Lilly Lutz Blog #21

Viewing Guide:  Guns, Germs, and Steel: Episode 1

Directions: Before viewing the film, read each question below so you know what information and ideas you should be looking for as you watch Episode 1. Record your answers to each question by providing as many facts, details, and examples as possible to answer each question.

1. According to Jared Diamond, what are the three major elements that separate the world’s  “haves” from the “have nots”?

Guns, germs, and steel

2. Jared Diamond refers to the people of New Guinea as “among the world’s most culturally diverse and adaptable people in the world”, yet they have much less than modern Americans. Diamond has developed a theory about what has caused these huge discrepancies among different countries, and he says it boils down to geographic luck. Give several examples from the film to support Diamond’s theory.

The people who resided in the fertile crescent had access to a lot more resources than those living in New Guinea. Having more resources allowed civilizations in the fertile crescent to become a better place for farming, which lead to specialization. The lack of resources caused hunter gatherers to continue to hunt and gather, preventing specialization and the development of advanced technology from perusing.

 3. For thousands of years, people have been cultivating crops. Describe the process used to domesticate crops and create plants that yielded bigger, tastier harvests.

 By planting and harvesting at certain times, while selecting seeds from plants with favorable characteristics, people were able to domesticate crops and induce artificial selection to get better yields.

4. According to Diamond, livestock also plays a significant role in a civilization’s ability to 

 become rich and powerful. How did the domestication of animals help people? Give several examples.

The domestication of animals created a source of meat, skins, and other things that were useful for the people. Animals were also used for transportation, warfare and farming.

5. List the animals that can be domesticated and where they can be found.

The animals are goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, camels, pigs, reindeer, llama which can be found in South America, and then nithans, cattle, and yaks can all be domesticated. All of these animals besides llama can be found in Asia, North Africa, and Europe.

6. Looking at the list of animals and locations from question 5, discuss how Diamond’s theory about geographic luck applies here.

Having domesticated animals lead to more productive civilizations. It's not a coincidence that areas with notable civilizations had animals that could be domesticated available.

7. How did the movement of the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent (Middle East) further support Diamond’s idea that geography played a key role in the success of a civilization?
The humans of the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent abused the land. They abused it to the point where the land could no longer support them. Since the Fertile Crescent shared that same latitude with Europe and Asia, the people were able to migrate to different areas and thrive. 

8. Do you agree with Jared Diamond when he says of a civilization's ability to gain power, 

 wealth, and strength, “…what’s far more important is the hand that people have been dealt, the raw materials they’ve had at their disposal.” Why or why not?

I agree with  Jared Diamond because a big part of a peoples success is out of their control. The geographic location of people has a great effect on their success. The people of the Fertile Crescent are an example of this. Their geographic positioning led the humans to developing specialization and other important things that helped their civilization.