http://www.slate.com/articles/health_an ... _lack.html

Some of this is criticism inevitable for a popular work, particularly one that is bold enough to be making judgments about "What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies?"

But some of the criticism does look legit.

I did see somewhere else where an anthropologist was getting all bent out of shape because of how he defined traditional societies -- that seems to be typical academic squabbling over details that miss the point.

Doing anthropology must sometimes be a little like writing an autobiography -- well, this is what actually happened... but wouldn't it be great if this is what happened? After all, it could have happened that way...

I thought the review was weak. It focusses on whether Diamond's account of traditional dispute resolution has engaged fully with academic literature. That misses Diamond's point, which is just that we should think about whether our modern formal legal system is adequate to deliver justice, and we should look to other models for lessons. Of course this is an immense and complex topic, but this reviewer seems to think Diamond is expressing much more definitive prescriptions than is actually the case. To be fair, the reviewer could have noted that Diamond points out how state systems are generally more peaceful.

I'm finding his writing a bit elementary. Perhaps he is trying to appeal to the general public, but his verbiage is a tad simplistic for me.