The Worst Mistake In The Human Race Analysis

Improved Essays
Jared Diamond’s article “The Worst Mistake in the Human Race” provides critical insight to what archaeologists and anthropologists alike have contested to be the pinnacle of human advancement. Agriculture to many people among academic settings has been mutually agreed as one of the turning points from primal to civilized (Diamond, 1999); and has been known to benefit humanity for it’s greater good.
Jared Diamond challenges this point in his article. He begins by introducing a progressivist view, which is the held notion that agriculture was adopted simply because it is a means of getting more food for less work (Diamond, 1999). Diamond thoroughly explains that there are advantages to agriculture, being that of convenience and mass production
…show more content…
A particular quote which would be unfair not to mention: “A hundred malnourished farmers can out fight one healthy hunter” (Diamond, 1999) should not be overlooked as a mere analogy. For it serves as much as an explanation and as a tool to put into perspective why many hunter-gatherers ceased their lifestyle after the ice age concluded. His analysis of the disadvantages of agriculture is not only validated by present day examples such as the Bushmen of the Kalahari, or Hadza in Tanzania, but also by the critical findings from archaeologists in their scientific plight to determine the traits found on bones they discovered. The theory of functionalism too, particularly Malinowski’s functionalism can also serve as a tool to further understanding. Because agriculture is a function of society rather than a “choice”, it can explain why human beings at that time abandoned a lifestyle that was proven to be much better for them. To summarize, Diamond critically reflects on how agriculture was not merely a mistake we willingly made, but one we were forced to uphold due to circumstances we were unprepared to face the consequence

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The author presents his claim that the idea of agriculture was detrimental to our lives as human beings, and he goes on in the rest of the article to support this argument with scientific evidence provided by various paleopatholigists and his own personal experiences. Though the article is classified as an editorial, the author visits New Guinea and uses his experiences there to further his claim. This conflict is present throughout the text, for the author portrays his view of the effect of agriculture on the primitive and modern lives of human beings. He believes that agriculture posed as a threat to our advancement as human beings and opposes the idea altogether.…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the article, “The worst mistake in the History of humans of the Human Race”, by Jared Diamond, he stated that agriculture was the a catastrophe. But according to the article,”Excerpted from Back of History”, by William Howells, he stated that agriculture was one of greatest discoveries Jared Diamond believes that agriculture was a mistake for mankind because “Agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequalities the disease and the despotism,that cursed our existence.” He claims that with the discovery of agriculture bad things started happening to mankind. Jared Diamond asked “Why did almost all our hunters gatherer ancestors adopt agriculture?”, answered “ They adopted it because agriculture is an efficient way to gather…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Intro: Food has shaped the world into what it is in the modern day, and food played a major role in the history of mankind. In An Edible History of Humanity, by Tom Standage, Standage focuses on how food has had an impact of food from when hunter-gatherers were around, to the present day. Standage’s goal is to teach the reader the overall importance of food in our world, more than just what it is to most people now, something that we eat to fuel ourselves, which usually tastes good. He wants to look beyond the eating aspect of the food and tell us the importance of it way before we were alive. His choice of teaching history based on food and food only is quite an interesting idea.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. The neolithic revolution was the period in time in which the introduction of agriculture led people to transition from the wandering nomadic lifestyle to settled life. During this time, nomads, or people who wandered from place to place in search of food, began to domesticate animals and crops so that they no longer had to follow or hunt for their food sources; because of this, these former nomads were able to create farms using the crops they domesticated and settlements and were able to use their domesticated animals, not only as a source of food, but also as a source of companionship, a tool to assist with farm labor, and for transportation. The development of farming spread to other areas of society as well, as the creation of new tools for farming, new types of shelter, and clothing among other things began to emerge. As time went on, the techniques and tools used for farming were improved and new tools to assist in the storing, sowing, planting of seeds, and measuring of time were created; these innovations caused farms to create surpluses of food, which lead to the growth of population and the…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Diamond and Kincaid are quick to criticize the activities of humans but the authors fail to see that progress betters the future and is not without temporary setbacks which are eventually solved later on. Many of these so called “problems” are only short term and should not take away from how far we have progressed in the area of food production which tremendously helped mankind. As humans, we are imperfect creatures and this quality transcends everything we accomplish. Learning from the past is important because it enables us to improve upon our successes and prevent problems from arising. As far as food production and exploration are concerned, these are aspects of life that improved upon the past by solving problems in the present.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In This Fleeting World, author David Christian attempts to cover world history in a mere 120 pages. David divides his book into three periods: the era of foragers, the agrarian era, and the modern era. Within these periods he describes the various lifestyles our ancestors lived in, the advancements achieved, and what ultimately brought upon the succeeding era. In essence, David Christian goal in writing his novel is to filter out the unnecessary jargon in world history and convey a more concise history of humanity (p. XVII). Therefore, I believe David Christian has succeeded his goal of constructing a persuasive argument backed with solid evidence.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We have sent a man to the moon, we can get to somewhere miles away in minutes, and we can communicate with someone from across the globe almost instantaneously. These are just a few examples of the fantastic technology that we have developed that allows us to do things that our ancestors could never have even dreamed of. Surely, civilization as we know it is far superior to the pre-neolithic people. Well, according to John Lanchester’s article, “A Case Against Civilization,” our perceived achievements is nothing to be proud of. Walter Benjamin, a great German Jewish cultural critic, once said that every complicated and beautiful thing humanity ever made has, if you look at it long enough, shows a shadow, a history of oppression, and Lanchester’s…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Even though we consider ourselves to be a highly advanced society today, I don’t think I can say that we are the better society. What this book has made me realize is that there is never a right way to structure your society that is better than all other societies. Every society is unique and has its share of benefits and drawbacks, including our own. Agrarian societies have complex ecological systems that utilize every last resource. Native American societies only took what they needed from the land to preserve nature as much as possible.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As explained in his infamous essay, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” Jared Diamond argues that the adoption of agriculture led to many negative consequences that have hindered the general livelihood of humans. His argument is based on the comparison of the lifestyles of agriculture-based societies and hunter-gatherers, claiming that the latter lacked many of the challenging aspects that emerged with the beginnings of domestication and civilization. Diamond’s main points of focus are the negative health effects of people’s new diet, the increased spread of diseases, and the development of societal inequalities. In general, I agree with Diamond’s claim that the adoption of agriculture had some negative effects on humans,…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Taker Culture

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages

    ultures of human culture, those being “leavers” and “takers”. His first allusion, a biblical reference to the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden is actually the story of when the leaver and taker cultures separated historically. Ishmael explains that after eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, humans gained what they thought was “the knowledge of the gods”. This is where the leaver culture, which modern man descends from, developed an attitude that their way of life was the right way and that it should be spread. Takers began to believe that entire purpose of evolution was the arrival of mankind on the planet, and that we are here to dominate all, or that all resources on earth are ours to exploit.…

    • 1925 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Farming really changed how human’s lived and how the earth was impacted. As the authors said, “People now construct their own environments; concrete and steel supersede, dirt and trees. Heat exchange devises warm where it is cold and cool where it is hot. We can make water flow in deserts and create breathable atmospheres in the vacuum of space” (Ornstein and Ehrlich 44). The authors were right when they said that humans need to be proud of what they’ve accomplished but there’s a lot of work to be done to keep on accomplishing things.…

    • 1789 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In order to truly understand human society as it exists today, it is first necessary to be able to distinguish between all of the variables that culminated to yield the present. For, if even one condition was to vacillate, the whole outcome of human development could have been drastically different. The man undertaking the arduous task of trying to classify and decipher human history is Jared Diamond, who, through his work, Guns, Germs, and Steel, is able to show just how interconnected the different factors were. Starting off with the infamous incident of the Inca collapse to Pizarro and his army, Diamond seeks to explain exactly what events—and why—lead to this climax. “How,” he questions, “did Pizarro come to be there to capture him [Incan Ruler Atahuallpa], instead of Atahuallpa’s coming to Spain to capture King Charles I?”…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within Ronald Wright’s novel, A Short History of Progress, the concept of a “progress trap” is explored. Described by Wright, a “progress trap” is a situation in which humans establish a dependence upon new technology or techniques that have been integrated into societal structures to help “improve” human living conditions. This newly developed technology or knowledge can become paramount in society and critical to the survival of the transformed civilization. At this point, a loop of “progress trap” development can begin to occur.…

    • 2114 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ju Hoansi Analysis

    • 1831 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Adaptation of the Ju/’hoansi Over the Course of 50 Years In the Dobe Ju/’hoansi written by Richard Lee, Lee writes about a small group called Ju/’hoansi, they know to be one of the world’s best-documented foraging society. Lee was in the field for nearly fifty years working to learning and experiencing their culture, their way of living, seeing their values. Throughout the visits over the years, he got to see the changes happening first on hand. Throughout the book, Lee addresses several values that are important to the Ju/’hoansi’s way of living and how the globalization takes effect over the year he has visited.…

    • 1831 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Moderator: Welcome to the 2016 agriculture debate. Tonight we will hear from two sides of the argument. I’d like to introduce you to Hank Garrett and Andy Grainfield . Hank Garrett is going to debate that agriculture was the worst mistake we made, and Andy is going to debate why it was a good thing for humans. We will start with Hank.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays