Guns Germs and Steel Chapter Summary
Prologue: Yali’s Question Jared Diamond has done extensive field work in New Guinea. His indigenous New Guinean politician friend Yali asked why whites had been so successful and arrived with so much "cargo" compared to the locals. Diamond rephrases this question: why did white Eurasians dominate over other cultures by means of superior guns, population-destroying germs, steel, and food-producing capability? Diamond’s main thesis is that this occurred not because of racial differences in intelligence, etc. but rather because of environmental differences. He wishes to play down Eurocentric thinking and racist explanations because they are loathsome and wrong.
Modern Stone Age peoples "are on the average probably more intelligent, not less intelligent, than industrialized peoples." New Guineans are "more intelligent, more alert, more expressive, and more interested in things and people around them than the average European or American is", traits which he attributes to survival of the fittest. Proper analysis of the current standing of various human societies must trace developments beginning before the onset of historical record.
Matyash 2
Part 1: From Eden to Cajamarca
Chapter 1: Up to the Starting Line: This chapter discusses the “great leap forward” or the extension of humankind beyond Africa. Did being in some location earlier give those peoples an advantage over later settlers? Africa had an enormous time advantage. However, humans, once they came to a continent, spread and adapted quickly to conditions. The Great Leap Forward was also important because without the evolution of cave paintings and stone tools, the society that we live in would be exceedingly different.
Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History The Polynesians constitute a small-scale test of how environment determines the path of society. Between 1200 BC and 500 AD, Polynesians scattered over thousands of Pacific Islands with great variety of area, isolation, elevation, climate,
Modern Stone Age peoples "are on the average probably more intelligent, not less intelligent, than industrialized peoples." New Guineans are "more intelligent, more alert, more expressive, and more interested in things and people around them than the average European or American is", traits which he attributes to survival of the fittest. Proper analysis of the current standing of various human societies must trace developments beginning before the onset of historical record.
Matyash 2
Part 1: From Eden to Cajamarca
Chapter 1: Up to the Starting Line: This chapter discusses the “great leap forward” or the extension of humankind beyond Africa. Did being in some location earlier give those peoples an advantage over later settlers? Africa had an enormous time advantage. However, humans, once they came to a continent, spread and adapted quickly to conditions. The Great Leap Forward was also important because without the evolution of cave paintings and stone tools, the society that we live in would be exceedingly different.
Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History The Polynesians constitute a small-scale test of how environment determines the path of society. Between 1200 BC and 500 AD, Polynesians scattered over thousands of Pacific Islands with great variety of area, isolation, elevation, climate,