Gus germs and steel Essay

One factor that contributed to the transition from hunting-gathering to farming was the decline in the availability of wild foods to gather. A second factor was an increased availability of wild plants. A third factor was the development of technologies that food production would later depend upon. A fourth factor was the link between the rise in population density and the rise in food production. A fifth factor was food producers could force hunter-gatherers to leave or kill them off because of the great numbers they had.

Most people would argue that the transition from hunting and gathering of food to agricultural food production was the best innovation in human history. We are taught to believe that this innovation gave rise to civilization, allowed for more leisure time in which people could then focus on arts and allowed for a higher yielding, more consistent and reliable food source. Despite some of the innovations that sprang from agriculture, upon a closer look, we can see that with the advent of agriculture came class division, gender inequality, less leisure time, overpopulation, diseases, deficient diets and starvation. The transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural food production may have been the worst mistake in human history.

This shift from gathering berries and hunting wild animals to producing food by themselves was major because it resulted in the developement of permanent settlement, social classes, and technology. As mentioned once before, there was a great change in the way food was produced. Mankind shifted from being mere hunter-gatherers to complex and

The published work I selected for this essay was Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. His work delves into the discussion of the development of European, Asian, and North African societies (using the landmass as a whole termed Eurasia) over history, and using the three mentioned lexemes in the novel’s title to explain the most important aspects of societal development- militant technological advancements, ecosystems/ecophysiology, and geopolitics, respectively. Diamond argues that contrary to popular belief, biology is not the generally accepted factor that determined the global cultural hierarchy. Diamond refutes the biological

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

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 the novel Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond, it is emphasized how the modern world holds an utmost array of differences among societies. Those of Eurasian origin greatly influence the world of power and wealth. However, other people such as Africans, fought off against European colonial dictatorship, lack such influence and wealth. And other people, including the Aboriginal Australians, no longer rule their own land. Rather, they have become decimated and subjugated by European colonists. Food production, technology, and the decisions made by varying continents played a role in the fates of societies. Geographic features, along with other factors, dictated the development of guns, germs, and steel.

In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond explains why throughout history the people of Eurasia have politically and economically dominated the rest of the world. With an American’s perspective and his extensive study of geography, Diamond argues that the geography of Eurasia, not the assumed innate superiority of the Eurasian people, is responsible for Eurasian dominance. I agree with his thesis as a general statement about the development of civilizations, but I believe it is an incomplete view of history.

The one factor that allowed Europeans to develop the forces necessary to conquer vast portions of the world was geographic luck which allowed them to develop the guns, germs, and steel to effectively rule.

During the Neolithic Revolution, as civilizations changed from hunters and gatherers to farmers, a social stability was created. Due to geography and the great natural advantage of the land, the domestication of animals and development of agriculture led to great changes in society. In the geographical area of Eurasia, the land was spread far from east to west which allowed for trading and sharing of crops, animals, and ideas. In the Americas, due to the more north to south layout with climate zones and geographical boundaries, it was hard to trade and to share ideas and such. This led to the Eurasians diverse and dense population to be more immune to the germs that over time, led to the wipeout of the Americas populations. In the beginning of the book, Diamond presents a question from a politician and friend, Yali. The question asked why Europeans had the ability to conquer other societies around the world. Throughout his book, Diamond goes

JD's use of the term 'food production' includes plants and animals. The perks of domestication and herding outweigh that of hunting and gathering: more calories (through milk, meat, manure, and fertilization through manure), increased crops allows a higher population, child bearing, and storage for surplus. The furs and hides provide warmth and the capability of transportation. The change from hunter to farmer was gradual, but due to the decrease of wildlife this change did happen. JD uses C14, which is related to tree rings, to find times of major food production include: Asia in 8500 B.C; china 7500 B.C; the Andes and Amazonia, 3500 B.C;

A biologist in training, a specialist in human physiology, and a professor at UCLA in Los Angeles are only one of the many occupations Jared Diamond, writer of the “Guns, Germs, and Steel” book has. Diamond is the leading expert on the bird life on the island of Papua New Guinea where he would travel regularly, he travelled to Papua New Guinea when he was twenty-six years old, his real passion had always been the study of birds. More than thirty years ago, Diamond was asked by a man called Yali, “why you white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so little?” That made Diamond critically think. He went on a journey that took him nearly thirty years to find reasons what is it dividing the humans from rich to poor and as to why Europeans

Jared Diamond’s nonfiction book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, was a national bestseller and won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize. Among the thousands of other nonfiction books published at the time that focused on personal relationships and diets, Diamond’s work captured interest by coming out with a book that intrigued everyone with questions such as, “Why did empires decide to conquer one region over another?” “Why did one civilization flourish in one practice and another civilization in another practice?”, “Why is one culture different from another?” Diamond answers these questions by examining millions years of history, mapping out the migrations of early humans and following humans as they evolve biologically, and the technology, government, and religion of human civilizations that influenced the cultures we see today.

Exotic animals kept as house pets are a hazard to the pet owners and any other people around the

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)