Discuss the negative and positive aspects of the development of agriculture. Was it, or was it not the worst mistake in the history of the human race? Agriculture is not just a way of growing food; it involves in whole spectrum of cultural changes and adaptations by early human communities. The demands and effects of practicing agriculture as a means of survival created a new kind of community life, with new opportunities and new problems for humanity. For most of our history we supported ourselves
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
off. He assumed that since it was a simple question, that there would have been a simple answer. Moreover, Diamond's experience with the New Guineans had showed him their ingenious ways. That they can go into uncharted, undiscovered territory. They could create a shelter from practically nothing. Then survive there, even thrive there. At that point the question in Diamond's mind was; how did our worlds become so different? While assessing the history of humans and the environments that
Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond, Part Two talks about the roots of guns, germs, and steel, geographical differences relating to food production, causes of the spread of food production, development of ancient crops that are still used today, and domestication. Jared Diamond mostly likes to talk about the development of the Eurasian society and why they are more powerful. Instead of proximate causes that get straight to the point, he takes a different route that leads to ultimate causes. Ultimate causes
move from hunter-gatherers to agriculturists, and what were the impacts socially, politically, and technically? “Agriculture did not emerge from an untapped resource base or randomly distributed family or tribal units of Homo sapiens sapiens. It emerged as the result of efforts by highly organized ecologically canny communities composed of skilled hunter-gatherers.” In the beginning of what is considered burgeoning civilization, humanities ancestors were what were called hunter-gatherers. They moved
developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” (Diamond 14). A simple question that spans centuries – only to be understood by backtracking historical timelines until you reach the answer. But as Dr. Diamond said, the answer is not so obvious, and rephrased the question to be more intelligible, “Why did human development precede at such different rates on different continents?” (16). b. Pizarro’s capture of Atahuallpa reveals that the Europeans
of a series of great discoveries, but also a history of ideas, of theory, of ways of looking at the past and a history of developing research methods, employing those ideas, and investigating those questions (Renfrew & Bahn 15). The evolution of development of ideas and questions on archaeology and new research methods actually shaped the archaeology today. The history of the archaeology can be outlined into six phases: Speculative Period, Modern Archaeology, Classification and consolidation, New Archaeology
and how does the author rephrase it? 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?” The author rephrased the question as: “Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?” 2. What are the objections to the question? The first objection to the question confuses explanation and justification. It argues that trying to answer the question would serve to justify
technological innovations, in the form of guns and steel. j. He claims that human history can be understood like any other science and goes out of his way to say that “natural experiments” in any field will be subjected to criticism. Not much different from the sciences, people can conduct historical studies by comparing groups of people like epidemiologists do. Diamond remains optimistic on the future of historical studies on human societies and believes that the level of impact it carries is just as
the ocean . Agriculture is a human activity; it harms the carbon cycle and the water cycle. “Modern agricultural practices have started the process of agricultural pollution. This process causes the degradation of the ecosystem, land, and environment due to the modern day byproducts of agriculture.” (Conserve Energy Future) Agriculture contributes to climate change by releasing greenhouse gas emissions which disperse into the air. According to Will Allen, green farmer extraordinaire, greenhouse gasses