Guns, Germs, and Steel Summer Reading
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Prologue
1. Summarize Yali’s question. This requires mentioning race, intelligence, and development of technology. Yali asks "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?" What Yali is asking is about the origins of inequality between countries and societies in the world. He wants to know why people of European descent are rich and powerful while people like him lack wealth and power. He is questioning the issues of race and technology. He wants to know if there is something "wrong" with non-white people that make them unable to be as advanced technology as white people. 1. 2. Summarize the three main objections to answering Yali’s question. 1. If we explain why some people rule over others, we are basically saying that domination is okay. If we say that the Europeans dominate or rule over Yali's people due to various reasons, basically aren't we saying that it is right for them to rule them? 2. If we answer this question, aren't we automatically being pro-European? Isn't it wrong to talk about European dominance when there is a chance their “ruling” is going to disappear? 3. Doesn't the question hint that civilization is good and other types of society are bad?
3. What is meant by a “eurocentric” approach to history? A Eurocentric approach to history means glorifying Europeans, and obsessing over their prominence in the modern world. In other words, Eurocentric history is history that is centered on and told from the point of view of Europe. It is history that glorifies and assumes Europeans do is most important.
4. Summarize Diamond’s response to the idea that Europeans may perhaps be more innately intelligent that New Guineans. Use his major points to support your summary. Diamond says that this idea is simply wrong and that New Guineans are in fact more likely to be more intelligent than Europeans.
Prologue
1. Summarize Yali’s question. This requires mentioning race, intelligence, and development of technology. Yali asks "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?" What Yali is asking is about the origins of inequality between countries and societies in the world. He wants to know why people of European descent are rich and powerful while people like him lack wealth and power. He is questioning the issues of race and technology. He wants to know if there is something "wrong" with non-white people that make them unable to be as advanced technology as white people. 1. 2. Summarize the three main objections to answering Yali’s question. 1. If we explain why some people rule over others, we are basically saying that domination is okay. If we say that the Europeans dominate or rule over Yali's people due to various reasons, basically aren't we saying that it is right for them to rule them? 2. If we answer this question, aren't we automatically being pro-European? Isn't it wrong to talk about European dominance when there is a chance their “ruling” is going to disappear? 3. Doesn't the question hint that civilization is good and other types of society are bad?
3. What is meant by a “eurocentric” approach to history? A Eurocentric approach to history means glorifying Europeans, and obsessing over their prominence in the modern world. In other words, Eurocentric history is history that is centered on and told from the point of view of Europe. It is history that glorifies and assumes Europeans do is most important.
4. Summarize Diamond’s response to the idea that Europeans may perhaps be more innately intelligent that New Guineans. Use his major points to support your summary. Diamond says that this idea is simply wrong and that New Guineans are in fact more likely to be more intelligent than Europeans.