A Brief Summary Of Blood Diamond By Jared Diamond

Health problems did not only stop at diseases, but continued on to physical health as well. Both hunter-gatherers and farmers have to work to obtain food, however farming requires a lot of hard physical labor. Farmers have to work hard to maintain their crops because that is their only food source, and taking care of crops is not easy and it took a toll on their health. It is shown in evidence that farmers had “an increase in degenerative conditions of the spine, probably reflecting a lot of hard physical labor” (Diamond, 118). Between diseases and physical defects farming was making a huge impact on humans’ ability to survive, so much that even life expectancy went down from twenty six years in hunter-gatherers to nineteen years in farming communities (Diamond, 118).

When one is on the other side of the earth, there is only so much information that a person could obtain. This was a great enough reason for the author, Greg Campbell, of "Blood Diamonds" to expose what all eyes are not seeing and what many are blind to in this world. Campbell went out to research the tracks and origins of a very valuable stone known as the diamond. In doing so, he urges to research the origins and life of this precious rock. He goes about researching just exactly how the life of the diamond begins in the jungles of Sierra Leone and ends up in the London on its market. This is what could be said to be the ultimate reason for this book "Blood Diamond”. Evidently, Campbell wanted to expose or let it be known how African

Hunter- gatherers was able to consume many variety of foods, such as animals meat, berries, nuts, roots etc which are high in proteins and fiber. Farmers can only consume the crops they grew, which is limited. Additionally, the main commonly crops are rice, corn, and wheat, which is high in carbs and lacked fiber, vitamins, and proteins. As a result, farmers’ diet consists of carbs and fats, but no vitamins or proteins. The second risk is limited crop production. Farmers are easily opened to risk of starvation if their crops fail to grow. The final risk to agriculture is epidemic diseases. Agricultural encouraged farmers to get together in crowded societies in order to trade their crops, which can easily lead to spread of contagious diseases and

In order to keep their standard of living, hunter-gatherers have to keep their population low. They use many ways to prevent pregnancy, such as herbal contraceptives, plant and animal poisons, and many mechanical techniques for abortion. Hunter-gatherers are also likely to use infanticide and geronticide, which means the killing of infant and old

Jared Diamond is a professor at UCLA, a biologist by training, and a specialist in human physiology. He is trying to figure out how the Europeans developed advantages of military power, lethal microbes and advanced technologies in the first place. His quest was to uncover the roots of inequality.

The argument begins with a brief summarization of Diamond’s theory. The main point being that the distribution of wealth or success to countries or continents is decided geographically. And within the geographic category is the importance of farming and domestication of animals. Diamond says Eurasia’s advancement happened because of their

The world is very unequal because Geographic location affects what crops a civilization can grow and how they develop because a civilization can grow a variety of crops on different continents which rely on the weather and the climate which depends upon where the civilization is located. In the middle east is where civilizations grew wheat and wheat is high in protein and last a very long time as long as it is dry. Unlike sago is what they grew in papua new guinea, the sago is low in protein and only last three to four days. This is what affects the health and well being of the people which benefits the civilizations only if they have healthy food. The geography affects the agriculture which makes a civilization’s ability to produce agriculture

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, attempts to explain why history progressed differently for people from various geographical regions. Diamond introduces his book by pointing out that history followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves. Through his convincing explanation for how civilizations were created and evolved throughout the course of history, he argues that environmental factors gave some societies advantages over others, allowing them to conquer the disadvantaged societies. While I agree with Diamond’s argument that the orientation of continental axis, availability of potential

People living in sedentary villages in the Neolithic experienced worsened health and mortality. Sedentary life brought with it sanitation problems like garbage and human waste accumulate, which contributed to disease. The close association between humans and animals was also key to the transmission of many infectious diseases. Higher mortality rates were offset by increased fertility. (Haviland et al 2011: 249)

Jared Diamond, however, believes that the environmental differences are exactly the case. His thesis is, “The striking differences between the long-term histories of people of the different continents have been due, not to innate differences in the peoples themselves, but to differences in their environments.” He believes that it is not biology that makes some societies more advanced than others, but rather the environments that people were and are currently living

In the beginning of this book Yali asked Jared Diamond a question, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”, and in the epilogue Diamond answers. The answer to Yali’s question is that the geography and environment of Europe was an advantage which they used to dominate and conquer people of New Guinea and other remote areas. The difference in animal and plant domestication, rates of diffusion, and migration due to ecological barriers between continents has contributed to Europe as an advanced continent. Europe also came to dictate the Fertile Crescent and China which were the first to develop the earliest food production. The Fertile Crescent underwent

In early societies, the surplus of goods and resources was rather limited compared to today. This limitation of goods is what kept the societies from being influenced by inequality. In the United States today, goods and resources are not necessarily limited. In today’s world, goods are being manufactured that are not necessarily essential for survival. This allows for certain individuals to gain resources and power, while others get nothing, thus creating the issue of inequality.

Throughout history, the circumstances that people were born into were not equal. While some people were born on hospitable lands where people and animals could flourish, others were born on desolate and isolated lands that proved unsuitable for livestock. These uncontrollable circumstances as well as others, such as climate, created the different types of lifestyles that people have adopted. Through the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond illustrates the five themes of world history by explaining how a chain of effects starting from the first people interacting with their given environments and resources led to how they live in the present. While for the world it may seem apparent that one group of people seems to have the upper hand in the social hierarchy, Diamond shows his view that, in actuality, it only became this way because of the conditions that different groups of people had to cope with in the past.

Global wealth is largely found in the south, yet the north is the richest and developed. In this respect, there must be another explanation of this equation. Slave trade, colonialism, and neocolonialism can best explain this. Moreover, bad governance and poor investment in education and research might explain why the north is more developed. The implications for our understanding of why some countries in the world today are rich and some are poor is important in determining how best we understand the history of the world, as well as the factors that contributed to this pattern (Diamond). The history of the world is important in establishing the factors that led to the differences in the distribution of wealth on the globe.

People have had trouble growing enough food since early in human history. “With a demographic