Table of Contents
Author's Note: The Aztecs 'as evil as Nazis' vii
Maps xi
Introduction: 15000 BC-AD 1500: A Unique Period in Human History xxi
Part 1 How the First Americans Differed from Old World Peoples
1 From Africa to Alaska: The Great Journey as Revealed in the Genes, Language and the Stones 3
2 From Africa to Alaska: The Disasters of Deep Time as Revealed by Myths, Religion and the Rocks 23
3 Siberia and the Sources of Shamanism 48
4 Into a Land Without People 56
Part 2 How Nature Differs in the Old World and the New
5 Rings of Fire and Thermal Trumpets 81
6 Roots v. Seeds and the Anomalous Distribution of Domesticable Mammals 105
7 Fatherhood, Fertility, Farming: 'The Fall' 116
8 Ploughing, Driving, Milking and Riding - four things that never happened in the New World 139
9 Catastrophe and the (All-Important) Origins of Sacrifice 149
10 From Narcotics to Alcohol 165
11 Maize: What People Are Made Of 180
12 The Psychoactive Rainforest and the Anomalous Distribution of Hallucinogens 193
13 Houses of Smoke, Coca and Chocolate 213
14 Wild: the Jaguar, the Bison, the Salmon 226
Part 3 Why Human Nature Evolved Differently in the Old World and the New
15 Eridu and Aspero: the First Cities Seven and a Half Thousand Miles Apart 249
16 The Steppes, War and 'a new anthropological type' 271
17 The Day of the Jaguar 300
18 The Origins of Monotheism and the End of Sacrifice in the Old World 324
19 The Invention of Democracy, the Alphabet, Money and the Greek Concept of Nature 358
20 Shaman-Kings, World Trees and Vision Serpents 381
21 Bloodletting, Human Sacrifice, Pain and Potlatch 413
22 Monasteries and Mandarins, Muslims and Mongols 444
23 The Feathered Serpent, the Fifth Sun and the Four Suyus 467
Conclusion: The Shaman and the Shepherd: The Great Divide 499
Appendix 1 The (Never-Ending) Dispute of the New World 523
Appendix 2 (Available online): From 100,000 kin groups to 190 Sovereign States: Some Patterns in Cultural Evolution 547
Notes and References 549
Sources for Figures 585
Index 587
