It wasn't me you quoted here (but not offense taken).
>> >Sure, but I'm not sure its done sufficiently consciously to justify
>> >it as an opinion or philosophy. Are Odaylans, or other Gloranthans,
>> >able to take the step back and see this argument in the abstract?
>> >I'm not sure they have a good enough overview - their data is largely
>> >limited to personal experience, and they have no tools for conducting
>> >comparative population analyses of various fauna.
>> I bought Jared Diamonds book several years ago, but loaned it to
>> someone who vanished before I could read it myself :(
>
>Get it back! :) Its one of the ten most useful reference books on
>world-building and is extremely helpful for anyone designing Gloranthan
>societies. Or see if you can grab 'The Eternal Frontier An Ecological
>History of North America and Its Peoples' by Tim Flannery, a "student" of
>Diamond who looks specifically at NA. It discusses the mountain men and the
>sustain/exploit paradigms in some detail.
JD's book is a very useful resource, but I've found bits of it over-written. (He tells you what he's goning to say, says it and then summarizes in each chapter and each section; so some bits are repetitive. On the other hand it does make the book easy to dip in and out of). I'll try and look for the Flannery book.
Thom
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