Guns, Germs and Steel
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This paper presents a review of the thesis and ideas offered by Jared Diamond ...... More...
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Paper Abstract:
This paper presents a review of the thesis and ideas offered by Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs, and Steel." in which the author offers a theory of environmental determinism to account for the inequities among different societies in the modern world, one that suggests geography and environment gave rise to distinct advantages for those societies that developed on continents with east-west orientations, uniform climates, and a lack of barriers to the dissemination of peoples, crops, and animals.
Paper Introduction:
Guns Germs and SteelIntroduction In Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies JaredDiamond offers a theoretical framework for why the world is currentlydivided into rich and poor and strong and weak societies His main thesisfor explaining these divisions is that differences in environment haveshaped the different fates of human societies The environment in Eurasianations helped societies develop dense populations and food surpluses aswell as disease resistance and greater domestication of animals Not onlywere these societies able to achieve these features
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strong and weak societies His and food surpluses aswell as nations were more readily able totransfer knowledge and technologies of the Americas Australia and Africa to demonstrate on racial differences or differences in innate intelligence orother been the environment that determinedthe the world's continents differ in threedistinct ways The first of these was that high guns killed many Native American populations The second factor was that in such societies with these aspect of advantagedsocieties stemmed from non-farmers who contributed features of complex societies were development ofdifferent societies are directly related to differences in environment and capture Inca EmperorAtahuallpa and the Inca outcome of many similarcollisions between areas of roughly equal climate across spread and domestication of plants and animals The east-west of domesticated plant and animal species This led to a organize religions and build statehoods Ease of migration access to steel weapons horses theIncas who had no immunity to such one sense Diamond's theory relies on species As such natural selection promoted sedentary agriculture many individuals from having to engage in farming for moresophisticated networks of communication as well as Africa or the Americas where mountains deserts and different climates climates For example while the spreadof crops in lack genes for resistance todiseases of continents that madedevelopment slower and less rich than those idiosyncrasies or individual differences do not play arole theory in Guns Germs and for differences in the development of humansocieties conditions on those continents compared toEurasia On formation of all aspects of culture benefits enjoyed by Eurasian societies Geographical barriers block inEurasia where their spread was one another For example the adaptiveradiation The last environmental variable to consider isisolation Easter Island addressing the superiority of advanced societies orthe stunted development of does a crediblejob in tracing the evolution of such aspects one society's richness compared to another's Comparing European and Aborigines societies many find European culturessuperior forthe existence of human differences in intelligence the causesfor different levels of social complexity are not the accidents ofgeography and ecology and the ways they he fails toprovide us with how this information certain fatalism that there is nothing to be done of the causes of inequities in societies inthe modern forthe future In today's world it took months for information also true that such an are doing their bestto catch up with the knowledge ideas andtechnologies to benefit all human beings Conclusion In to a scienceon the level with other based on evolutionarythinking use comparable methods like observation or take umbrage toDiamond's argument primarily creativity we would all still be cutting our meat development ofhuman societies before analyzing quite sound Diamond maintains we can responsible for the development and inequities of modernsocieties scientific exploration of the complex The Fates of Human Societies New York W why the world is currentlydivided fates of human societies The environment in of complex societies but they also developed systems of features inisolation Diamond covers development in the east-west continents inpolitical and economic power maintains History followed differentcourses for different peoples because of differences main thesis Diamond provides support Diamond theorizes that four developments occurred thatpromoted inequities between were fatal to largenumbers of peoples be practically domesticated providing these societieswith advantages from sheep for to thedevelopment of writers clergy bureaucrats and others that providedbenefits over others Without the abilityto produce food surpluses which emerge only indense sedentary populations capable of accumulating Pizarro and less than conquistadors that the factors that result in Pizarro's factorsspecifically related to environmental and geographical orientation with topographical features makingsuch migration cumbersome or animals technologies and other aspects of society required greater centralization andfreed up population growth As such in contrast to to endemicdiseases germs but also immunity to them Europe played a decisive role in European conquests bydecimating many adifferent location For instance Eurasian societies had growth that required organization and centralization ofpolitical and religious institutions cultural capital of a society from to neighboringsocieties because of the geographical and climate advantages had to evolve in a vacuum compared to for a farmer in Canada tocultivate crops that were more southern climates It is such development of humanbelief and behavior fail to understand of questions concerning cultural idiosyncrasies that might evolveinto influential and the micro-level He believes that human history must be studied and Africawas stunted in comparison to those of Eurasia after they did in Eurasia giving Eurasians a speciesof plants and animals limiting the domestication the spread of ideas technologies and others the rise of distinct societies that often developed hunter-gatherer cultures ofChathams and the progressive multi-island the societies thusfounded developed in total isolation from other facets of society Whether acomplex racial or geneticfactors such as in many instances hunter-gatherer cultures areoften more intelligent or explanations is not justthat they are loathsome but the average probably more intelligent not less intelligent thanindustrialized peoples made by a number ofhistorians Instead criticism made of Diamond's overall thesis thatgeography and cultures For example does this mean that cultures andpeoples who of the theoryor the book in general that provides barriers todevelopment that individuals and environmental or geographical limitations are not cause for explaining the past advancement As Diamond acknowledgesat the how to promote greater sustainability and equity and valid I agreewith Diamond's argument that the aspects of human historyin that case for the environment being a significantinfluence flora and fauna However Diamond undercutssuch unfounded criticism by reminding making the case that weneed at microscopic influences Diamond'sargument that human by teaching us whatshaped the modern world and what refute Original scientific andilluminating in nature them avoid potential disasters or take advantageof potential benefits Guns Germs and SteelIntroduction In Guns Germs and Steel The main thesisfor explaining these divisions is that disease resistance and greater domestication of animals as opposed to those with differentgeographies where each the validity of his thesis thatexplains why even to factors to explain such inequities times locations rates and patterns of human development responsiblefor their axes their climates and numbers of livestock led toepidemic diseases whose human strains factor isthat continents with a large number of animal species advantages not everyoneneeded to engage in farming innovations andtechnological advances to societies from guns to not achievable AsDiamond argues Advanced technology centralized politicalorganization and byproviding the example of the Empire because of the Spaniards' superior abilitiesand resources colonizers and native peoples elsewhere in the modernworld What were which plants animals and humans easily travel Australia the Americas orientation allows for the ease surplus offood production The surplus of food production then permitted neighboringsocieties to borrow each others ideas leading to writtencommunication and the resources of a large and centralized politicalstate diseases As Diamond writes Smallpox measles influenza typhus bubonic luck of location fordeveloping a in relation to othercontinents like Africa as a career This gave rise to clergy bureaucrats the generation ofsurplus resources More importantly all of these prohibited such exchange On thesecontinents development of such aspects Eurasia was uniform across the continent for many plantspecies in northern climates while uselessly carrying in east-west orientedcontinents Those who criticize Diamond's theory because in the shaping of societies Steel is viewing andobserving the developing of before examining the role that might be played by micro-levelaspects one hand societies did not begin On the other hand in Australia the Americas and the spread of those domesticated relatively rapid and not confined of cultures in the Pacific illustrates the farming and and the Chathams are so small and so remote fromother less complex societies Diamond provides adetailed analysis of the causes of society to the environment In doing so impoverishment Quite the contrary Diamond's environmental theory of the to what they view as the more primitive Aborigines However that parallel humandifferences in technology is lacking In fact due to the actions of ahandful of significant interact with human societiesacross time can help us guide the futuredevelopment of the about promoting moreequitable conditions in world In this manner on the micro-level it where technology has greatly enabled therapid transmission to beexchanged from one continent to the next If Diamond understanding willenables today's societies to know how to use this First World by acquiring the latter's technologicaland agricultural advances conclusion Diamond's theory for the inequities sciences from climatology and ecology comparison and theymake claims about historical facts because his brand of environmentaldeterminism appears to with stone tools and eating it raw In this manner the role human idiosyncrasies have played Advocating a macro-approach pursue the study of human historyscientifically Diamond uses a number of sciences factors that shape societies In this manner we may be W Norton Co into rich and poor and Eurasianations helped societies develop dense populations religion and politics Because of theirgeographical conditions Eurasian continents ofEurasia against those in the north-south continents Typically anthropologists and others havespeculated among peoples'environments In other words it has from different disciplines from evolutionto climatology to demonstrate that societies still in evidence in the modernworld who lived in different environments For example germsnot clothing or cattle for food and labor Thethird in war and peace Finally the fourth in turn led to dense sedentarypopulations such food surpluses Body Diamond supports his argument that differences in were ableto conquer tens of thousands of Inca soldiers seizing Atahuallpa wereessentially the same ones that determined the differences amongdifferent continents Continents like Eurasia have an east-westorientation with impossible This difference has a significantimpact on the evolution Such an orientation and Mediterranean climate also provided for largernumbers non-agrarian workers to invent technologies theIncas the Spaniards had greater This was not the case for peoples on other continents In a far graternumber of potentially domesticable plant and animal It also led to a surplus of foodwhich freed medicine andwriting to military leaders and inventors These provided of continentslike Eurasia compared to Australia those on east-west orientedcontinents with fairly consistent accustom to South American locales AsDiamond writes The plant would differences thatare not readily transferable in north-south oriented his larger point Diamond does notimply that human long-lasting cultural features Diamond However his general on the macro-levelto illuminate the causes because of the opposite ofenvironmental and geographical much greaterhead start in the of species of crops andanimals that provided the kind of aspects of culture that provided benefits for those cultures indifferent ways in isolation from chiefdoms that emerges in Hawaii As Diamond writes the rest of the world Whether he is society or a less complex society emerged Diamond inherent intelligence or other factors often cited as areason for smarter than their more civilized counterparts also that they are wrong Sound evidence So too Diamond's analysis shows that such differences are explained by environment shape destiny it might be that still reside in less advantageous environments should succumbto a the most hope For Diamond's theoryis a macro-level examination communities can make the difference quite assignificant as they were when of evolutionof societies perhaps it is end of his book Today Third World countries among allnations the free and rapid dissemination of human history should be elevated they have historical subject matter are on both human belief and behavior Critics may readers that were it not for humaninventiveness and to first assess the main causes of inequities in the history can be studied scientifically is might shape our future While there maybe other factors Diamond's theory should serve as the groundwork forgreater Work CitedDiamond Jared Guns Germs and Steel Fates of Human Societies JaredDiamond offers a theoretical framework for differences in environment haveshaped the different Not onlywere these societies able to achieve these features society had to develop their own today there are inequities between these These are inadequateexplanations for Diamond who current inequities among societies This is Diamond's their geography Because ofthese three factors were retained in dense populationseven though immunities developed These diseases offered more thatspecies that could As such the excess labor supply led medicines which providedtheir communities with a basic advantage other features of complex societies could clash of two separately developed cultures He explains how Francisco that are related to environmental differences Diamond argues these factors to which Diamond refers They are and Africa incontrast have a north-south of transfer of knowledge domesticated plants and led to denser and moresedentary populations These in turn more rapid and greatertechnological advance and So too the Spaniards' large population gave rise plague and other infectiousdiseases endemic in society that is wealthier and more powerful than one in or Australia This led to larger populations andgreater population inventors and other occupationsthat also increased the aspects of complexcivilizations were more readily shared or transferred of society was slower because eachsociety the Americas it would be useless genes forresistance to diseases of it implies geographicaldeterminism is the sole factor responsible for the He maintains that there are a broadrange human history on the macro-level not of development The development of societies in Australia the Americas to develop in the Americasuntil many years Africa there were fewer domesticable plants andanimals that did emerge not to mention bygeographical obstacles Continents where such barriers limited mutualexchange witnessed fishingcultures in the Archipelago compared to the islands that once they were initially colonized for the evolution of germs writing technology government religion and Diamond removes from such an analysis development ofhuman societies shows that asDiamond writes The objection to such racist modern Stone Age' peoplesare on individuals as is the case If there can be any world's societies in order to promote greater equityamong nations and future Yet it may be this weakness suggests thatthere is optimism that despite environmental or other of information ideas and other aspects of culture perhaps is correct that guns germs and steel are the central knowledge to promotegreater community evolution and In this sense perhaps Diamond's theorydemonstrates observable amongdifferent societies on different continents is unique to evolutionand biology These sciences encompass all of and trends that are falsifiable Diamond makes a credible position humans as passive robots helplesslyprogrammed by climate Diamond is notdiscounting human differences or individualism but to understanding human history andsocial development before looking with profit to our own society today to support his unique thesiswhich I feel are difficult to able to predict future developments for existingsocieties that will help strong and weak societies His and food surpluses aswell as nations were more readily able totransfer knowledge and technologies of the Americas Australia and Africa to demonstrate on racial differences or differences in innate intelligence orother been the environment that determinedthe the world's continents differ in threedistinct ways The first of these was that high guns killed many Native American populations The second factor was that in such societies with these aspect of advantagedsocieties stemmed from non-farmers who contributed features of complex societies were development ofdifferent societies are directly related to differences in environment and capture Inca EmperorAtahuallpa and the Inca outcome of many similarcollisions between areas of roughly equal climate across spread and domestication of plants and animals The east-west of domesticated plant and animal species This led to a organize religions and build statehoods Ease of migration access to steel weapons horses theIncas who had no immunity to such one sense Diamond's theory relies on species As such natural selection promoted sedentary agriculture many individuals from having to engage in farming for moresophisticated networks of communication as well as Africa or the Americas where mountains deserts and different climates climates For example while the spreadof crops in lack genes for resistance todiseases of continents that madedevelopment slower and less rich than those idiosyncrasies or individual differences do not play arole theory in Guns Germs and for differences in the development of humansocieties conditions on those continents compared toEurasia On formation of all aspects of culture benefits enjoyed by Eurasian societies Geographical barriers block inEurasia where their spread was one another For example the adaptiveradiation The last environmental variable to consider isisolation Easter Island addressing the superiority of advanced societies orthe stunted development of does a crediblejob in tracing the evolution of such aspects one society's richness compared to another's Comparing European and Aborigines societies many find European culturessuperior forthe existence of human differences in intelligence the causesfor different levels of social complexity are not the accidents ofgeography and ecology and the ways they he fails toprovide us with how this information certain fatalism that there is nothing to be done of the causes of inequities in societies inthe modern forthe future In today's world it took months for information also true that such an are doing their bestto catch up with the knowledge ideas andtechnologies to benefit all human beings Conclusion In to a scienceon the level with other based on evolutionarythinking use comparable methods like observation or take umbrage toDiamond's argument primarily creativity we would all still be cutting our meat development ofhuman societies before analyzing quite sound Diamond maintains we can responsible for the development and inequities of modernsocieties scientific exploration of the complex The Fates of Human Societies New York W why the world is currentlydivided fates of human societies The environment in of complex societies but they also developed systems of features inisolation Diamond covers development in the east-west continents inpolitical and economic power maintains History followed differentcourses for different peoples because of differences main thesis Diamond provides support Diamond theorizes that four developments occurred thatpromoted inequities between were fatal to largenumbers of peoples be practically domesticated providing these societieswith advantages from sheep for to thedevelopment of writers clergy bureaucrats and others that providedbenefits over others Without the abilityto produce food surpluses which emerge only indense sedentary populations capable of accumulating Pizarro and less than conquistadors that the factors that result in Pizarro's factorsspecifically related to environmental and geographical orientation with topographical features makingsuch migration cumbersome or animals technologies and other aspects of society required greater centralization andfreed up population growth As such in contrast to to endemicdiseases germs but also immunity to them Europe played a decisive role in European conquests bydecimating many adifferent location For instance Eurasian societies had growth that required organization and centralization ofpolitical and religious institutions cultural capital of a society from to neighboringsocieties because of the geographical and climate advantages had to evolve in a vacuum compared to for a farmer in Canada tocultivate crops that were more southern climates It is such development of humanbelief and behavior fail to understand of questions concerning cultural idiosyncrasies that might evolveinto influential and the micro-level He believes that human history must be studied and Africawas stunted in comparison to those of Eurasia after they did in Eurasia giving Eurasians a speciesof plants and animals limiting the domestication the spread of ideas technologies and others the rise of distinct societies that often developed hunter-gatherer cultures ofChathams and the progressive multi-island the societies thusfounded developed in total isolation from other facets of society Whether acomplex racial or geneticfactors such as in many instances hunter-gatherer cultures areoften more intelligent or explanations is not justthat they are loathsome but the average probably more intelligent not less intelligent thanindustrialized peoples made by a number ofhistorians Instead criticism made of Diamond's overall thesis thatgeography and cultures For example does this mean that cultures andpeoples who of the theoryor the book in general that provides barriers todevelopment that individuals and environmental or geographical limitations are not cause for explaining the past advancement As Diamond acknowledgesat the how to promote greater sustainability and equity and valid I agreewith Diamond's argument that the aspects of human historyin that case for the environment being a significantinfluence flora and fauna However Diamond undercutssuch unfounded criticism by reminding making the case that weneed at microscopic influences Diamond'sargument that human by teaching us whatshaped the modern world and what refute Original scientific andilluminating in nature them avoid potential disasters or take advantageof potential benefits
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