founder package: goat, sheep, pig, and cow.

Selfers

Plants that typically self-pollinate, making them especially amenable to domestication.

Nonshattering

A mutation that prevents seed dispersal from the stalk, enabling harvesting and domestication.

Germination inhibitors

Traits that keep seeds dormant until favorable conditions, aiding crop reliability and domestication.

Domestication

Genetic modification of wild plants/animals by humans to be more useful, often through unconscious artificial selection early on.

Artificial selection

Human-directed selection of desirable variants in crops or livestock to favor useful traits.

Autocatalytic process

A positive feedback process where initial changes catalyze more changes, causing growth to accelerate after it starts.

Preemptive domestication

When domestication in one area spreads quickly enough to prevent or outpace domestication elsewhere.

Mediterranean climate

Climate with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers; favorable for annual crops in the Fertile Crescent.

Fertile Crescent

Early cradle of agriculture in Southwest Asia where climate and flora supported rapid crop domestication.

Teosinte

The wild ancestor of maize (corn), which required major genetic changes to become a productive crop.

Sapients: selfers vs outcrossers

Selfers are plants that self-pollinate; outcrossers rely on cross-pollination—both influence domestication potential.

Ancient Fourteen

The fourteen species of big terrestrial herbivorous mammals that were domesticated historically (Major Five plus Minor Nine).

Major Five

Five widely domesticated large mammals: cow, sheep, goat, pig, and horse.

Minor Nine

Nine other large mammals domesticated in certain regions: Arabian camel, Bactrian camel, llama/alpaca, donkey, reindeer, water buffalo, yak, banteng, gaur.

Crowd diseases

Infectious diseases that require large, dense human populations to persist (e.g., measles, smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis).

Smallpox

A devastating epidemic disease historically spread by contact, a classic example of a crowd disease.

Zoonoses

Diseases that originate in animals and can be transmitted to humans (e.g., certain cattle- and pig-borne diseases).

Sequoyah’s syllabary

Cherokee writing system created by Sequoyah (early 19th century) using syllabic signs; an example of idea diffusion.

BluePrint copying

Copying or adapting a detailed existing blueprint to reproduce a technology or system.

Idea diffusion

Spreading a general idea or principle that leads others to reinvent details, without copying the exact blueprint.

Phaistos disk

A 1700 B.C. circular clay disk with 241 signs arranged spirally; possibly the earliest printed document using stamps; undeciphered.

Sumerian cuneiform

One of the world’s earliest writing systems from Sumer, starting as logograms and later incorporating phonetic signs and determinatives.

Logogram

Sign that represents a word or morpheme rather than a phonetic sound.

Phonetic sign

Sign used to spell out syllables or sounds as part of a writing system.

Determinative

Unpronounced sign used to clarify the category of a word in writing and resolve ambiguities.

Alphabet

A writing system with letters representing individual phonemes; the most widespread modern form, derived from Semitic alphabets.

Sequoyah

Creator of the Cherokee syllabary, an example of idea diffusion in writing.