The simple prospect writing a response to Jared Diamond’s book
Guns, Germs and Steel is daunting but exciting because the book is just so amazing. An even more daunting concept is the one of coming up with a word that could possibly hope to summarize the experience and effect upon me of reading it. If I decided to do just that, (which I have), the inherently inadequate word would probably be enlightening. So why exactly am I creating such a commotion over the effects of reading this book? I don’t think that is explainable, but perhaps you will be able to gleam an idea from reading this response.
Sparked by a question by the New Guinean politician Yali (Jared Diamond’s friend) about why New Guinea has so little “cargo” compared to the “developed” parts of the world, Jared Diamond in
Guns, Germs and Steel seeks to explain the question of why there are such great disparities between different parts of the world. Why did Europeans end up colonizing the Americas, Africa, India, Australia and so on? Why, when the Conquistadors of Spain led by Francisco Pizarro (representing Kind Charles I of Spain) met Atahuallpa (the absolute monarch of the most advanced state of the New World) did the severely outnumbered Spaniards capture Atahuallpa and his men within a few minutes? The conclusion Diamond comes up with is that the geography in which a group of people develop determines their level of success (which is in this case includes results such as a high level of technological progress, complex political organization, plant and animal domestication (guns, germs and steel)).
Reading
Guns, Germs and Steel really makes you ask the question of “Why do we exist in the way that we do?” instead of living without the past being part of our paradigm. Whilst Jared Diamond tells the story of the various migrations, invasions and natural occurrences that have shaped the history of humanity, you begin to see yourself as a tiny part (but still as important as any of the rest) of an expansive history. The whole book has the potential to provide a radical paradigm shift to the reader who is willing to be open with their basic questions of “Why?” and “How?”. It provides reasoning for the many aspects of daily life that we tend to take for granted or give little thought. Once it is seen that everything has come into being through a long and winding process, it is easy to become increasingly curious. This book facilitates that increasing desire well.
I cannot possibly just talk about the effects and ideas that the book begets upon the reader, a large part of the fun of reading the book is in retelling the epic stories of human development it contains. One exciting part was section explaining the beginning of agriculture and animal domestication. This may not sound exciting, but the development of these skills brought what was probably one of the most transformational experiences that a civilization could go through. Instead of an area’s biomass (total mass of organisms in an area) yielding a small amount (0.1%) of edible biomass in the form of fish, nuts, berries or the occasional animals, the same area (with domesticated plants and animals) now yields a substantially greater amount (90%)! The process of plant and animal domestication is quite interesting as well. Nowadays, people oriented towards the environment tend to get quite angry or concerned about GM (genetically modified) plants. The odd thing is that we have been unconsciously modifying the genetic makeup of plants since the beginnings of agriculture. For instance, the ancestor to modern wheat had a gene that caused the seeds to explode and scatter, thus rendering efficient collection by humans more or less futile (but providing an efficient seed dispersion method for the plant). Every once in a while a wheat plant had a genetic mutation which would cause that scattering gene to be turned off and thus the seeds would stay on the plant. Without humans being involved, this plant’s seeds would not fall to the ground to germinate, and so its mutated genes would not be passed on to the successive generation. To humans though, this type of wheat plant was most appealing because harvesting wheat in a somewhat efficient fashion then became possible! While growing plants, humans would further genetically modify plants which would result in larger seeds, changes to plant reproductive behaviour and more. I don’t really support our modern way of genetic modification because of the misunderstood nature of it, but it is interesting to see how it can happen without our intentionality. The small mutations in plants that provided a more favourable strain of the plant were selected continuously over time until you get our modern agricultural plants.
Animal domestication is equally as interesting. The problem with animal domestication is that for an animal to be domesticated it needs a certain set of characteristics. It needs to be docile, to be genetically scripted to follow a leader, to be able to mate without privacy or any extravagant rituals and to put on bulk relatively quickly. These specific requirements meant that only a few large land herbivores or omnivores could be selected. Most of Africa’s land mammals did not fit the requirements, and land mammals (some of which were very odd (ex. Giant Elephant Birds on Madagascar)) in places like Indonesia, and Australia were most likely exterminated by tribes of humans when they arrived on the then new landmasses. Domesticated animals in the end usually have smaller brains as well because they don’t need the intelligence required to escape predators.
I found
Guns, Germs and Steel fairly easy to understand. Diamond makes observations that make sense but aren’t ones that you would normally think of. The book’s various concepts and examples are like a giant jigsaw of which the contents of the pieces are nebulous and vague. But the reader is not the one putting the puzzle together. In a way the book’s contents are complex because it shows the innumerable amount of details (people, land-masses, climate, time, technologies etc.) that comprise human history.
In another way though human history seems reasonably simple. I don’t think it is always this way, but for most of human history humans seem to act as instinctual automatons. For instance, if one group of people is technologically more developed than another group, the more advanced group will inevitably conquer the latter group (Diamond explains the this happening in places such as China, Indonesia, Australia, the Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia and Micronesia). And, with no natural restrictions it is repeatedly demonstrated that we will completely exhaust our natural resources if given the opportunity (ex. Easter Island and our current situation).
We seem so predisposed towards settling our issues violently, quarreling unnecessarily and out of our own interests that it is hard to see anything but a hellish apocalyptic and dystopian future ahead of us. It makes you wonder if once we are gone and the climate has an equilibrial state once again if another intelligent species could arise, but just one that is predisposed towards moral intelligence as well as technological intelligence. It is an exciting thought.
It is also interesting to see how human idiosyncrasies come into the mix throughout history. For instance, the QWERTY keyboard layout that most people now use for typing was originally created to slow down typists so that they would not jam primitive typewriters. Now that we have computers it is odd that we do not use the efficiently designed Dvorak keyboard layout. It was surprising to me to see that just because a new technology is more efficient than the ones currently available, that does not mean that it will automatically be adopted.
One help this book then can bring to our personal lives is the idea of not trusting our first impressions and reactions to situations. If we as a species tend to be disposed to a certain set of actions, trusting those seems rather foolish. It is interesting and frightening to see the tendencies displayed throughout the whole expanse of human history also mirrored in our personal lives.
As a writer, Jared Diamond is for the most part thoroughly engaging. He seems genuinely enthused to be explaining what he does. This leads to a very down to earth and accessible style of writing which is helpful when reading about topics such as comparative linguistics, evolutionary biology, physiology, biogeography and geography.
Guns, Germs and Steel was truly a blast to read and I would recommend it or the PBS documentary (or both!) to anyone wishing to further understand human history and the reasons for why life is the way it is today for the “different” peoples of the world.
