2. The four factors that “tipped the competitive advantage away from hunter-gathering and toward sedentary food production” were: a.)There was a decline in the amount of animal resources. b) There was an increased availability of domesticable plants. c) There was an increased development of technologies for collecting, storing, and processing wild foods. d) There was a two way link between the rise in food production and a rise on human population density, meaning that the food producing societies grew.
Chapter 9
1. Domesticated animals are defined as an animal that has been selectively bred in captivity and has been modified from its ancestors. According to Jared Diamond, Elephants have only been tamed because they have not been changed from their ancestors.
2. In order to be domesticated, animals must posses a variety of characteristics. Failure in anyone of the characteristics would mean that the animal cannot be domesticated. The characteristics are: A.) Diet-The animal’s biomass should be around 10%. This means that carnivores would be practically impossible to domesticate. B.) Growth Rate-The animals must grow fast. C.) Problems with captive breeding-The animals must be willing to share their space with others. D.) Nasty disposition-The animals must not kill humans on a regular basis. E.) Tendency to panic-The animals can’t kill themselves when running from a predator. F.) Social structure-The animals must be able to get along with others.
3. The Anna Karenina quote (“All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”) supports Diamonds thesis in that to domesticate an animal, the animal must succeed in every aspect listed above. If as little as one characteristic is not right, the animal cannot be domesticated.
Chapter 10
1. As said in chapter 4, farmers became conquerors. The best spreads of food production were in Eurasia where the Fertile Crescent is. This proves that people on the east-west axis became the world’s conquerors
2. The east-west axis allowed for “diffusion” because they were on the same latitude and the climate allowed for agriculture to grow
3. The Americas and Africa were at a developmental disadvantage because they were on the north-south axis.
Chapter 11
1. Jared Diamond considers the domestication of livestock a “lethal” gift because livestock transmitted several diseases including smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera.
2. The modern pandemic, AIDS supports Diamond’s thesis in that it is passed down to its entire offspring. This is the same for animal diseases.
3. Agriculture and the domestication of animals caused serious diseases. Agriculture diseases were because of the rodent droppings from the rats that are after the sewage from the farmers. Animal diseases were from the bacteria that grow on the animals.
4. The New World germs did not affect the Spaniards because the only animal that the New World had was the llama which had not been known to contract any diseases.
5. Jared Diamond refers to the lethal gift of livestock as a collision because the Old World germs collided with the New World germs making all of the residents of the New World sick.
Chapter 12
1. Jared Diamond refers to the development of writing as an “agent of conquest” because it provided communication during expeditions. It also provided written accounts of expeditions to motivate later fleets.
2. Many societies did not develop a writing system because of the difficulty that it takes to make one. The societies that did make one spent years making theirs.
3. Writing was able to spread to Ethiopia and Arabia from the Fertile Crescent because there were no geographical boundaries between the two are there were from Mexico to the Andes.
Chapter 13
1. The “Phaistos Disk” was significant because it was stamps on clay where as most other societies used paper and ink. It is also significant in the way that nothing like it had ever been created, and nothing like it was created for the next 2,500 years.
2. Jared Diamond thinks that inventions are necessities mother because inventions supposedly arise when society needs them.
3. In order for new inventions to be accepted they must first have an advantage over existing technology, they must have a social value, they need to be compatible with personal interest, and finally, an advantage must be able to be seen.
4. QWERTY keyboards are still used today because in 1932 when a jam-proof typewriter was invented and there was the possibility to make an efficiently laid out keyboard, there were hundreds of millions of people that were using the QWERTY keyboard and didn’t want to learn how to use a new keyboard.
5. Societies can be receptive to inventions because of many things: Economics because of labor, property laws, training, capitalism, and money; Ideological because of risk taking, scientific outlook, heretics, and religion. Other factors that have an influence are war, centralized government, climate, and resources.
6. Inventions are an example of diffusion if they are brought to countries very slowly and the countries would no know how to make them. "Blueprint” coping was better because the right invention was created the first time.
7. Sedentary living is important because
Chapter 14
1. Religion and government acted as “agents of conquest” in separate ways. Government provided organization throughout the tribe. Religion gave future conquistadors a reason to explore.
2. Kleptocracy is a form of government similar to a dictatorship or other types of autocratic governments. George Washington was a statesman because he listened to his people, spent tax money the way that the people wanted, and did not enrich himself as president. The current president of Zaire, Mobuto Sese Seko, is considered to be a kleptocrat because he keeps most of the tax money for himself.
3. Jared Diamond believes that religions are “justified” kleptocraties because the priest (the kleptocrat) because he is the precursor of the instituted religion. He makes all of the decisions and is paid with the offering (taxes).
4. Food production was a pre-requisite for state-building because it increases the population size. Societies formed by the way that the people got their food.
5. Jared Diamond disagrees with Rousseau’s “social contract” theory because historical records show that states were never formed by people’s personal interests.
Chapter 19
1. Jared Diamond considers Madagascar to be the single most astonishing fact of human geography for the entire world because Madagascar’s people (The Austronesians) have always been half black and half Southeast Asian. They speak a language similar to Ma’anyan spoken in Indonesia over 4,000 miles away. The Austronesians and their culture had already been established by the time Europeans visited the island for the first time in 1500.
2. Jared Diamond says that languages of a given language family tend to be spoken by a distinct group of people. This means that languages evolved along with the people who speak them. In other words, a group of people with the same ancestors may have similar languages.
3. Africa’s agriculture first arose in its Saharan Desert which, between 9000 and 4000 B.C. was filled with many lakes and full of wild game. Many people do not believe that a desert like the Sahara was once fertile.
Epilogue
1. Jared Diamond’s answer to Yali’s question is that differences between the ways that societies develop are determined by the environment not by genetics or family history.
2. I agree with Jared Diamond’s answer because of the facts that he presented in his book. Anyone that doesn’t agree with his conclusion would have to present a very good reason as to why they don’t agree.
3. Of guns, germs, or steel, I would have to say that the most decisive factor would be the germs. A good example is Smallpox; the virus alone killed more people than either guns or steel.
4. The East lost its enormous lead to the West (Europe) because Europe developed a merchant system, capitalism, and patent protection for invertors. Europe also did not have a dictatorship like China, so inventors in Europe were worry free.
5. China lost its technological lead to Europe because they were a dictatorship and had high taxations.
6. China’s connectedness became a disadvantage for them because their fertile crescent had no other geographical advantages other than domesticating wild plants and animals. China also had an absolute despot that was controlling the country.
7. The histories of the Fertile Crescent and China hold important lessons for the modern world including
