Analysis Of Guns, Germs And Steel By Jared Diamond

In the book “Guns, Germs and steel” Jared Diamond shares his own theory which evolves around Yali’s (A politician in New Guinea) question: “Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents.”(p.16). In the prologue Diamond explains that “because of different for different peoples “not because of biological differences among people themselves.”(p.25).Diamond describes environmental factors that helped determine these rates, factors such as Guns, Germs and steel.
Some major environmental factors were the domestication of plants and animals. These two factors provided a stable foundation for people to build from in one area. Rather than in a hunter gatherer system. Diamond goes over how some societies may have had
While a lot of animals can be tamed not many are domesticable. While deciding if an animal is domesticable or not depends on if the good outweigh the bad so to speak. Diamond goes over six attributes that an animal would have to have in order for it to be domestic; Diet, Growth Rate, Problems of Captive Breeding, Disposition, Calmness and Herd Structure. “No mammalian carnivore has ever been domesticated for food” (p. 163) Having a strict herbivore proves to be most efficient since “it takes around 10,000 pounds of corn to grow a 1,00 pound cow. If instead you want to grow 1,000 pounds of carnivore , you have to feed it 10,000 pounds of herbivore grown on 1000,000 pounds of corn.”(p.162).”To be worth keeping, domesticates must also grow quickly” (p.163). If a domesticate grows quickly a rancher would not wait long before he has an adult size herd. Some species have a long and elaborate courtship ritual before breeding, cheetahs for example chase a female cheetah for days over distances before breeding. “Cheetahs usually refuse to carry out that elaborate courtship ritual in a cage.” (p.163). Some large animals are simply too aggressive to domesticate. At the sign of danger some animals are fast to run away versus an animal that would stand its ground. “Naturally the nervous species are likely to nic