Preview

Analysis Of Guns, Germs And Steel By Jared Diamond

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1040 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of Guns, Germs And Steel By Jared Diamond
The Oxford Dictionary defines perspective as “A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.” Everybody has different perspectives, but one of the more unique ones is from Jared Diamond. He created the book “Guns, Germs and Steel,” which was later turned into a TV miniseries. In it, Diamond travels around the world looking for an answer to a question that was asked by a New Guinean. Eventually, he turned to history. He looked at different societies and analyzed what caused them to be the way they were. Finally, he found an answer; geographic luck. In Episode 1 and 2 of “Guns, Germs and Steel,” Jared Diamond addresses an important question that has the ability to broaden a person’s understanding of people living …show more content…
Understanding these societies in history can also help us understand the perspective of people living around the world today. In the videos, it talks about how the Incas were conquered by the Spanish. The Spanish was venturing into new land in South America when they ran into the gigantic Inca society. The Incas perceived the Spanish as godlike, except for the Inca emperor. However, the Spanish were afraid of the Inca army, so they attacked and eventually conquered the Inca empire. Knowing the history of a society, like the history of the Incas and the Spanish, can help us understand the perspective of someone living around the world because we know the reason why their society is the way it is. In addition, history can help us understand the perspective of people living around the world because it has impacted the way that people live. For example, there is no Inca empire today because the Spanish had conquered them hundreds of years ago. This affects the way that people live because the outcome of the society would have been different if those things had not happened. Understanding human societies in history and how history has affected present day can help us understand the perspective of people living around the …show more content…
The big question asked by the New Guinean was what set Jared Diamond off on this quest to find out why some countries were more developed. His miniseries was able to help us understand why the world is the way it is and why some countries are the way that they are. It made it easier to understand different people living around the world today. Mostly, it was able to change my perspective on societies. Geographic luck is a part of our daily life; why we do the things we do. It affects everyone living on the Earth today and will continue to be a vital part in the growth and development of a country. Jared Diamond has taught us an important lesson that is able to completely alter viewpoints and help broaden one's

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jared Diamond reinforces this thesis in this chapter. That location does have an influence on the intelligence of the people living there. Diamond uses the example of the Maori and Moriori descended from Polynesia. The Maori people are more advance in technology and political organization, whereas the Moriori are less advanced than the Maori people. Due to settling in locations where crops could not be easily grown, the Moriori could not afford luxuries such as specialists and a large army. Since no advancements were made in technology by the Moriori, it would be easy for the Maori to conquer land claimed by the Moriori. The larger the population and density in a location, the more complex and advanced technologies found there. Jared Diamond…

    • 156 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond pages 17-21 Jared is trying to understand why humans are developed differently, he is also trying to determine why only certain communities of people has became powerful. The author also goes on to tell us readers about the many different inequalities between civilizations in the modern world. Jared met a man name Yali, Yali was a politician. During the reading Yali was trying to come up with solutions to questions that he was asked, concerning the domination of certain communities. Throughout the reading in pages 17-21 Jared compared the differences between New Guineans and White Colonists.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Domestication is to covert a plant or animal to a household use or in other words for it to be tame. The animals that most helped the Eurasians are the sheep, goat, cow, pig, and horse, the major five of the ancient…

    • 2134 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There was a difference in the ability of the Europeans to dominate and colonize the Americas and the Chinese Empire between the 15th and 18th centuries. The oldest argument before Jared Diamond’s observation, was that white people were smarter compared to other people across the whole world. Jared Diamond’s observation proved this argument wrong by observing the environmental conditions, because everyone has the ability to invent new ideas, however, only some people have the opportunity to use what their environment provides them, in order to support their ideas. There are four main factors that affect the advancement of every place in the world. The first factor is; a continental difference in wild plants and animals. The second factor is; the factors that affect the rate of diffusion and migration. The third factor is; the diffusion within continents. The fourth and the last factor is; the difference in population size and total area in a continent. These were the four main factors that affected the expansion of the Europeans.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Guns Germs and Steel Packet

    • 3885 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Diamond realized that Yali's question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human history -- the roots of global inequality.…

    • 3885 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “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?…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs and Steel provides an overview of life before we knew it. Many people including Yali, a local politician in New Guinea, had the idea that cultural differences were based on the color of people, instead of the environment they were from. Jared Diamond didn't feel that way and he tried to prove that history was made based on the environment that you lived in. Diamond believed that the differences were divided between the Modern Stone Age versus the Industrial age. The environment you were raised in would effect your perception of the world you grew to know.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Earth is filled with many different environments, but only a few are suitable for the domestication of crops. Throughout the first few chapters, Diamond emphasizes the importance of crops being domesticated in certain areas. The nation's that learned to domesticate crops first became more prosperous. A good example of this is the Fertile Crescent. The reason the Fertile Crescent got such a head start on developing a civilization was because they were quickly able to domesticate crops. Some civilization's, like the Maori people, could not prosper because they did not have the correct environment to do so. The book explains, "Maori tropical crops could not grow in the…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    made a lot of sense however I also think it has to do with the fact that back then most…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The fact that Europeans colonized the New World instead of Native Americans colonizing the Old World can be seen as a simple answer to Yali’s question. This is because Europeans were able to develop maritime technology that would take them to the Americas, whereas Native Americans were not able to develop ships strong enough to take them to the Old World. This is also a part of the answer to Yali’s question. Europeans were fortunate enough to be able to develop the things that they needed. Pizarro had success for the obvious reasons of maritime technology, steel weapons, guns, and horses, among other things. Simply, the Europeans had more and better cargo. The two different events in history are related because the things that made the white more powerful during the Spanish conquest can still be seen as making them more powerful now, in relation to New Guinea.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 658 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As Jared Diamond examines the major factors of a great civilization after being posed by Yali’s question, he comes to an astounding realization. It is that Asians and Europeans came to be powerful not because they were smarter or better than other civilizations, but because they were luckier in terms of geography. Diamond focuses on the idea that the success of a society is not catalyzed by genetics or natural superiority, but instead by these two major themes: “The Rise of Food Production” and “The Domestication of Animals”. These two themes share a similar concept, Geographic Luck, which I will address separately. These components will later lead into the three sub-themes, two of which the book is named after: Discovery and Use of Steel, Germs and Immunity to Them, and Development of Writing.…

    • 1948 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jared Diamond gets asked an important question “Why you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little”. To Diamond, the question seemed obvious, yet he didn’t have an answer. That’s why in “Guns, Germs, and Steel: Episode 1” Jared Diamond discusses the problem of why some countries have so much while others rarely enough to survive. Also how those rich countries start developing and inventing new technology to help them thrive.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Perspective is an abstract idea defined as a certain attitude towards a particular subject. However, our mind’s collection of varying perspectives is not set in stone; they are constantly changing as we grow older and experience new things. Throughout my brief time on this earth, my immature childhood perspectives based on my parents’ experience-based views have been molded into adult like perspectives, backed with my own personal experiences.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays