Review: Guns, Germs and Steel
Diamond fails to account for some serious theories in his argument for an all inclusive geographical explanation for human inequalities. Diamond never looks at the development of capitalism during his history. Diamond argues that the more literate Spanish had the wealth of knowledge as a guide to human behavior and thought as opposed to the Taino peoples of the Caribbean and natives of Central and South America. Diamond never looks more closely at why Spanish knowledge helped in their colonization. What was so special about the Spanish knowledge? Didn’t the natives have their own history of human affairs abet it be written or oral? The author reasons that the Spanish were not as ‘naÃ?¯ve’ as the natives in their understanding of past human conquests, theories, and wars which helped the Spanish defeat the natives. Diamond does not explain why the natives of new world would not have known about war, greed, corruption, or capitalism. Diamond never explains why Europeans had the urge to colonize; he only answers how the Europeans had the means to colonize.
Diamond could be accused of bias when discussing the New Guinean’s intelligence compared to that of other races. Diamond concludes that New Guineans are smarter than Europeans or Americans because of the process natural selection. Diamond skates close to Darwinism in his reasoning here but wholeheartedly concludes that race had nothing to do with the development of human history. Diamond lazily states “âÂ?¦there is also a second reason why New Guineans may have come to be smarter than Westerners. Modern European and American children spend much of their time being passively entertained by television, radio, and movies” to validate his beliefs (p. 21). This is a very bold assumption to state as a fact. This sentiment is in fact an opinion. Granted this theory is very bold and powerful in attracting attention and interest in his theories, one has to be very critical of a statement such as the one Diamond proclaims.
One problem Diamond runs into in his ascertain is that he did not clearly define what smart means. It is true that IQ tests in America have often been accused of bias and such methods for studying intelligence are not fool proof. As it is now there are no certain exact ways to measure intelligence. Diamond clearly ignores the controversy around intelligence and the questions over how to even measure intelligence and uses his opinion as scientific fact which is not entirely responsible to state in a book published as fact.
Diamond ignores logical explanations in his arguments for the extinction of large mammals on the American continent. While reading Diamond’s arguments he states of the extinctions in Australia and the Americas, “âÂ?¦lost most of their candidates in a massive wave of late-Pleistocene extinctions-possibly because the mammals of the former continents had the misfortune to be first exposed to humans suddenly and late in our evolutionary history, when our hunting skills were already highly developed.” One has to question why if human migration into Australia and the Americas resulted in massive mammal extinctions, why did human migration into Asia and Eurasia not result in massive mammal extinctions? Didn’t peoples in Asia and Eurasia develop hunting skills too? Diamond clearly ignores the controversy surrounding the extinction of the megafluana in Australia and the Americas. Some scientists believe that humans played no role; rather, it was climate that caused the extinctions. Despite all of Jared Diamond’s flaws in his arguments, he makes sound arguments that provide logical and clear explanations for why certain groups of people in human history have not become the conquerors or mega powers.
Diamond concludes that the most important factor in determining the success or longevity of groups of people depends solely on the geography of their environment. As a result of geography, humans who ended up livening in the Asian and Eurasian continents were exposed to plants and animals that were more apt to be domesticated. People who lived in the Fertile Crescent benefited from the most plants suitable for domestication. Diamond illustrates that the Mediterranean zone had 32 plants suitable for domestication, whereas the Americas had a total of 11 plants suitable for domestication in North America, Mesoamerica, and South America. The availability of plants and animals led humans of the Asian and Eurasian continents to produce food surpluses.
Diamond argues that food surpluses resulted in the development of complex hierarchical societies that wielded immense power and potential for advancement. Societies evolved from band and tribes to chiefdoms and states. Food surpluses meant that specialization could occur and not all members of the society had to be farmers. Specialization meant the development of writing, arts, political structure, taxes, and classes. Diamond’s description of states (the higher form of development) highly resembles today’s modern societies. As a result of the development of chiefdoms and states, peoples with these forms of governments were able to defeat other peoples they may have encountered. The peoples who had food surpluses and complex societies had advantages over others, “First, a centralized decision maker had the advantage at concentrating troops and resources. Second, the official religions and patriotic fervor of many states maker their troops willing to fight suicidally” (p. 281). The two characteristics of states and chiefdoms were the key advantages of success in conquering other peoples. Food surplus equaling power is a very logical and sound argument in Diamonds book, but not the only argument.
Diamond argues that food surplus, plant domestication, animal domestications, and the development of highly complex societies were restricted to the latitude of where they were located. Latitude and geography were the key factors in deciding where these types of complex societies were able to form. Latitude also explains why much of Asia and Eurasia were able to grow and technology, plants, animals, and writing were able to spread. The longitude axis of the Americas and Africa is shorter and spans many climatic conditions not contusive for spread or growth. The latitude axis of Eurasia and Asia is much longer than the longitude axis of other continents and the areas in Eurasian and Asia share a Mediterranean climate. A sharing of climate for both the Eurasian and Asian continents made food cultivation and animal domestication spread much more easily if the had not shared a similar climate. The argument of latitude is very convincing and intriguing.
As a result of their location in relation to the latitude axis of Eurasia and Asia, some groups of people throughout human history were exposed to a number of variables that guaranteed their future success. One of the variables people in the latitude axis of Eurasia and Asia experienced that people in Australia and the Americas did not encounter was immunity. Diamond argues that because of the contact with domesticated animals (mainly on the Eurasian and Asian continents) humans developed immunity over thousands of years. This immunity and exposure helped to defeat and kill any non Eurasian or Asian populations as Diamond says of the diseases natives of the Americas suffered “The main killers were Old World germs to which Indians had never been exposed, an against which they therefore had neither immune nor genetic resistance” (p. 211-12). Diamond successfully explains why Europeans had the diseases in the first place; an argument that history books never explain.
A second variable Diamond explains that people along the latitude axis in Asia and Eurasia experienced that others did not was written language. Diamond argues that writing may have only been invented in two places; on either one of these continents. As a result of the axis, the spread of writing benefited those living in either Eurasia or Asia. Diamond suggests that writing dispersed over the world instead of individual writing developing independently. Diamond also suggests the same type of dispersal with inventions and technology. From the beginning of human history some people were lucky to have been located geographically in an area where developments spread.
Diamond suffers from overgeneralizations in his arguments in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, but offers exceptional reasons why some groups of people and areas were able to develop complex and thriving societies. Diamond adamantly discredits any theory that race had anything to do with the lack of complex societies in some areas of the world. Diamond explains why societies in Eurasia and Asia were able to become the conquerors of the world and why other societies fell so quickly to the advancements of the conquerors. Jared Diamond’s work is a much needed contribution to the world of academia and human history.
