The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race - Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical sites, researchers, and core concepts from Jared Diamond's essay 'The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race'.

Paleopathology

The study of signs of disease in the remains of ancient peoples.

Progressivist Perspective

The belief that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress, and that the adoption of agriculture was a decisive step toward a better life.

Dickson Mounds

An archaeological site near the confluence of the Spoon and Illinois rivers where approximately 800 excavated skeletons revealed a severe decline in health following the adoption of intensive maize farming around A.D. 1150.

Porotic Hyperostosis

A specific bone condition that serves as paleopathological evidence of iron-deficiency anemia in ancient human remains.

Enamel Defects

Defects in teeth that serve as paleopathological indicators of childhood malnutrition.

Mongongo Nuts

An abundant wild plant food consumed by Kalahari Bushmen, cited by a Bushman to explain why his people felt no need to adopt agriculture.

Mycenae Royal Tombs

Greek burial sites from c. 1500 B.C. where royal skeletons were two to three inches taller and had significantly fewer cavities than commoners, demonstrating early class-based nutritional inequality.

George Armelagos

A bioarchaeologist from the University of Massachusetts who conducted pivotal studies on skeletons at Dickson Mounds, showing that early farmers paid a heavy health cost for agriculture.

Mark Cohen

A professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and co-editor of Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, who argued that hunter-gatherers traded quality for quantity when switching to farming out of necessity.

Neolithic / Agricultural Revolution

The shift from hunting and gathering to domesticating plants and animals beginning approximately 10,000 years ago, which Jared Diamond characterizes as a catastrophic blunder leading to social inequality, disease, and despotism.

Revisionist Interpretation of Agriculture

The archaeological view asserting that the adoption of farming was a catastrophe from which humanity has never recovered, bringing gross social and sexual inequality, disease, and tyranny.

Crowding Effect of Agriculture

The concentration of human populations into dense, settled farming communities, which enabled the proliferation and spread of epidemic infectious diseases like tuberculosis, measles, and bubonic plague.