Prologue Key Terms/Ideas: Yali’s question: Why did some parts of the world develop and change at a much faster rate than other parts of the world? Why did Europeans end up with all the guns, germs, and steel that enabled them to take over the world? Ultimate Factors: things that were in a place naturally, the environmental factors Proximate Factors: things that were derived or created because of the ultimate factors Key Arguments: The reason Jared Diamond wrote this book was to answer Yali’s question. Yali’s original question was, “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?” (14). The author took this question in a more general sense, wishing to …show more content…
Critical Analysis: Diamond seems really sure of himself. He doesn’t sound like he even tried to accept other people’s ideas before tearing them down to show that he is right. Diamond may be saying that he “doesn’t have all the answers”, but by the way he gives you the information, it sure sounds like he thinks he does. This is not a good sign, considering that this is only the prologue. Chapter 2 Key Terms/Ideas: Maori/Moriori Small Scale Example: The closest thing to an “experiment” to see why some cultures developed faster than others. The two groups were separated and then reunited after 1000 years, and while the Maori continued to grow, the Moriori remained hunter-gatherers. Polynesian Islands Medium Scale Example: The Maori/Moriori example is part of an even larger “experiment” of all the Polynesian islands. Various environmental (ultimate) factors on the different islands led to differences in the rates of development. Political Unit: Not necessarily the area of an island, but the area of a unified political group. There can be multiple per island or one for multiple islands. Key Arguments: Diamond knows that we can’t really experiment to find the answer to Yali’s question. So instead, he is showing us examples from history that will act as our
Prologue: Yali’s question for word for word was “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?” Yali is asking about the inequalities of the world, he is wondering why his people have little to nothing, and the Europeans have so much money and power. He wants to know if there is something “wrong” with people like him.
Deep in the Alps lies a small town called Clay. The sun was rising over a frosty blue mountain, and drops of dew dripped down from the leaves in the valley. Arthur awoke to find his bedroom filled with light. He went downstairs and drank a glass of water, not hungry enough for food. Arthur went outside into the chilly morning and started walking down the road. The road was lined with hundreds of huge alpine trees. A large flock of birds flew over Arthur’s head in the sky.
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
In the book Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond who is a biophysics scientist and a psychologist, set out on a journey to find out the reason behind great achievements and conquest of the Europeans. What is the secret of success of Europeans? His hypothesis was very original and at first looked very simple, it was guns, germs and steel. The journey of Diamond took over 30 years and helped him answer the main questions of human history and what is it that separates humans today from "rich and poor" and from "haves and have not’s." To do this he had to go back when everyone was equal.
In “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” by Jared Diamond, Diamond starts to question why Europeans generally are so ahead than other countries and civilizations. Diamond wonders if any of this has to do because of race. Throughout his book, Diamond tries to answer Yali’s 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?” (Diamond 14). This question can be answered by numerous factors that had affected many civilizations that put Europe on the top. One key factor was diseases. Diseases had either helped or hurt civilizations and it had impacted the fate of human society. Diseases have caused many civilizations to either become stronger or weaker. The most
The book, Germs, Guns, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, shows how different cultures followed different courses of history. The book also looks at how Europe became the superpower it is and how it evolved faster than other cultures at the time. This is because some environments provide more favorable conditions for new societies than other environments. Diamond says there are four main reasons the Europeans rose to power and were able to expand across the globe. The first reason is because the continent of Europe has different animals and plants ready for domestication meaning more food which lead to a larger population. The second reason is there were more technology and innovation from all the domestication of
I also oppose Diamond’s theory on geography, because he does not visualize the opportunities of the people who inhabited unique or unsuitable territories. (3)The Inca people of South America, for example, resided in their ancient territories for thousands of years, because they found it their “Sacred Land,” because it was where their son of the sun, Manco Capac, found it appropriate to inhabit. Since they had such a great empire, they undoubtedly could have migrated to any foreign land they desired, as they had the skills to construct rafts and labor-transportation technologies. They did not migrate, however, because their lord found it necessary to have sacrifices of people only in the ancient temples near their homeland. As soon as they met a team of European explorers with their superior technology, they were flabbergasted when their entire empire was conquered. They could have had contact with the world by migrating, so they might
‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’ by Paul Simon is a piece for a folk/rock band with a world beat feel to it. This song portrays a story between a poor boy and a rich woman. The piece being composed in 1986, the modern era, has its focus set on individual expressionism. The composer achieves this through the songs aesthetic expression and his unique style of writing. This has been influenced by previous styles, and in turn has influenced concurrent musical styles.
Yali’s question is: “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?”
Yali asks Professor Diamond "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?" Professor Diamond’s possible interpretation of this statement could be broken down as such: Why do Europeans create so many inventions and manufactured goods to bring elsewhere? This applies the concept that people of Eurasian origin tend to dominate the world in wealth and power.
From the beginning of the book, Diamond focuses on answering Yali’s question. Yali is a New Guinean, who out of curiosity would ask Diamond questions, one of which was hard for Diamond to answer. That question was, "Why is it that you white people developed so much
In World Civilization, we generally learn about the different civilizations there were in the past and what caused them to either fail or succeed, which is what Jared Diamond did in this book.
Many are called but few are chosen”, said Saint Matthews in Guns, Germs, and Steel. I believe Dr. Diamond perfectly described and supported his argument with evidence from the past and the present. The author not only paints a wonderful portrait of the last thirteen thousand years but, also, explains the concepts in extreme clarity and depth. In spite of that, there is no purpose of writing a book without a purpose, thus, the reason for creating Guns, Germs, and Steel was to answer one simple question with one of the most controversial answers. “Why is it that you white people developed so much more cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” This was a question specific question to New Guinea but,
The story of these infamous diamonds all started with a fifteen year old who found a diamond in his father 's arm. The diamond business started in 1935 when “De Beers” took all control over dining prospects in Sierra Leone. De Beers are a group of companies has a main role in the exploration of diamonds, as well as diamond mining, diamond retail, diamond trading, and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors.This group was founded in 1888, and they are responsible for the problems Sierra Leone is facing today. These diamonds can be found in volcanic pipes. Diamonds are a pure form of carbon in a transparent state. Diamonds have always been a sign of wealth. Historically kings and queens were known for wearing these. Over time many people began lusting over them.
Color. Clarity. Cut. Carat Weight: These four words are what jewelers in the industry use to determine the monetary value of a diamond. However in 1947 De Beers found a way to not only boost their sales but also make a psychological necessity out of this sparkly stone, and it all began with four vastly different words, “A Diamond Is Forever” (Frances Garety), and accompanied by phrases such as “Isn’t two months’ salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever (N.W. Ayers)?