Considerations:
- Good discussion questions should reference a specific point or idea in the text.
- Good discussion questions require critical analysis skills.
- Good discussion questions challenges one to demonstrate factual knowledge and an understanding of the geo-political, socio-historical context of the issue.
- Example: In the epilogue, Diamond states, "The histories of the Fertile Crescent and China also hold a salutary lesson for the modern world: circumstances change, and past primacy is no guarantee of future primacy"(GGS, 417). Discuss historical and contemporary examples that support or refute this assertion. (NOTE: This question is from the epilogue. You are only required to read and answer questions about the Prologue and Parts I, II, & III.)
Each student must create UNIQUE discussion questions. All comments are dated and time stamped - check previous comments to be sure you aren't duplicating someone else's question.
In numerous instances in the prologue, Diamond speaks of how New Guineans are more intelligent than Westerners: “It’s easy to recognize two reasons why my impression that New Guineans are smarter than Westerners may be correct” (GGS 20). From my personal and modern experiences, I would have to agree with this remark. When observing the activities of the average person living in my area, I find that the majority of the person’s life is consumed in some form of technology, whether it be television or any hand-held device. Also, Diamond states “New Guineans suffered high mortality from murder, chronic tribal warfare, accidents, and problems in procuring food [compared to Westerners]” (GGS 21). When comparing the history of New Guineans and the hardships they had to surpass to the history of Westerners (specifically Europeans) that were genetically programmed to escape potential causes of death, it is clear that New Guineans had to develop (and did develop) more intelligence than Westerners to be able to escape bereavement.
ReplyDeleteThree Discussion Questions:
Delete1. Since the New Guineans passed such hardships, do their descendants (to this day) have genes that are superior to those of Westerners (GGS 21)?
2. Can it be believed that Diamond is somewhat biased towards New Guineans based on the comments he makes only pointing out the superior traits of New Guineans (GGS 20-21)?
3. Diamond seemed to leave out how technology (that only Westerners have access to) positively influences Westerners and gives them advantages over New Guineans. What are these advantages (GGS 20)?
In the prologue, Diamond provides in "Yali's Question" (GGS 21) a genetic reason as to why New Guineans are smarter than Westerners. He argues that because the causes of New Guinean death rates, i.e. war, accidents, and food procurement, mercilessly weeded out those less intelligent to survive such, New Guineans are far more responsive than the average Westerner. Of which, mainly because European / Western death rates involved diseases, and preyed not on weak intelligence, but hapless genes. State as to how this impacts both New Guinean and Western societies today, where wars are infrequent and improvements in medicine and healthcare access has significantly 'leveled' the former rates. How does this agree or disagree with Diamond's arguments?
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: In "To Farm or Not to Farm", Diamond discusses the "autocatalytic process" (GGS 111-112) in which a rise in population resulted in the adoption of food production for it's capability to support the fledging population. Farming made people sedentary, shortened the birthing cycle, subsequently resulted in more and more people requiring food. This made food production more attractive for then hunter-gatherers because of the higher calorie intake per acre. Such factors catalyzed the benefits of farming. What are other socio-economic autocatalytic processes today? How does this effect the future? How does it impact society? What technologies or techniques do we need to adopt to solve our current situation of population growth?
DeleteFinal Question: In "Zebras and Unhappy Marriages" (GGS 159-161), Diamond discusses the Anna Karenina principle and the Ancient Fourteen Species of the big herbivores that we were able to domesticate. The principle requires that every single aspect of some critical factors in a marriage to be successful, and failure to recognize differences could ultimately doom it. In this case, the Ancient 14 were successful in that they were compatible with their human masters. Major species such as sheep, goats, and cows are included. However, what if, say, the goat did not fit in a critical category of compatibility, like social structure. They did not recognize their human handlers, thus making them uniformly un-domesticable. How would this change the course of human events? If one, or more, of the Big Fourteen were unsuccessful in serving human needs? State the impact it would have. What type of society would we see if major players were absent from human history?
DeleteIn chapter two, Diamond discusses the collision between the Maori and the Moriori. Although the Maori were outnumbered by the Moriori, the Maori were still able to defeat them due to their advanced technology and weapons, experience in ferocious wars, and strong leadership. What is fascinating is that both groups separated from the same Polynesian origin. The Maori settled in New Zealand while the Moriori colonized the Chatham Islands. How does the geography of Northern New Zealand where the Maori lived compare to the geography of the Chatham Islands where the Moriori lived? How do the geographical differences lead to the brutal outcome of the Maori slaughtering the Moriori?
ReplyDeleteThird question:
DeleteWhat other cases in history played out like this where two groups from the same origin evolved into separate societies with different beliefs?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA majority of the prologue of Guns, Germs, and Steel is devoted to supplying very brief possible answers to Yali's question, "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" Of the four possible answers to this question, religion restriction was not one of them. This is surprising as this is a possible answer to a few other cultures, one of them being the Amish. The Amish's religion and culture is against using electricity in their everyday activities. They use light from candles and not from bulbs. They use a horse and buggy instead of a car. Is it possible that the New Guineans for religious reasons were simply against using certain types of technology, like the Amish, to facilitate their lives and possibly hurt the environment around them? This could have prevented many possible inventions of which the Europeans had and the New Guineans did not.
ReplyDeleteLocated in part two, more specifically, the section labeled Farmer Power page 84, Diamond discussed how farmers and other groups that farmed picked and chose certain plant groups to farm. These plants allowing them to gain up to 90% of the available energy in the plants, while eating other meat eating animals only gave them 10% of the total energy available. If we gain more energy from plants than other animals, and plants are much easier to domesticate and replenish in large quantities this reveals the question of why can we not sustain on a diet based strictly on plants alone? I understand the opposition of this is the idea of humans needing protein to flourish and that high quantities of protein are found in animal meat, however there are plenty of other plants that are high in protein. Why can't humans obtain protein from these plants,such as almonds which were discussed later on pages 123 and 124? They fit all the credentials to become a high supporting protein source. Furthermore, there is no reason milk producing animals couldn't be strictly used for milk producing purposes. The ability to use one animal for one specific task would allow for this animal to further evolve into the best at what it is being used for. Why did we use milk producing animals for both milk and meat, such as cows and goats, when we had the opportunity for plants to provide all else? This would solve the argument to the need for diary and other milk products in our diets when plants are our main source. In conclusion the three questions that need to be discussed are, why are we not on a plant based diet? Why can't humans sustain on protein providing plants? and why are milk producing animals used for meat also when the opportunity is available to further increase their ability to produce high quality milk when only used for milk?
ReplyDeleteThe battle described in the chapter, Collision at Cajamarca was more similar to a massacre than anything else. In this battle a mere two hundred Spanish soldiers captured an Inca emperor named Antahuallpa. This emperor was being guarded by seven thousand of his men at the time. This event took place when the Governor named Pizarro of the Spanish army asked to have a friendly meetup with the emperor. Antahuallpa agreed and because by word of mouth he was told that the Spanish army was weak and had very few people, he decided to go with seven thousand presumably unarmed men. What happened next could be easily predicted as the emperor's men were defeated and Antahuallpa was captured (Diamond 72-73). Most people would think that an emperor, ruling over a population of eighty thousand people would be more prepared. Why is it that he decided to let his guard down, and only advance to meet Pizarro with unarmed men even though his only information about the opposing army was gossip?
ReplyDeleteGovernor Pizzarro of the Spanish army that attacked the side of the Inca Empire being ruled by Antahuallpa was given a great advantage because of the smallpox disease that arrived in Peru a few years earlier. One of his goals was to use his small army to conquer the entire Inca Empire and give more power to the Spanish (Diamond 210-211). Of course Governor Pizzarro had to of heard of the disease spreading rapidly through the Inca Empire as it had already killed a large part of the opposing population. This would most likely make Governor Pizzarro worried and nervous of his own army contracting the smallpox disease. The smallpox disease is spread through contact of bodily fluids which I would believe would be a problem as blood splatter is a common sight with wars. This leads to the question of; did Governor Pizzaro take any precautions with his army before and during the invasion of the Inca empire? If so, what were they?
ReplyDeleteprecautions of preventing the smallpox disease*
Delete1. In chapter two of part one, Diamond describes the social and political patterns of the citizens of the Hawaiian Archipelago. In this area of the Polynesian Islands, the descendants of chiefs were divided amongst eight separate lineages. These chiefly residents only married others of their seemingly noble status, even if this meant that he or she must marry a family member (GGS, 63). Is this not an early, excessive aristocracy? The chiefly descendants held all of the power in their region and remained exempt from labor in food production. This is generally the case in aristocracies today and in recent history.
ReplyDelete2. In chapter one of the first part of the text, Diamond described the discrepancies between the modern perception of Neanderthals and scientific fact. He illustrated that despite the unintelligent, animal-like stereotypes these early humans are placed into, their brains were proven to be marginally larger than humans today (GGS, 38). If this is the case, then what happened to humankind over the generations that caused the brain to shrink?
3. Following up on the second question, is it possible that the Neanderthals’ brains were the same size as humans today? Humans are scientifically proven to only use a portion of their brains. Therefore, could the Neanderthals have used more of their brain capacity, and consequently appeared to have larger brains in general?
In chapter 14 Diamond talks about how the population of the Fayu tribe has greatly diminished from what the tribe says it was originally 2,000 members down to 400 (GGS 266). In this same chapter Diamond also talks about how the Fayu because of their closeness and tight-knit relationships break up fights quickly, whereas in a much larger society less people would be willing to step in and break up a fight. If this is true that the Fayu do stop fights, why then has their population dropped so significantly due to Fayu on Fayu violence?
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 9 Diamond discusses the characteristics required for an animal to be domesticated. Diamond says that these animals must have a large and varied number of characteristics, but a lack of any required characteristic will ruin any efforts to domesticate the animal. Diamond then gives 6 specific groups that would cause an animal to fail to be domesticated. What are those groups and can you find an example of an animal that failed to be domesticated because of each individual group?
ReplyDeleteLast Question: In the beginning of chapter 9 Diamond talks about how all animals that have been domesticated are alike and that all animals that have failed to become domesticated failed for different reasons, can you find an example of how this is true? Can you find an example of this isn't true using an outside source?
ReplyDeleteIn chapter three, Diamond covers the Battle of Cajamarca. This was a meeting between the Spanish and Incan Empires, two of the strongest empires of the world at that time. The 168 spanish soldiers were led by Francisco Pizarro, whereas the 81,000 Incans were led by Atahualpa. Within a matter of a day Atahualpa was captured and ten thousand Incans lay dead on the ground while not one spanish warrior died. Considering these odds in numbers just how prevalent were the Spanish warrior’s weapons, armor, horses, and tactics to let them win at such odds? Was Pizzaro confident in his few soldiers but superior weapons, cavalry, and armor that he had no doubt he would win the battle? With so many Incan troops, why didn’t any generals and/or leaders take charge and overwhelm the Spaniards? After all the guns of those days were very primitive and could only fire one bullet compared to our modern weapons of destruction.
ReplyDeleteIn part two chapter five, James Diamond addresses the idea of radiocarbon dating domesticated and wild plants and animals. Radiocarbon dating is used by archeologists to determine when food production emerged in its said vicinity. Years earlier than the 1980s required scientists to add a significant amount of carbon, an essential “building block of life”, to the specimen. However, diminutive plants and animals did not require such large amounts of carbon; therefore, scientists would turn to date material that was believed to be left among the remains of the specimen. This action caused fault in radiocarbon dating due to there being no solid evidence of the alternate representative being linked to the standard specimens date of abandonment. In time following the 1980s, scientists discovered a new way to radiocarbon date plants and animal. Diamond states that the new technique preformed for radiocarbon dating permits the use of minuscule specimens as suppose to an alternative sample. Diamond states that there are problems in the new technique used for radiocarbon dating but does not expand further than that (Diamond 94-96). 1.) Thus, what are the problems that arise with the new technique used for radiocarbon dating? 2.) What purpose does determining the time frame of food production serve? 3.) Since radiocarbon dating proves to be unreliable by centuries, what other technique can be used to ascertain the time of origin regarding plants and animal?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFound in part 2 is chapter 6, which is entitled To Farm or Not to Farm. James Diamond addresses the evolution of hunter-gatherers and the farmers that contribute more towards the world's legitimate food producers. But this does not mean they are better off than the hunter-gatherers. Diamond is constantly stating how the farmers in the beginning could not have chose farming consciously because there were no other farmers near them that they could take the idea from (Diamond 108). As soon as food production started to become popular hunter-gatheres started to see the results and act upon them. Many hunter-gatheres adopted the idea of food production either completely, in parts, or not at all. Throughout the world food production grew at many different paces depending on the cultures that could be found within each continent. For example by around 6000 B.C. hunter gatherers in parts of southern-eastern Europe had rapidly accepted Southwest Asian livestock, cereal crops, and pulse crops. But just as the food production lifestyle could replace the hunting-fathering lifestyle, so can the systems used for food production.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Questions:
Delete1. Why is the use of wild plants and natural ingredients taken away once food is created for food production?
2. What are other reasons for the adoption of food production to be rapid in in some areas, but slow growing in others?
3. Diamond states that questioning the evolution of hunter-gatherers into farmers was silly because of the immediate drawbacks. If there were so many drawbacks to being a hunter-gatherer, why would it still considered to be a job that has advantages?
Diamond states that, "Different peoples acquired food production at different times in prehistory. Some, such as Aboriginal Australians, never acquired it at all" (Diamond 86). Since different people acquired food production at different times how come Aboriginal Australians never acquired it at all? After prehistory, at what point did they acquire food production? A follow up to the second question is what factors lead to food production and what was the effect of this toward Aboriginal Australians?
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1:
ReplyDeleteIn chapter two from section 1, to support his argument that environmental factors and geography impact the fate of a continent, Diamond brings up cases from Polynesia. He claims that Polynesia, a region composed of many islands provides prime examples of societies that developed in isolation. How did living in isolation from the "Western World" along with geographical features impact the fate of Polynesian societies?
Question 2:
ReplyDeleteFor many thousands of years, agriculture has developed in large scale in several different parts of the world. For a long time, it was not the most fertile lands that cultivated crops, but the societies that had learned to farm and had advanced from past hunter-gatherer lifestyles.For example, California, a region with very fertile soil was not introduced to agriculture and farming until Europeans colonized the area. Why is it that different societies adopted farming and herding techniques at different times in history, and what were the reasons for agricultural developments not being in the most fertile lands? To go along with that question, why did it take longer for some regions of the world to leave their hunter-gatherer lifestyles and learn to cultivate crops? Were these reasons impacted by geography or simply the people and culture of the region?
^ From chapter five, section two.
DeleteQuestion 3:
ReplyDeleteFrom chapter twelve in section three, Diamond talks about the development of reading and writing in Europe, which gave European explorers a clear advantage over other illiterate societies which they came across. Being literate allowed for these educated European explorers to create maps, document sailing routes, and generally provide many useful things for their societies. What were some of the impacts that allowed Europeans to have higher literacy rates than other societies, and what sort of differences between societies were a result of being able to read and write?
All through out part two Diamond discusses how organisms can become domesticated. He describes how the first plants and animals were domesticated. What enabled humans originally to start herding animals in an enclosed area for their products such as wool from sheep, or beef from cattle from their original feral form?
ReplyDeleteOn pages 200 and 201, Diamond talks about diseases and how new strains of viruses like the flu and AIDS are generated constantly, by mutating their antigens. With the relative success of the flu and AIDS, why don't all viruses and other diseases mutate their antigens on a regular basis?
ReplyDeleteOn pages 216 and 217, Diamond details the three different types of writing systems. The differences between the systems is how much a singular symbol means. He states that a symbol can stand for a singular sound, a whole syllable, or an entire word. What are some advantages or disadvantages of each system? Why did each system appear where it did?
In Chapter 10 (GGS 176-192), Diamond details the spread of ancient societies and how they were affected by the environments around them, commenting on the Andes slowing the spread of Mexican culture and technology southward. Can you think of any modern day example of geography affecting the spread of technology and culture?