h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You cite Jared Diamond, but don't mention New Guinea as a point of origination of neolithic culture. Why do you think he's wrong?

Hi Sea Change,

I think it's more of a sin of omission in the entry rather than any deliberate policy to exclude New Guinea. My understanding is that there were at least 7 different locations on the planet where farming was independently discovered in the past 10,000 years. My aim in the entry was to give people a flavour of the importance of these times to our world culture and not to go for complete comprehensiveness - I leave that up to some of the texts for further reading identified here.

Thanks,

Woodpigeon