The key issue of Guns, Germs, and Steel is Yali's question concerning why the Europeans have so much more in the way of "cargo" or material goods than the natives of Papua New Guinea. In the book, Diamond insists on one important lesson, than inequality in technological development of material wealth is due primarily to geographical or environmental factors. He repeatedly emphasizes that people from all societies are equally intelligent, equally hard-working, and equally creative.
Rather than talking about "primitive" societies as though they were somehow unsophisticated, instead Diamond shows how they succeed in adapting to their environments and building complex cultures. He argues that the main cause of global inequality has to do with factors such as the availability of domesticable plants and animals in different areas and the existence of east-west trade routes that allow innovation in agriculture to spread.
No comments:
Post a Comment