Guns, Germs & Steel

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Reaction Paper 1- Guns, Germs, & Steel In class we viewed a documentary by Jared Diamond called Guns, Germs, and Steel that takes people through the history of the world of the dominating societies and the dominated societies. I believe that the purpose of this documentary is to shed light on geography and its importance to why the world we live in, is the way it is today. Jared Diamond’s passion for birds has set him in the cultural diverse place of New Guinea. He has become accustomed to the native language and how they live. While there, a man named Yayi asked him “why do the white people have so much cargo and the New Guineans have so little?” With no clear answer to give, Diamond is on the hunt to explain inequality and to do so; he has to start at the roots of inequality. Starting at the roots of inequality we would see why some societies were great and some were not. Diamond believes that inequality has nothing to do with race because New Guineans are smart and are quick learners. He explores the farming of the Middle East and New Guinea, to explain why there was inequality. The Middle East thrived because they were geographically better suited for plants to grow and animals to domesticate, while the rain forest of Papua was only resourceful for wild sago. After searching and exploring Diamond had an answer to Yayi’s question and the answer was geography. Geography is a huge factor, because certain areas are more civilized than others because of location and climate. Looking at the globe, one might not understand why the Middle East flourished and the New Guinea did not. The Middle East had a climate that allowed the growth of different crops that could help the people harvest and make a living for their villages. Crops that were being harvested was wheat and barley which are cereal grains that provide protein to the body and with that they can continue
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