Inequality In Guns, Germs And Steel Diamond

“Why is there so much inequality in the world: where some societies have so much, while others have so little?” The word inequality is defined as “difference in size, degree, circumstances, etc.; lack of equality” In the video Guns, Germs and Steel Diamond explains why the world has a massive amount of inequality and some reasons why are animals being used as food, milk, clothing & etc., animals being used as beasts of burden and useful plants.
To begin with, one of the reasons why there is so much inequality in the world is due to animals being used as food, milk, clothing and more. About 9000 years ago the first settlements in the Middle East were opening up too much larger villages. The people there were able to adapt to their environment and survive by becoming more productive farmers. The environment around them was filled with fields of domesticated wheat and barley. 9000 years ago humans started to interact with animals. That is when animal domestication occurred and humans started to take control over where the
animals were moving, how much they were eating and their breathing. Instead of going out to hunt for food, meat was available to the people year-round. The animals couldn’t just be used as meat, but also as milk to provide an ongoing source of protein and the hair and skin of the animals for clothes and extra warmth. After the harvest animals can eat the remains of the cereal crop harvest and the dung from animals could be used as a sort of fertilizer for the cereal crops. This is benefiting the animals and the farmers, a win-win situation. Overtime domesticated animals became the new agricultural way of life. This was an advantage to societies because the food was sometimes scarce due to droughts or the seasons like winter and many other factors can be played into this. Having these domesticated animals around showed that they can be used towards human survival and other purposes as well.
Secondly, another reason why there’s so much inequality in the world is due to the fact that animals are beasts of burden. In the ancient world, sheep and goats were the first to be domesticated, later on, big farm animals like cows and horses were domesticated also. Most of these animals were used for their meat, the milk they produce, clothes from animal hairs and skin and more.
However, domesticated animals proved to be beneficial in other ways than just for survival needs. These animals were such a benefit to farmers with inventions of the plow. The plow was a farming tool with one or more blades, fixed in a frame and pulled by the animals and the plow is used to break apart the soil and tend it. Farmers used this tool to prepare for the planting of seeds. Before the industrial revolution, the world's most powerful machines were beasts of burden. When a horse, an ox or any farm animal was harnessed to plow, they could transform the productivity of the land allowing farmers to grow more food for more people. Over the years beasts of burden were an advantage to any society because they provided a year-round supply of hair and skin for clothes, milk, and meat for protein, dung to fertilize the soil and most important muscle power because it saves time for the farmers and moving large bundles. However, that's not the case everywhere around the world. For example, in New Guinea and other parts of the world, people never used a plow because they didn’t have the animals to pull it, to begin with. Domesticated animals that were able to pull the plow were cows, horses, sheep or goats. New Guinea only had the pig and the most important thing of all is the muscle power and pigs couldn’t give the people of New Guinea that but the pigs could give them pork. The people of New Guinea had to rely on themselves to get the farm work done and even today there are still no beasts of burden in New Guinea.
Lastly, the last reason why there’s so much inequality in the world is because of useful plants.
The highlands of New Guinea have many farmers that are skilled and talented just like many other farmers in different parts of the world. Agriculture in New Guinea was based on plants like the terror roots, bananas, and the sago tree. Growing terror roots took a long time and it was done by the people themselves. The sago tree required the people to accomplish a great deal work before they could even eat. This job was usually done by the women and it was very time-consuming. First, the women would have to cut into the tree to reach the pulp and then process that for about 3-4 days turning it into a dough and that would be cooked for food. This job was a lot of work for the small amount of food they were getting which also lacked protein and the food couldn’t be stored for a long time. To fix this the people would eat big spiders to supplement their
diet.
Bananas were rich in sugar, but very low in protein and couldn’t help with the people’s protein deficiency. Useful plants like wheat and barley were an advantage throughout societies around the world. Wheat and barley didn’t take much time to plant and grow because it was a matter of spreading the seeds around and they were much more nutritious. These plants also provided way more calories than bananas or sago trees. Other places around the world like China have rice, squash and beans were from the Middle East of America and other useful plants elsewhere. Places like New Guinea and other societies didn’t have access to these plants so they didn’t have many nutrients in their bodies and couldn’t produce enough food to meet their needs. In conclusion, Yali asked “Why you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineas have so little” Perfect equality isn’t found in the world at all. The idea that even equality is in this world is false. Inequality forms the world and corrections are made. “Why is there so much inequality in the world: where some societies have so much, while others have so little?” Some societies have more advantages than others giving them less inequality in their part and some societies don’t have as many advantages as other societies so they are open up to a lot of inequality. Many societies have advantages, advancement and some societies don’t have as much or none at all. Inequality varies between societies, regions, groups and that is what makes this world unique.