The World Until Yesterday – Jared Diamond
2012
Overview:
In this sweeping cross-cultural analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jared Diamond draws on decades of fieldwork to examine how traditional societies manage childcare, elder care, conflict, diet, and more. He explores what modern, industrialised cultures can learn from Indigenous and ancestral ways of life — without romanticising or oversimplifying them.
Why It’s Included:
Diamond’s anthropological insights reinforce many of the principles valued in natural parenting — from close infant contact and responsive caregiving to shared responsibility and community support. This book provides a broader evolutionary context that helps validate instincts many parents feel drawn to in modern settings.
Who It’s For:
Ideal for readers interested in anthropology, history, or cultural perspectives on parenting and social organisation. A thoughtful read for parents seeking to understand how current norms differ from the practices of most of human history — and what that might mean for raising children today.
“Before there was an internet, before there were books, before there was organised religion ... their were parents. And these parents had a close-knit community sharing the care of the young and the aged. Infants were recognised for their value to the future of the community and their mothers for their value in raising them. The very young were nurtured and protected by the cooperative collective of extended family, practicing “allo-parenting. As an affirmed allo-parent myself, this book affirms the normality of how families living this way still should be recognised.”
Further Reading:
Our Babies, Ourselves – Meredith Small
Mothers and Others – Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
