Tow #15- Discover Magazine Article/"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"/Jared Diamond

When most people think of the first humans, they think of cavemen who eat wild buffalo and shelter in caves during the ice age, barely surviving through the invention of fire. Today, we as a species are grateful not to be the first humans, to have everything essential to survival basically figured out for us, in many cases. Jared Diamond's historically-based essay, "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" shares these ideas, but proposes that the first humans really weren't worse off as hunter-gatherers- they became worse off when they switched to farming, trading "quality for quantity". Diamond does this through appeals to logos and exemplification, making for a very scientific essay on how farming has ruined the healthy societies of the cavemen.

Right from the beginning, the author uses both appeals to logos and exemplification, along with general history, to explain how important and long-lasting the time of the hunter-gatherers was. He also begins to introduce how problems started with the addition of farming into humans' lives, and the gradual removal of hunting and gathering. Diamond uses a variety of examples, from Chilean mummies to ancient Greeks and Turks to examine the differences in height, age, disease, and population over the years agriculture has become popular around the world. He makes the point that farming may be able to support more people, but at a lower standard of living. Other statistics, along with current examples of hunter-gatherer societies show how even today, hunting and gathering is still healthy and profitable. Diamond keeps the essay serious, but thought-provoking, so that a variety of audiences can understand it, but still maintain historical background. The essay almost takes on a bias, making farming seem very negative while praising hunting and gathering profusely as the method of survival that should of stayed around.

Diamond, Jared. "The Worst Mistake in the History Ofthe Human Race." The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race. Discover Magazine, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.