Monday, January 31, 2011
Guns, Germs, and Steel (continued)
Diamond was looking to find a time before inequality, it was 13,000 years ago when people lived in small groups of hunter gatherers and moved a lot. They lived in small homes months at a time but then moving with the animals. You have to be very smart to be a hunter and the Papua Newgiunea were very smart although hunting is a very inconsistent way of finding food. People reli more on gathering which is done more by women, Sago is more productive but less sustaining. Barley and wheat are far more sustaining but there needs to be a change in climate for there to be enough. At this time the world became colder and drier and the middle east many things died and a drought lasted over 1000 years. People would survive and prosper, and change. Ian Kuijt is an Archaeologists in Drra' and they found a sight around the time of the change in the earth and it shows how they survived. The team at Drra' believes the sight would be able to store wheat and barley which was able to be stored for years at a time. People started growing their own food in the drought and would stay near a source of water and plant near their home and bring seeds and plants back to their homes and becoming farmers. The farmers without knowing it were changing the plant around them taking the largest, tastiest, and easiest to plant to grow. People were starting to control nature, domesticating their plants. People who hunted and gathered couldn't get or store as much as farmers. After the middle east China started growing rice and the U.S. started corn and beans. Farming start in Newgiunea almost 10,000 years ago but didn't change like China or the United States, they had just as good of farmers. They didn't have the right plants or geographical luck to keep everybody fed. People in the islands have such low protein that they eat large spiders to sustain their diet. Geographic luck is a main part of it.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The movie Guns, Germs, and Steel is about hundreds of Conquistadors came in and killed Native Americans with guns, germs, and steel. Jared Diamond a professor at UCLA tries to figure out how this shaped the history of the United States. His journey started in Papua Newguinea, hes real passion is studying birds and is a professor in Los Angeles. Over the years hes gotten to know the Newguineans and learns their languages and also studies birds together. Cargo is said for the meaning of goods once brought for the western white man. The Newguineans can go out into the wilderness with nothing, make a shelter within a few hours and survive. They cant log onto computers but that does not mean they aren't as smart as us.
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