Gilgamesh -- what do you think?

Please post comments, questions, etc. here by 9 p.m. Wed night

Jared Diamond continued

In class, we came up with the following notes/questions (pasted below)

Please address any of these questions and/or the larger question of whether agriculture was a mistake.

Please read other people's postings before you jump in, so you can see who you agree with and who you disagree with.

* * * NOTES FROM CLASS * * *

But this begs the question of… what do we mean by “better off”?

What makes a civilization successful?

Height?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height#Average_adult_height_around_the_world


Not dying off - stable
Ample Food and resources

Few wars – peace (how do you define peace?)

Freedom (how do you define that?) Not enslaving others
Believe what you want; no censorship

Some form of government or structure (look at third world countries)
Not a lot of corruption

Treatment of native peoples

Live in harmony with nature?
(what is harmony? Treat nature good)