Guns Germs and Steel: Apples or Indians in Review
One of the central questions raised by this chapter of Jared Diamond’s seminal work “Guns, Germs, and Steel” would be on the lack of agricultural development in ostensibly fertile regions – why didn’t California, subequatorial Africa, and temperate Australia manage “independent development” of basic crops (Diamond, 131)? The title of the chapter itself (i.e. “Apples or Indians”) makes direct reference to the historical quandary at play here –did the problem lie with the various cultures themselves for not making proper use of their surroundings or was the issue linked to the environments that they inhabited? The author adopts the latter view – in essence, his environmentally focused perspective stands in sharp contrast to the notions of biological determinism and/or cultural inferiority that remained dominant during the past century of scientific research. Diamond’s exhaustive review of several individual biotas contributes to a …show more content…
Before even beginning his analysis, Diamond notes that a mere several thousand species out of 200,000 total wild plant varieties are even edible to begin with – from this lot, only a few hundred have proved suitable for domestication (Diamond, 132). 12 species account for 80% of the world’s crop production, and general consensus holds that all useful agricultural plants have already been identified by ancient cultures (Diamond, 132); also, virtually all species of seeded grasses are native to the Eurasian Mediterranean zone (Diamond, 139), and only two of the eight “founder crops” (flax/barley) present
One of the central questions raised by this chapter of Jared Diamond’s seminal work “Guns, Germs, and Steel” would be on the lack of agricultural development in ostensibly fertile regions – why didn’t California, subequatorial Africa, and temperate Australia manage “independent development” of basic crops (Diamond, 131)? The title of the chapter itself (i.e. “Apples or Indians”) makes direct reference to the historical quandary at play here –did the problem lie with the various cultures themselves for not making proper use of their surroundings or was the issue linked to the environments that they inhabited? The author adopts the latter view – in essence, his environmentally focused perspective stands in sharp contrast to the notions of biological determinism and/or cultural inferiority that remained dominant during the past century of scientific research. Diamond’s exhaustive review of several individual biotas contributes to a …show more content…
Before even beginning his analysis, Diamond notes that a mere several thousand species out of 200,000 total wild plant varieties are even edible to begin with – from this lot, only a few hundred have proved suitable for domestication (Diamond, 132). 12 species account for 80% of the world’s crop production, and general consensus holds that all useful agricultural plants have already been identified by ancient cultures (Diamond, 132); also, virtually all species of seeded grasses are native to the Eurasian Mediterranean zone (Diamond, 139), and only two of the eight “founder crops” (flax/barley) present