Diamond proposes that the Austronesian expansion replaced the original hunter-gatherer populations of the Pacific Islands for the same reasons that Europeans replaced the people of so many other cultures. The immigrants’ tools, weapons, skills, and diseases must have helped them dominate or kill most of the people they…
Jared Diamond’s prologue, “Yali’s Question” is a brilliant introduction to his award-winning book, In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Its title refers the question asked by Yali, a local politician, during Jared’s trip to New Guinea where he was studying bird evolution. The politician had asked, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” In other words, Yali had asked why cultures developed at different rates.…
Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter-gatherers were just as intelligent as people of European descent -- and far more resourceful. Their lives were tough, and it seemed a terrible paradox of history that these…
“Yali’s question” is “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?” (Diamond 14). By “cargo,” Yali is referring to wealth and technology, which leads to power and dominance. Essentially, Yali wants to know why was there is such a disparity between the lifestyle of the average New Guinean versus the average European or American? In other words, why did white people become so rich and powerful, while black people lagged behind?…
Peter Isaac Diamondstone, co-founder of and perreniel candidate in Vermont’s first alternative political party - Liberty Union - died Wednesday, in his home, surrounded by loved ones, after a long illness. Peter was born in the Bronx, in 1934, to Mildred and Jess Diamondstone. He met Doris Lake in 1953 and was quoted many times, as saying that his “...life began when he married Doris.” Together they raised Aaron Dimitri, Jill Denise (Jessica), Ian Garth, and Paula Jean. Besides his devoted wife and children, Peter is survived by 14 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren, his brother Kenneth and Kenneth’s life long partner, Joe Kopitz, and cousins, John Block, Barry Diamondstone, ??, and ??.…
“Why you white man have so much cargo and us New Guineans have so little?” This is the question Yali asked Jared Diamond a University of California Los Angeles professor. This sparked Jared Diamond to answer this question by turning back the clocks of time to an era where everyone lived the same. This is the beginnings of Diamond’s ground breaking and heartwarming three- part documentary called “Guns, Germs, and Steel.”…
A.) In the Prologue of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, a local politician name Yali asks Jared Diamond a question, the answer to it is explain throughout the rest of the book. His question, “‘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?’” By this, Yali wants to know why the advancements in some areas are greater than in others, why there are richer and poorer people, and why the specific races seem to prevail over the others. Yali singled out caucasian and african-americans in this question, but Diamond explains in this section how his question applies to all races. Domination within parts of the countries relate with his question and with the advancements in each country determine how much power they have. The differences in political and technological development set some countries ahead of others and Yali wondered how this came to be, how did it come to be where certain countries can dominate others. His question can deal with how different rates of industrialization came to be and why they are distributed how they are today. Yali’s question can be expanded in many ways and this book explains major ideas to try and answer his question.…
The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond attempts to answer the question, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had so little cargo of our own?” This question was asked by Yali, a New Guinean politician talking to Jared Diamond. Jared Diamond answers this question by analyzing the development of civilization across the globe, from the deserts of Africa to the woodlands of North America. Each of these civilizations progressed in different ways, some slower than others. Mr. Diamond shows how different aspects of society were developed in different parts of the world, like how 13 large mammals were domesticated in Eurasia, but none were domesticated in Sub-Saharan Africa or Australia. These small details end up compiling together to explain exactly why different societies developed so differently. The author uses clear ideas and thoughts to explain the course of history. He systematically explores different pieces of human development, from domesticating plants and animals to creating different types of weapons. There is a certain need for this book because no one had set out to answer this question before, even though many have asked it in different ways. Scholars had always been arguing about the development of civilizations, and having one book compile information from hundreds of sources allows for a distinct answer. The author used many different types of graphs to help explain his reasoning. His thesis is that certain conditions allowed certain civilizations to develop technology and weapons more than others, allowing them to conquer other civilizations. In his words: “Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other peoples.”…
Jared Diamond is on a mission to prove his thesis, "History followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves"(Pg 25). He writes many chapters filled with intriguing reasons to prove his thesis. It takes a lot of facts and countless arguments to prove something everyone thinks is true, wrong, and after reading the book, I think Jared completed the task of proving his thesis by explaining how the differences in terrain, animals, and resources affected the development of different nations.…
Prologue: The author presents a question by a politician named Yali from a trip to New Guinea in 1972 of how whites were able to bring a great amount of cargo than the natives already living in their land. Yali argues of why it was because of the environment advantage for the Europeans to claim land from the Native Americans to go against racial differences that were made. He also argues of how modern Stone Age people were capable of accomplishing more productions for their societies than those industrialized and how New Guineans are more luxurious in living compared to the Americans and Europeans because humans must have history with evidence.…
The book Guns, Germs, and Steel is about how many different things contributed to the success of societies versus the destruction of other societies. The book starts out with the author, Jared Diamond, in New Guinea talking to a New Guinean politician named Yali. Yali asked Diamond "Why white men developed so much cargo…" Diamond was determined to seek an answer to Yali's question. Diamond surrounds his answer on how History followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves. Diamond wonders how the Europeans could have so much power and advanced technology while the rest of the world was hunting and gathering. Diamond’s answer is revolutionary. People have attributed Europe's overwhelming success in the areas of economics and politics to things such as racial features, and biological differences. However, Diamond suggests that the "superiority" of Europeans was simply due to their environment. He bases their success to a lucky chance and ecological differences of the continents. First, Diamond gives a brief summary and update of the pre-history of the world, dating back to 11,000 B.C.E. This helped in seeing exactly how diverse some cultures were in their development. He uses Polynesia as an example of what happened in the world. He lived there for some time to study the people and their cultures in detail. He used this because the Polynesians all came from the same cultural and ethnic background, so if his thesis proved to be true, it would also prove the others wrong. He believed that the diversity of the world in politics and economics had nothing to do with race, but rather with environmental differences (geography). A long time ago, the Polynesian people were split into completely different environments, ranging from rocky, volcanic areas, to arid grasslands depending on the island. As Diamond predicted, some islands, even now, were inhabited by…
In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond is the response to a question Diamond had been asked by a New Guinean politician, Yali, in 1972. The question was, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people have little cargo of our own?” This refers to the inequality between many different civilizations, quite like how Europeans developed great objects and wealth that they used to dominate over other societies. Diamond begins to wonder why that is, “Why did human development proceed at different rates on different continents?” Before explaining possible answers, Diamond clarifies that his book isn’t to justify European domination of other civilizations nor does the answer take a European historic approach. Diamond also clarifies that hunter-gatherer civilizations are not inferior to agricultural or industrial civilizations.…
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond 's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond 's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond 's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.…
1. “The particular cultures and societies of Africa and of the Americas discussed in this chapter developed largely in isolation from one another.” What evidence would support this statement and what might challenge it?…
One of the first encounters of race was when the “European explores reached the Western Hemisphere.” It was there that they first discovered “people who looked and acted differently. These ‘natives’ challenged their ‘discovers’…