Today in class we watched a documentary about Jared Diamond's book Germs, Guns, and Steel. I have so many notes from the video, IT'S INSANE! I'm going to put a lot of them on here so be prepared.... First of all, the video is primarily about people of European descent and then people in New Guniea. The people in New Guniea (which I will from here on out abbreviate as NG) are quick to learn and extremely culturally diverse and adaptable. One of the main questions of the video that a man named Yali asks is, "why do white men have so much cargo and New Guniean's have so little?" Awhile ago, white men thought they were genetically superior to other races because they have advanced so much more than others, but Jared Diamond argues that race has nothing to do with it. And we will get back to that farther on in my post. Jared Diamond says that there are three things that all great civilizations have in common, they have advanced technology, large populations, and a well organized work force. The world is also divided into haves and have nots, which basically is developed countries (haves) compared to developing/not developed countries (have nots). Humans first started becoming "humans" around the Middle East, and because of how the land was, it wasn't as arid and dry as today's Middle East. The people there were originally hunters and gatherers, or nomads. In NG, an important source of food is wild Sago tree. It is meant to fill you up, it has no protein or any other nutritional value and it cannot be stored for long, so you need to eat it fast or it goes bad quickly. In NG, the women gather, and gathering is more productive than hunting. In the Middle East, barley and wheat were two cereal grasses that were very important to the people that lived there. Some other cereal grasses are oats, corn, and rice. After the second ice age, the Middle East suffered from a drought that lasted 1000's of years. Drah is a place in the Middle East that was found. It was found to be way more advanced than any normal hunter and gathering shelter and was found to be on of the earliest villages EVER. It is said that is emerged 11.5 thousand years ago, shortly after the drought ended in the Middle East. In Drah, they had the world's first granary which is a place that grain could be stored and protected. Drah is the world's oldest surviving village ever found. In the granary, cereal grasses were the primary thing that was stored and they could be stored for years. Shortly after the drought in the Middle East, they started growing barley and wheat around them, like a farm. This was the first time ever that is known where people plant food and have a sedentary place. This helped them to have extras in time of need. Domestication is taking the best crops to make them better over time. The new farmers produced more food than hunters and gatherers. After the Middle East, China began planting rice, the Americas began planting corn, squash, and beans, and sorghum, millet, and yams were planted in Africa. The people in NG farmed for just as long as the people in the Middle East but didn't get the same benefits. This is what Diamond refers to as geographic luck, which has to do with what you have around you impacted how you thrived. In the Americas, healthier crops are grown compared to NG's sago. Another thing that was soon started after farming was animal domestication which is where humans control an animals feeding, breeding, etc. It helps with having a food source and clothing from hides. There is an important cycle connecting crops, animals, and humans. The humans grow and eat the plants (and animals), they give the remains that they don't eat to the animals which then fertilizes the land with their feces. Woah. This was a long blog. I need a break now....
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