In today’s world, it’s crucial to have the upper hand in order to thrive and continue to function as a civilization. The Same thing can be said about the earliest settlers, they needed to have the upper hand in order for them to strive and flourish to a civilization. The climate and environment played a tremendous role in the origins of domestication, and how it created inequalities between civilizations, allowing these groups of people to either grow into settlements or force them to be nomads. The advantages and disadvantages faced by these early settlers changed the face of the earth, and gave the upper hand to a later civilization and help them prosper in today’s world instead of struggling to survive. As Jared Diamond explains “History …show more content…
I believe the theory that Jared Diamond use in Guns Germs and Steel to try and answer Yali’s question is cultural ecology. Agricultural practices, such as harvesting and gathering, in terms of their long-term role, help humans adapt to their environment. To Diamond, the environment sets the path towards civilization and set the inequality in humans. The different factors that involved in nature come down to geography, soil fertility, plant and animal availability, and climate. This created vast differences in social development amongst societies. The advantages of looking at this theory towards the response of Yali’s question is because there is archeological proof that in a thriving environment, humans settled where there were fertile soil and abundance of livestock. We can attribute this to European dominance, they had favorable sources for planting and contact with animals. As they had more close contact with these animals, diseases begin to emerge slowly given them immunity to many diseases that the rest of the Earth’s population weren’t exposed to. Furthermore, as they expand in the East-west axis, they were able to cultivate some of the exported crops, exchange technology, and share ideas. They had enough food for their population to survive and reproduce given them the advantage over the …show more content…
After suffering a drought for many years, the settlers in the middle east found a way how to survive in this environment. They began by harvesting and gathering cereal plants like barley and wheat, these plant would grow in abundance and could be stored, the accessibility to these cereal plants would have a profound impact in our history. They would farm barley and wheat close to their villages and make them settle in villages, barley and wheat is very nutritionist and gave the village the nutrition they needed. These innovative farmers were changing the nature of the crops without realizing it selecting the most profitable seeds of barley and wheat to plant, controlling nature and changing the crops by domestication. Now scientist selects fruits genes to modify them to be ever more useful to humans. Altering the genes of fruits have caused many people not to know what some actual fruits looks like. It surreal to think they are fruits and plants that look different than what we are accustom to because they are left in the wild. For example, wild bananas are not shaped the same way as modern banana are, also wild bananas had larger and harder seeds compared to the modified banana which has smaller seeds and tastes better. This is just one example of the many fruits and vegetables we have modified over the years for our
Not race, nor gender, nor age, yet the climate from which a civilization is born. Since the beginning of human development, we have been creating a world of inequality. By sheer geographical luck the people of Eurasia have thrived along with their advantages. Agriculture and domesticated animals gave us the time to experiment, and create, giving us steel. While the less fortunate hunt and gather with stone tools.
In the book, Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond attempts to answer questions of conquest, such as why Eurasia conquered the Americas, and not the other way around. Diamond is a biologist by trade, and both impressed and disappointed the academic world with his new historian side. He believes the answer to western dominance lies in geography and the spread of guns, germs and steel. His theories had led him to be heavily critiqued by historians everywhere, including environmental historian J.R McNeil and Professor of Anthropology and Geography James Blaut. While Diamond provides solid ideas relating to the conquest of the New World, he often uses his scientistic background loosely with unclear supports forgetting other historical factors that
10th grade Advanced Placement World History II Summer Reading Assignment Since the last ice age, civilizations have progressed at different rates. Some developed literate societies with metal tools and innovative farming societies, while others developed illiterate hunting-gathering societies with improvised rock tools. But why has society advanced at such unlike proportions? This question, also known as Yali’s question, is the main focus of the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.
Most historians consider many factors to piece together our planet’s past. When looking at the exploration of what was named “the New World,” they often point to the success of the conquistador’s missions and attribute it to their determination, skill, and weaponry. The film “Guns, Germs, and Steel” names the real reasons why the conquistadors were so successful on their missions. The empires of Central and South America did not have access to certain animals and had not advanced as far as the Europeans did in terms of weaponry. Additionally, they had never been exposed to the diseases that many animals carry.
In historian Jared Diamond’s book and film Guns, Germs and Steel, he attempts to explain why some parts of the world are more economically sound than others. The facts Diamond delves into extend back thousands of years. Some civilizations had what Diamond referred to as “geographic luck”, meaning that some lands were situated in an environment better suited for agriculture and other resource gathering. Other civilizations were also unable to domesticate animals that would have made farming and living on the land easier. Domesticated animals provided milk, fur, meat, as well as the ability to feed off leftover crop beds and create dung to fertilize future crops.
For the first time, because of farming, people had a surplus of food. The surplus of food allowed for people to become artisans, so not
In the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond overall argues that geography and the environment help shaped the modern world today. In the beginning of the book, Diamond has several questions that he wants to find out the explanation for. He believes that New Guineans are way more smarter than the Westerners based on their survival and how they adapt to it. While doing some bird watching in New Guinea in 1997, Diamond met a young man named Yali, a politician. As they got to know one another, there was a question that Yali wanted to know and he asked Diamond, "why is it that you white people have so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea,but we black people have little cargo of our own?
In the article The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race the author Jared Diamond explains how the development of agriculture in humanity affected the evolution of our modern society for the worst. He proved this thesis with sufficient points, however, the scientific evidence behind the Luddites’ beliefs are limited. The corroboration behind agricultural advancements being a substantial step for mankind is far more concrete than the opposing side. Livestock and cultivating vegetation was the most significant switch humanity has taken, and molded our world to what it is today. Paleopathologists have recorded that the health statuses of people became critically worse after the Neolithic Period, when civilizations switched to
The Worst Mistake In History As far back as archaeologists can recall, hunting and gathering has been the main source of food for humankind. As populations started to grow many families found it hard to get their hands on food, which led to the rise of agriculture. In the article,“The Worst Mistake in the History of Humankind,” by Jared Diamond, he explains how agriculture, although viewed as progress for modern civilizations, was indeed the worst decision humankind has ever made. In the article, Diamond argues that although agriculture was an effective way to increase people 's food supply, it came with many downfalls as well.
What do a tomato, soybean and a french fry have in common? They are all some of the most commonly genetically modified foods sold on the market today. By using the genetic information from one organism, and inserting or modifying it into another organism, scientists can make food crops stay fresher, grow bigger, and have the crops create their own pesticides. Nevertheless, the technology to modify genes has surpassed its practicality. Genetically modified foods need to be removed from everyday agriculture because of the threat they pose to human health, the environment, and the impact on global economy.
In the documentary Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, he explains his theory of how people live different lives by people being poorer than others. He also explains how people in the past lived and how they farmed crops, hunted animals, and built their own homes out of dry sand. Jared also explains how some societies are more materially successful than others. He compares societal success to geography, food production, immunity to germs, the domestication of animal, and use of steel.
Even in areas in which we can see development- such as agriculture, technology, communications, and social complexity- change is not always for the better.” (The Idea of Civilization #3) The developments in areas are due to people helping the civilization instead of doing other things that might harm the
Yet other historians believe that certain challenges (possibly environmental) forced humans to develop an organized and civilized society. Overall, however, all theories agree on the fact that civilizations were a response to sustain the needs and beliefs of growing human societies. For example, these establishments allowed for an emphasis on a distinct religious structure, a social division based on affluence, as well as an economy that focused largely on trade with neighboring peoples. Such aspects would not have been present in prior small agricultural settlements, since they are much smaller (in size comparison) and less complex. 2.
Food production has been a matter that has been disputed for years now because of the things that have been added to crops. While pesticide helps keep other organisms from taking crop harvest, it has also added chemicals into the food that we consume; chemicals that should not be inside of us. Genetic engineering would allow for the natural modification of food to provide DNA genes that can be used to act as a shield against pests and diseases. With the DNA modification of crops, there would be no need to
This issue was why human civilizations have progressed much faster in contrast to other civilizations, and this very problem itself is why there are tribes today still living in