Prologue: Yali’s Question
Summary: The prologue brings forth the author, Jared Diamonds’, outlook on why different human civilizations have all developed at different paces. He bases this chapter and much of the book on an important question that Yali, a New Guinean politician, had asked him. Yali had wanted to know how the Europeans and Eastern Asia had great technology and wealth while countries like New Guinea, Africa, Australia and America had started out with just as little yet had neither of those things. This chapter discusses the many controversial answers as to why history has played out the way it did, such as the concept of differing intelligences, environments, and races affecting the rate of technological development in a country. Diamond made it clear from the beginning that the “progression” of human civilizations has had little to do with human biology and everything to do with geography.
Questions/I wonder:
- What defines intelligence for the Westerners and the New Guineans?
- Why is race considered the go to when humans do not understand how others develop?
- Why is human history a science?
Reflection: According to Diamond, the overall answer to Yali’s question was that the differences in environments is what decides the sucessfulness of a society and not factors inherent in the people themselves. While I agree with this I believe that not everything is as clean cut as getting the luck of the draw when it comes to becoming a world power. One could have all the resources in the world but if they do not know how to put them to proper use, they may as well have nothing. They also need good leadership and systems.
Chapter 1: Up to the Starting Line
Summary: In this chapter Diamond addresses the evolution of mankind and how it relates to the advancement of the humans today as a species. He marks 11,000 B.C.E as an important time to consider when trying to figure out how the humans later developed. At that time all humans were practically equal. It was around 40,000 B.C.E when The Great Leap Forward happened and the first complex tools were created and human intelligence continued to rise from then on. He also suggests that Africa should have had a great head start when assessing the fact that the first humans originated from Africa and did not show up anywhere else for quite some time.
Questions/I wonder:
- Why, if Africa had so many diversities, germs and resources, did Europe progress first?
- If Africa had a headstart why is it now so far behind?
- Why is evolution important to understand the difference paces in human advancement across the globe?
Reflection: It was confusing to think that a continent like Africa, seeming to be the origin of the human race, is this far behind. Despite having people and the largest supply of resources in the world, Africa somehow remained with tribes and substandard weaponry while the Eurasians were soon to be sporting steel swords, guns, and armor. Diamond pushed the Europeans and Asians into the same category because both advances with the help of the other and they may have been a key factor as to why Africa, with few neighbors, advanced slower as they had no one next to them to look off of.
Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History
Summary:
This chapter discusses environment and its role in modeling a society. It uses the Maori and the Moriori as an example of how environment affects two groups. There is also the decision of the Moriori to remain hunter-gatherers to consider when it came to why the Maori dominated the former. The Moriori environment left them isolated and unequipped for battle while the Maori environment allowed them to flourish and advance technologically to the point that they were able to easily conquer the Moriori. This was meant to prove that a group’s surrounds can clearly affect its technology, political organization, and ability to thrive.
Questions/I wonder:
- Why did the Moriori decide to stay hunter-gatherers?
- Why did the Maori kill the Moriori if they descended from each other?
- Why did the Maori have to eat them?
Reflection: Environment can affect two cultures in a short time. Because of the differences in their environment one group prospered while the other remained living in the past. This later led to the complete domination of the Moriori people. Cannibalism in the Maori was not done for fun but for revenge as per their customs dictate. It was typically only practiced during war and famine. Even though both groups descended from each other, they were far away from each other long enough for them to become two completely different cultures, one that promoted peace and the other that promoted cannibalism and vicious killings to a degree. The Maori even desecrated ancient places of the Moriori people.
Chapter 3:
Summary: This chapter covers Diamond’s research on how some cultures are conquered more easily than others. He mentions next the collision of the Incas and the Spanish. While the Inca had great numbers, they lost because of their subpar weaponry while the Spaniards lesser troops but also horses, and steel weapons and armor. In studying this battle, Diamond was attempting to figure out what such components have allowed the Europeans to win battles akin to the one between the Inca and the Spaniards.
Questions/I wonder:
- Does luck really play into how the Europeans were so successful?
- What kinds of epidemics were common in that time?
- How long did it take for the Inca to beat the Spaniards?
Reflection: As history has told us, while numbers help, they do not guarantee victory in battle. In truth it was their timing that helped the Spaniards to win so easily. They had attacked right after a great civil war between the Incas that would decide who would rule. With the Incas already weakened from internal conflict, it could not have been very hard to bring them to their knees. Many Inca had also suffered from smallpox. If they had not been ruined by the epidemic, victory may not have been so elementary for Spain.
Chapter 4: Farmer Power
Summary:
The primary focus of this chapter is the production of food in a civilization. An example of this would be agriculture which has proved to be the most efficient method of food production, far overshadowing hunter-gathering which was a slower process and fed fewer people. Agriculture helped people to make better use of animals, such as milking them, using them to fertilize land, and get dairy as opposed to just killing them outright. Farming also allowed for specialization of tasks, which hunter-gathering groups did not have. This in turn led to a social structure and then a better armies due to taxes paid for land.
Questions/I wonder:
- How were the food elites decided?
- How important were horses then?
- What did people learn to do in the spare time they got as farmers?
Reflection: The greatest advantage of switching over to agriculture would be how efficient it is. People were able to make more food for their families and not have to go through the hassle and danger of trying to kill a buffalo in order to eat. Agriculture also allowed people time to pick up different skills that could help them later. The process of domesticating animals also helped Europeans and other countries win wars. Seeing groups of men on top of the large galloping horses proved to be a great fear factor that made many minorities attempt to flee in terror, which turned out to be their downfall.
Chapter 6: To Farm or Not to Farm
Summary:
This chapter addresses the pros and cons of being a farmer or being a hunter-gatherer. While most would think the answer to be obvious, it is not. Hunter-gathers only spent a few hours searching for food while farmers spent many hours of their day over their crops. People often switched between the two methods of procuring food depending on their circumstances. Sometimes the numbers of wild animals dropped, sometimes new technologies were invented and sometimes people just needed the greater amount of food to be provided. Farming was not a snap decision for any hunter-gatherer, but instead they slowly converted over, sometimes going back and forth between the two when they see fit.
Questions/I wonder:
- If “progression” is not technology, what is it?
- Did most people farm or did they remain hunter-gatherers?
- Where was farming most common and where was it not/barely used at all?
Reflection: This book is good at putting things in perspective. I previously thought that the only way for humans to progress would be to develop greater technologies and more efficient methods of doing everyday things, but now this book helps to convey that more technology does not always make for a better, more productive society. Diamond used the example of hunter-gatherers and farmer to portray this. The hunters have less tools and have to go out often for food that will only feed a few people, but they only hunt for a few hours while farmers spend half the day working on crops that may not even live to see the harvest.
Chapter 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
Summary: This chapter focuses on the germs and viruses that come with handling livestock. While farming has its benefits, it also comes with deadly diseases that spread from the livestock to the humans maintaining them. Small communities that are hit with these diseases will most likely die out while larger ones are more likely to have people that are immune to the microbes. Diamond was trying to figure out why Eurasian viruses plagued many minorities and not the other way around.
Questions/I wonder:
- Why did the Europeans develop immunity to livestock illnesses while Native Americans died outright?
- Was there any way for the Europeans to combat these illnesses?
- What did those sick with these illnesses do? Where do they go?
Reflection: Agriculture leaves the farmer at risk to catching many diseases as Diamond had said. These can become epidemics as people and close to animals often and close to each other, but in the end how much a virus spreads is depended on population density. These viruses mutated quickly and were eventually able to accommodate humans who would then spread them by the coughing and sneezing that is invoked in order so that the germs are able to spread and replicate. Diamond used the example of measles and rinderpest to portray this. While both viruses are closely related, cattle cannot contract measles and humans cannot contract rinderpest.
Chapter 18: Hemispheres Colliding
Summary: This chapter covers the repeating themes of the book. Europeans were successful simply because they were born on a continent that was ideal for sustaining large populations. Their ability to produce many different crops and domesticate large animals made Eurasians much more efficient than the Americas. Because of all these animals that they possessed, the Europeans also grew immune to the diseases that were passed to them while others were not. In some cases, less people died in the European invasion itself only to meet their end later at the mercy of a mutated virus.
Questions/I wonder:
- Europeans were immune to many cattle borne illnesses, but why were they not affected by others?
- How many people died from European germs?
- What kind of crops did Eurasia produce?
Reflection: This chapter best sums up the entire book in a few pages as to why the Europeans had power, wealth and technology while others had very little. Even though the Europeans did suffer from germs that came from other countries their numbers allowed for them to outlive the minorities because of number of those immunity that came with having a large body of people. The Native Americans were lacking in animals and had no time to build up an antibodies to fight the European’s germs.