Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel<\/i> is an exploration of historical and global differences in quality of life between cultures, and how they came to pass. Diamond constructs a compelling explanation for these variations in outcomes that relies on geographic and not racial or genetic differences. His geography-based perspective has valuable applications in other fields, and combines well with Ruttan’s notions of induced technical and institutional change. However, it is important to maintain perspective on the work and remember the limitations of its scope, as a broad brush retrospective piece. <\/p>\n
At its heart, this book is an examination of the material world for the root causes of inter-societal distinctions. There have been and still are countless arguments which attribute the advantage of one group over another to be due to some intrinsic superiority of the group, frequently cast in racial, or class terms. What is perhaps most significant is that it breaks with the search for characteristics of the population itself to describe successes of the population. And it does so in a compelling way. <\/p>\n
The search for tangible, environmental factors to explain societal phenomena adds a dimension to many social analyses. Looking at global inequality, as has been done in this book is one example. The spread and evolution of religions, languages and other cultural practices may be others. It also discredits the explanations which have been used for centuries to proclaim one group’s intrinsic superiority over others. However, it is important to consider the scope and scale of the rules of thumb he develops.<\/p>\n
Guns, Germs, and Steel poses a very sweeping question played out over centuries and millenia and finds answers in advantages from material factors of the environment. It is tempting to apply these analyses to smaller scale and shorter term analyses and events. The geographic and temporal scale of the question is important though. While the events may play out similarly on a smaller scale, as Diamond suggests with his analysis of Polynesia, historical events have a great many contributors that are not directly derived from geography. It is important to consider the way in which the large numbers of people, groupings, and generations allow the author to draw these strong conclusions. More particular contributing factors are not accounted for, and may be of increased importance at the smaller scale. <\/p>\n
It doesn’t require a deep historical insight to realize that the New World was conquered by the Old World through disease and more advanced technology. But analyzing where these evolutionary advantages came from is a more significant question. Diamond pointed out the consequences of geography, and how it became the deciding factor in the global struggle for survival and control. That is the great contribution that Guns, Germs, and Steel<\/i> provides. What this says about our future is uncertain, but one element is certain, the effects of geography are profound and ought to be considered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}