In light of our differences : how diversity in nature and culture makes us human /
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| Author / Creator: | Harmon, David, 1958- |
|---|---|
| Imprint: | Washington [D.C.] : Smithsonian Institution Press, c2002. |
| Description: | xvi, 224 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4753121 |
Table of Contents:
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Voltaire's Solution
- Diversity, Globalization, and the Roots of Endangerment
- The Great Chain of Being and the Principle of Plenitude
- The Romantic Transformation and Beyond
- The Real Discovery of Diversity
- 2. The Converging Extinction Crises
- Biodiversity as Scientific Concept and Rallying Cry
- A Brief History of Biological Extinctions
- Agriculture and the Decline of Variety
- Extinction Rates: Measuring the Past, Predicting the Future
- What is Cultural Diversity?
- Globalization and Cultural Diversity
- The Value of Cultural Diversity
- Indicators of Cultural Diversity
- Language: The Best Proxy
- The History of Language Extinctions: Some Speculations
- Prospects for Languages in the Coming Century
- The Example of Manx
- The Biocultural Presence
- 3. Species, Languages, and the Structure of Diversity
- Similarities Between Species and Languages
- Speciation and Language Genesis
- Endemism in Species and Languages
- Reasons for Decline
- Assessing Diversity
- Monothetic versus Polythetic Classification
- Foundations of Polythetic Classification
- Polythetic Classification: Recent Elaborations
- Polythetic Groups as "Natural Kinds"
- The Reality of Species and Languages
- 4. What We Do with Difference
- Distilling Sameness from Difference: William James
- Distilling Sameness from Difference: A Model
- Diversity and Determinism
- A Polythetic Universe
- Loss of Diversity: Cognitive and Cultural Consequences
- Our Evolutionary Inheritance
- 5. Diversity and the Human Identity
- Are Biological and Cultural Diversity Really Related?
- Avoiding the Trap of Relativism: Polythetic Morality
- The Coming Threshold
- From Uniformity to Unity
- Notes
- References
- Index
