This question brought about the thesis of his book, that environment is more persuasive on development of civilization than people may have once thought. In the first chapter of Guns, Diamond establishes two main arguments that will become crucial to his thesis later on in the book. First, he goes in depth about mass extermination and further extinction of large mammals that occurred in New Guinea and Australia which were important for food and domestication, and secondly he argues that all the first civilized peoples in the world each had the ability to out develop one another, but were hindered or helped by their environment. Diamond continues to provide evidence for his thesis that environmental factors play a
When the Act was passed, the meat packaging industry had to succumb to continuous inspections and investigations by the Agricultural Department which would be paid for by the meat packaging industry. Furthermore, the Act would require stamps on meat products that were sent to market for public consumption. There have been many amendments created to correspond with enhancements in the meat industry. The Federal Meat Inspection Act was established to warrant the health of American consumers. It abolished any diseased or contaminated meat before the consumer gets it.
Therefore the reconstruction of early America demands a great amount of imagination for the interpretation of the era’s anthropology, archeology, and oral tradition-later recorded by Europeans. Richter uses his first chapter ‘Imagining a Distant World’ as a double entendre. He is describing the motivation that drove tens of thousands to leave Europe in search of a storied new land, while simultaneously admitting that he too is using his imagination to reconstruct an image of early America. Richter sites Carl Becker’s “Every Man His Own Historian”, which was published in American History Review, to support his admitted use of imagination in the reconstruction of events through the eyes of those who were facing
Guns, Germs and Steel is a three – part documentary that was shown on both PBS and National Geographic channels. The author of this documentary was written by Jared Diamond and was released in 2003. There is also a best – selling book with the same name and author, which was released in 1997. The main question that is being answered throughout the documentary is mainly why some parts of the world have become rich powerful while other parts remain underprivileged? While there is no clear answer right now, author, Jared Diamond travels to a part of the world to search for “the roots of inequality.” Diamond discards some of the discriminatory philosophies of natural and cultural dominance or inadequacy, but rather focusing more on how environmental
Eurasia ended up with the most domesticated animals because it is the world’s largest land mass and offered the wildest species in the beginning. The domesticated animals in Eurasia carried a disease similar to the one Europeans gave off to the Indians that killed them slowly. Another reason for the gap of domesticated plants and animals is the continents main axis. Eurasia’s main axis is east/west and the Americas in north/south. This means that animals in Eurasia could spread to another part of Eurasia thousands of miles away at the same latitude, the same day-length, and the same climate that they are already adapted to.
Name: Course: Instructor: Date: “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond The key theme of Jared Diamond’s book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” is the history of societies and cultures as well as their place in that history. In 1998, it won the prize for a nonfiction book and became the national best seller that year. Diamond caught the attention of the public by his book with a fascinating account of more than 13000 years of human evolution and development. He contends that the lapses in power and technology in the human societies originated from differentiated environments. The author argues that while cultural or genetic make-up has favored Eurasians regarding resistance to endemic diseases and development of writing earlier than on the other
Guns Germs and Steel Quotes “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” (p. 39). This quote has a very strong message that is proven correct not only in the past but also today. Because of that message I chose to write about this quote. When we look at the most powerful communities today we see that they are all located near areas with ample natural resources. When the first community was found to have been located in Mesopotamia, near the Tigris and Euphrates river, it was no coincidence that the settlers remained in that location, but because of the rich and workable environment.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) “MAD COW DISEASE” As humans we depend greatly on the production and consumption of cattle, specifically the cow for its many cuts of meat. From filet mignon to hamburger, beef is the third most widely consumed meat in the world accounting for roughly 25% of meat production worldwide. In the United States alone 25.6 billion pounds of beef were purchased and consumed in 2011 equaling roughly 79 billion dollars. With such a dependency on beef it would be catastrophic if a large quantity of cattle would become infected by a virus and have it go undetected. This fear became a reality for the United States and world in 2003 when the first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) also known as “Mad Cow Disease” became evident.
On May 11, 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state to join the United States of America (Minnesota). Early on, the state was filled with vast resources and an abundance of wildlife. Most of the wildlife, such as deer, elk and moose, contributed to the settler’s diet. Natural predators created competition and hardships for the new settlers; one of these animals was the Gray Wolf. The decrease in the amount of large mammals that the settlers consumed left wolves’ preying on cattle.
Cattle ranching contributes greatly to the demise of the amazonian rainforest. In Brazil, small-scale agriculture represents one third of the rainforest lost per annum. Mother Nature plays her own part in the deforestation of the Amazon using fires, droughts and tropical storms. In Columbia, the rainforest is mostly destroyed by poor farmers trying to make drug plantations. They do this because it generates more income than any other crop.