The central question in the book is why do the peoples from certain lands have so much more 'cargo' than those in other lands, supposedly a question put to him by a man in New Guinea I believe. His answer is that people living in certain zones benefit in a number of ways. In particular, almost the only large herbivores which are suitable for domestication live there. It isn't that Europeans or Asians were more clever to have thought of domestication; they just happen to be where the suitable animals exist. Living with those animals subjected us to diseases to which we eventually evolved immunity but which we brought with us wherever we went as an a weapon of immense power. Furthermore, it is easier to utilize the same plants when you move along the same latitudes, and no latitudes have as much land mass as that of eurasia (and much later, north america). So for these an other reasons, the answer to the central question seems to be luck - not smarts.
He speculates that people who work harder for a living in more difficult climates probably demonstrate and require more intelligence than those who benefit from specialization as we do from modern farming and domesticated animals. I don't recall much in the book about earlier hominid migrations. But he certainly doesn't think there are any intrinsic differences in intelligence among our modern races, just the opposite really.
He speculates that people who work harder for a living in more difficult climates probably demonstrate and require more intelligence than those who benefit from specialization as we do from modern farming and domesticated animals. I don't recall much in the book about earlier hominid migrations. But he certainly doesn't think there are any intrinsic differences in intelligence among our modern races, just the opposite really.
