World's Construction Mechanism

Jacques Barnouin is Director of Research at INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research. His findings have focused on multifactorial epidemiology and nutrition, and he is the designer of numerous multidisciplinary programs and methodological tools.

• Introduction ixChapter 1 History of Color 11.1 Linnaeus and us 11.2 Ultraviolet and melanin 51.3 The skin map 81.4 New World Drama 101.5 Foundations of an unfounded theory 131.6 Deviations in the 19th and 20th Centuries 141.7 Symbols and fantasies 201.8 Whiteness, blondness and blueness 24Chapter 2 Geoclimate and Prosperity 272.1 Comparisons 272.2 More comfortable in the cold than in the heat 352.3 Delights of thermal comfort 392.4 Temperate life 432.5 Time and temperature 45Chapter 3 Pathway of Societal Precociousness 533.1 From climate to history 533.2 Original migrations 573.3 The corridor effect 603.4 On the road to human societies 663.5 Obsessive obsidian 713.6 From self-service to production control 733.7 A crescent… 793.8 …fertile in ideas 813.9 The emergence of the alphabet 86Chapter 4 Diffusion of Societal Achievements 914.1 The notion of diffusion 914.2 Initiation of diffusion 934.3 Dynamics of diffusion 994.4 From diffusion to prosperity 1044.5 Other migration and other diffusion 1124.6 The steppe issue 126Chapter 5 Cultural Intermission 1335.1 Taking stock 1335.2 Tracing culture 135Chapter 6 Mechanism and Realities 1436.1 The world’s mechanism 1436.2 A very important differential 1466.3 Two sub-species? 1556.4 What connects the two realities? 1586.5 Youths 162Chapter 7 Other Potential Reasons for Societal Imbalances 1677.1 Inter and intra variation 1677.2 WCM and income inequality 1717.3 Factors of income inequality 1757.4 The creation of inequality 1887.5 An Asian energy? 1947.6 Combining equality and prosperity 197Chapter 8 Three Crucial Questions 2018.1 A potentially different world? 2018.2 A potentially devastated world? 2038.3 Any damage? 209Chapter 9 Rebalancing Societies 2139.1 In search of the human project 2139.2 Two major societal innovations 2219.3 Containing the WCM 2239.3.1 Obstacles 2239.3.2 The educational component 2279.3.3 The institutional aspect 2289.4 The future: containment or conflict? 2329.5 Arrival 234References 239Index 271