Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies analysis

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an art of work that is aimed at describing the irony between communities to the other from a historical perspective. Diamond gives an inner view of what makes some societies to be very resourceful materially than others. The success of the named successful societies is attributed to the fact that they are immune to germs, geographical advantage, steel usage, domestication of animals and food production capability. Domesticating animals and farming are basically the main sources of stability in some communities whereas other communities consider being hunter and gatherers. Specialization makes the key difference between a community to another which makes other very poor in making weapons while others are perfect at the skill (Mushtaq, p274). Major areas of the Eurasia had an advantage in terms of agriculture and animal domestication which was a natural one since the geographical location could allow the stocking of animals and plant growth. Also, the east to west axis geography of the area in Eurasia allowed the sharing of ideas, animals, and crops while the north to south axis discouraged trading since the area is climatically disadvantaged. The destiny and the diversification of the population in Eurasia created immunity to the germs which would later come to wipe out most of the isolated population of the American society (Fritsch, p145).

According to William, diamond lacked a sense of belonging in the works from the book since he criticizes almost every perspective of Diamond. The white people are considered to be very industrialized and using tools to do their crafting is considered to be in the Stone Age. Europeans are people who have the minds and capacity to build anything as long as one can get the necessary puzzles and fix them to make sense. It would be very unfortunate for the Europeans to use certain materials to develop what they want as compared to the Africans or the blacks who are considered to lack the human capacity and skills to develop same items.  This is one of the questions posed by Yali who was once a Politician and a black man who wanted a response as to why the white people export so much while the blacks export so little (Fritsch, p128). The white person possesses a difference in technological advancements that give them the advantage of human character and capacity.  Diamond argues that some of the western cultures usually deny the fact that there is racism while in the public but privately contradicting the fact. Currently, modern people are either less intelligent or more intelligent compared to the old age people. This is based on the fact that the Eurasian civilized society developed biological programs for the human body and not for the measurement of the human intelligence. This was not the case in New Guinea where there were high cases of murder, accidents, tribal wars, and food obtaining difficulties. People with the capacity of intelligence like the white people are considered to be of an advantage than the blacks who normally fight over what is regarded as simple strategies to survive (Caradonna, p30).

The rate of mortality in some countries is less than that of others especially due to the improvement in technology and the capability of some countries to be independent in their operations. One of the major differences in the argument is the ability of others to be able to look and make food while others are better in tools making. Some of the communities practically practiced farming which made it possible for them be independent in food production. Those which had no capacity of farming had specialized in machinery and tool making which made them associate with the farming communities to buy food in the exchange trade.

William critics the work of Diamond with the sense that it would have been very difficult for the Eurasians to be overcome by any kind of force that was meant to oppress or even take advantage of the society. Most of the parts of the world were there before less industrialized especially during the 11,000 BC since none of the communities invaded the other. This is however not the case since at that time there were societies which engaged in the hunting and gathering activities which used tools in their activities. In such a case, they can be the Africans who engaged in such activities which indicate that there is a possibility that the Africans had better chances of conquering the whites than the whites did. Using this criterion, there is no sense in the works of Diamond since it would be possible for the Africans to move into the American lands and fetch slaves to bring and work on the African soil (Fritsch, p119).

The whites had better chances of fetching slaves especially due to the fact that they had the skills to tool and machine making which was discovered later after the Africans had the hunting and gathering skills. In a country like Australia, there were diverse cultures which had the capacity of specializing in certain skills. Some were good in fish management, some in building of villages and others had the advantage of being nomads.  In such a case, one would expect that the Australians would eventually be the ones to take over and fetch communities to come work for them but this is not the case. Most of the lands in Australia were not fertile to allow for growth of products nor was it comfortable for machine making. This can be attributed to the fact that different parts of the world had different capacities in terms of the skills (Mushtaq, p275). The Eurasians had the skills and an improved mentality as compared to other countries or regions making them fetch more slaves to work on their farms and make them food since they did not have the skill. Cultural autonomy is used to describe the capacity of different communities to have the capacity to rule over the other based on the level of the knowledge. Cultural developments depended on the ideology and capacity of each community to implement success strategies for the benefit of the society.

Cultural autonomy is important since it gives more information with regards to having a difference in the capacity for growth and development. It is important since it indicates the level and reasons as to why most of the societies are more advanced and technologically enabled than others. Each community moved to make sure that what they target was going to provide for the society. The cultural differences created a chance for each community to be able to associate with the other. On the issue raised by William with regards as to why the book does not entail guns and steel but rather concentrates on the farming and germs, Diamond thinks of it as a personal question which requires personal response. Considering the idea that humanity cannot thrive through not eating, it is evident that farming is the most important factor that even those in war cannot thrive without food (Caradonna, p52). The argument by Diamond is based on the issue that Eurasia had the capacity to destroy every surviving American on the lower lands of the society but they never destroyed them but rather used them to their advantage. Eurasians using their skills and potentiality makes it possible to use the society for the production and development of certain product which would otherwise be difficult for them to make.

Using this interpretation, it is generally important to consider that the Eurasians had the human capacity that was high than that of others and this allowed them to be able to make the best from the situation. The motives for having such a literature notation is based on having an understanding of the human capability and the reasons some community from time in history are still far ahead than others (Fritsch, p117). Americans can try and give a public argument and deny the fact that they do not entertain racism but while in their private and through the computer and thinking brings out the idea of racism. One cannot be able to tell why until today among all the continents, Africa is the poorest and which does not have much to showcase with regards to technology. From the east to the west, technology is at its best while in Africa farming can be termed as the source of success. 

 

Works cited

Caradonna, Jeremy L., ed. Routledge Handbook of the History of Sustainability. Routledge, 2017.

 Chevreux, Laurent, et al. "Guns, Germs, and Steel." Corporate Plasticity. Apress, 2014. 99-100.

 Fritsch, Stefan. "Technology, Conflict and International Relations." Advancing Interdisciplinary Approaches to International Relations. Springer International Publishing, 2017. 115-151.

Mushtaq, Sabah. "Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies." Pakistan Development Review 54.3 (2015): 273-276.        

Nieminen, Hannu. "A short history of the epistemic commons: Critical intellectuals, Europe and the small nations." Javnost-The Public 21.3 (2014): 55-76.

Quinn, Riley. Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. CRC Press, 2017.