Does Geography Affect The Civilization Of Papua New Guinea

Jared Diamond discusses the reasons why geographical and environmental factors lead to a more rapid progression of certain civilizations throughout history. The book Guns, Germs and Steel portrays an argument that due to some societies’ access to an area witch contains sufficient amounts of wildlife and climates that are easily inhabitable, these societies developed into more advanced ways of living much easier and also earlier than societies who lacked these geographical attributes. These beneficial geographical attributes promoted the growth of technological improvements in weapons, religion, and farming.

As each day passes, our society grows and develops because of technology. We continue to become more connected to the rest of the world because of this technology. This, however, does not change the staggering situational differences of the world. There is still uneven distribution of natural resources and unequal opportunity for people. There are many people in Asia and Africa

The transition from the traditional hunter gatherer societies, in to an agriculture based living system, has allowed humans to increase their population size, putting strains on the Earth’s environment. Agriculture has also brought along with it a decrease in women’s roles in the community, while also bringing about a class system where the wealthy rule, and were the weak and poor obey. As humans began to domesticate more plants and animals, they settled in permanent areas. The Change from hunter gatherer benefited few, but had dire consequences for the earth and groups with in it. One such consequence was the population increase, which has lead to major issues throughout history, and one that has ties to current global issues.

Many geographers have attempted creating a unified theory explaining why cultures advance much more readily than others. Very few have actually reached mainstream society and even fewer seem reasonable. However, Jared Diamond shines where most do not. His book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, proposes an idea that has long been established called environmental determinism. Most view environmental determinism as a racist theory attributing a peoples’ intelligence only to their oppressive climates and geographical barriers. Diamond instead has created a theory that applies environmental determinism to only a peoples’ technology—not the people themselves. This has given researchers valuable tools that allow them to explain why some nations have

Geography had a tremendous impact on early civilizations, the topography of the different regions played a key role in their development and formation. This statement by Fernand Braudel “ Geography is the stage in which humanity’s endless dramas are played out” (Getz et al., Exchanges, 26) is a very moving and telling description. The terrain, whether it is natural or man made is not the end all, be all. It does however affect the stage a great deal. Mountainous areas act as blockades, which keep the societies independent, plains open up the area, and rivers enable everything to move around freely. 2

“Guns, germs, and steel” refers to the geographical advantages and disadvantages that were present in early civilizations. Although Europeans some may see them as a genetically superior race, their large amounts of success is due to geographical advantages (Source 1)( Diamond, year). It is shown throughout Diamond’s discoveries that because these three continents lay of the same vertical latitude, they are able to keep up with each other when it comes to livestock (Source 1). Geography has played a major key in shaping the current day cultures of Eurasia, South America, and Africa. Jared Diamond stated in episode one of Guns, Germs, and Steel that Europeans were put on this pedestal over the other continents spoken about in the video.

Why were Europeans able to conquer most of the known world during the Age of Imperialism? Imagine a life without a proper education, without any technology, or even electricity, without there always being enough food, without much meat, without even a real home; this is how many people live in developing countries, such as New Guinea. Across the world,many people have civilizations have lived as hunters and gatherers for thousands of years. Then, some places experienced a evolution while others did not. In locations, such as the Fertile Crescent, people started taking back seeds and animals to their villages(Gachegua, Episode 1).

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

In both Australia and New Guinea, the chief geographical factor in retarding the development of the region was the isolation from other societies. This isolation created a lack of new technologies being spread to this region while Europe was more easily able to innovate and trade with other areas. Another factor that Diamond cites is that “Australia is by far the driest, smallest, flattest, most infertile, climatically most unpredictable… continent.”

Geography and the environment play a monumental role in the establishment and success of a nearly every civilization. For example, rivers bring water and allow for agricultural development, while mountains or deserts provide for protection and create a barrier. Many things, such as the aforementioned deserts and mountains, can offer both positive and negative influences on the society in question. The climate and amount of rainfall is directly related to the success or failure of crop growing, and thus related to the amount of time spent on simply surviving. Civilizations that are able to spend less time on subsistence farming are able to redirect that energy towards the establishment of arts, culture, religion, and science. Where a

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.

In both Australia and New Guinea, the chief geographical factor in retarding the development of the region was the isolation from other societies. This isolation created a lack of new technologies being spread to this region while Europe was more easily able to innovate and trade with other areas. Another factor that Diamond cites is that “Australia is by far the driest, smallest, flattest, most infertile, climatically most unpredictable… continent.”

In the former part, through showing how diversely Polynesians exploited the natural resources of different Pacific islands Diamond argues two questions: how geography can cause differences among human societies that have a common starting point, and how such features of civilization are resulted from intensive food production. Then, the later part comes the heart of the book---The Rise and Spread of Food Production, in which chapter Diamond addresses the questions of ultimate causation of contemporary human inequalities. In short, Diamond proposes that the more domestication of plant and animal, the more food, and then the denser human populations. The resulting food surpluses and the animal-based means of transporting those surpluses contribute to the development of settled, complex, and technologically innovative societies in Eurasia. However, MCneil thinks that to some extent, Diamond’s views are misguided. Though he accedes that during the early stage of human history when technical skills and organizational coordination were still undeveloped, human societies were indeed closely constrained by the local availability of food, he argues that as time goes by, many factors made the course of human history increasingly autonomous, for example, our greater capacities to reshape the environments to suit our purposes, the multiple of inventions, and the adoption of more effective

Jared Diamond is a professor of Geography at UCLA and a world traveler. He believes that in the past 13,000 years of human history, agriculture has lead humans to conquer, develop and prosper and therefore cause the rise of civilizations. In 1972 he was in New Guinea when he met a local named Yali who asked him a simple question that took years for Diamond to answer. Yali said “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [goods] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own”. [Work cited 7] Diamond was profoundly puzzled and couldn’t answer right away. In fact it took him many years to come up with what he thinks is the right answer. ‘Yali’s question’ plays a central role in Professor Diamond’s enquiry into ‘a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years’, leading him into a wide-ranging discussion of the history of human evolution and diversity through a study of migration, socio-economic and cultural adaptation to environmental conditions, and technological diffusion. (Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, p. 22-23)

Geography influences culture in many ways. A civilizations geography determines what kind of god(s) they believe in as well as influences from other cultures. These features provide a stepping stone for cultures that are solely based on geography.