notes 1/17/2007

CAPITAL - "Human resources considered in terms of their contributions to economy."

Natural Capital : seeds, animals, soil, climate, geography, minerals

Financial $$$, machines

Human Capital more and more important over time as technology & transport advance

& resources more mobile

CULTURE “patterns of human activity & symbolic structures that give activity significance.

Stories, learned skills, religion, material culture.

“codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals.

Norms of behavior such as law, morality & belief systems.

Anthropologists: human capacity to classify, codify & communicate experiences symbolically”

ADAM SMITH. Man is naturally inclined to trade. Trading leads to specialization & division of labor & economic efficiency. Larger the market greater the division of labor and specialization.

Guns Germs and steel – asks the question of why people like the natives of New Guinea and Africans & Amerindians have so much less modern technology & power than Eurasians.

Racial explanations come to dominate in U.S. in our period.

Contrary to race /genetic story told by “advanced” society New Zelanders, Indians etc

Often more intelligent and mentally agile than “advanced” societies

Survival tenuous, requires mental acuity. Cogs in mass-society depend more on immunity.

Hunter-gatherers All members of group relatively equal - No way to accumulate much – always moving Low population density - can only carry one kid – 4 years between kids

Private property (and theft) make no sense. Who would wait around a year guarding a fruit tree or berry bush? What can you steal from a Hunter gatherer.

Over time Less resources. Kill all the mammoths, dodo’s, seals, antelope, horses in NAmerica

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

Domesticable plants : Up to 90% biomass edible instead of 1/10 of 1%

Eurasia best selection – wheat, rice, peas, millet, poppy, oats, barley, figs, olives

South Amer – potato, manioc – llama, guinea pig

North America – sunflower, goosefoot – no animals

Mesoamerica – corn, beans, squash

East-West axis in Eurasia – all other continents north-South orientation

Easier to share plants thru similar climates at similar latitudes

Domesticable animals - renewable – self-portable protein food – milk -skins Manure for garden

can draw chariots for war, wagons, plows – use heavier soils / tough sods

Eurasia has most – Dogs goats sheep cows horses pig chicken donkey cat (pest control)

Fibres for clothes – wool – silkworms

SPECIALIZATION & DIVISION OF LABOR

Emergence of reliable & abundant food sources & food storage let agricultural societies get much more “advanced” & stratified. If looking for food all day CANNOT invent ceramics (for food storage), metal (plows, swords, guns)

Civilizations in Eurasia can borrow and trade with each other along Silk Road with animals for mobility. China, Indus Valley, Egypt, Mediterranean.

Technology & food = military power. Can feed soldiers & do war better longer. Horses & Camels great for war and trade. Chariots, knights, etc

Written language – helps preserve and transmit complex technology

Government bureaucratic orders

Epidemic diseases co-evolve with domesticable animals. Concentrated population & pigs, chickens, cows = flu, measles, smallpox. People in these societies develop resistance –

societies w/o domestic animals + concentrated population don’t

Peru is second advanced “monumental” society. Like Fertile Crescent different environments near each other – plain at edge of Andes. Humbolt current = fish. Cotton = nets & clothes. Potatoes upland. But : No animals, no other civilizations easy to trade with & Diseases.

Aztecs : corn, beans squash, avocados. But corn emerges late & fragile environment.

Military power much more important – Aztecs & Spanish militaristic parasites in agric area.

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