ENV S 3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2-epilogue : Microorganism, Logogram, General Idea
● Diamond’s ultimate question: Why did human development proceed at such different
rates on different continents?
● Diamond insists that there is not link between race/culture and intelligence
● Homo sapiens are distinguished from some of their ancestors by their larger skills and
their ability to make fire-making use of resources=human traits driving history
● “Great Leap”, the development of complex tools, as well as the construction of large
houses and buildings and creation of art;
Chapter 2:
● The Moriori were hunter-gatherers, Maori were farmers:
○ Moriori embraced a h-g culture because their island couldn’t support crops of any
kind-the climate was too cold.
■ The Chatham islands were tiny, capable of supporting only a few
thousand people
○ Maori islands of Polynesia, there was a warm, moist climate, good for growing
crops
○ When the Maori met the Moriori, they slaughtered them within a few days; had
resources that lended themselves to warfare and military supremacy;
● Diamond breaks environment up into categories:
○ Climate
○ geological activity
○ “marina” (i.e the flora, fauna, and geographic structures found around the island’s
coast)
○ Area
○ terrain fragmentation
○ and isolation
● Different ways to classify the different civilizations in Polynesia is by methods of food
production, population density
○ Correlation between population density and extensiveness of agriculture
● Significance: how huge societal differences arise from environmental differences
Chapter 3:
● Biggest population shift in modern times: the movement of europeans to the new world
● Pizarro’s biggest advantage was steel: the steel swords and lances that his soldiers
used to slaughter the Incas, and the steel armor that protected his expedition from the
Incas’ clubs. The combination of horses, steel, and guns (to a small extent), =how
Pizarro defeated the Incas
● Pizarro’s situation showcases that history often has little to do with individual human
beings’ abilities or decisions
● Pizarro’s voyage was made possible because of the existence of writing, used to spread
information about travel and navigation
○ The Incas lacked all three essential precursors for maritime exploration (writing,
centralization, and naval technology)
Chapter 4:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● The first important step that separates certain kinds of societies from others is the
establishment of agriculture-many of a society’s military advantages only arise because
that society is descended from an agricultural society
● Agriculture is highly efficient form of food production, more so than h-g foraging
● By domesticating animals and keeping them in a small area, humans don’t have to
expend energy chasing after their food.
● Agriculture importance is that it leads to social specialization-1) a political elite gains
control over the food and decides distribution 2) gives people more time to experiment
with resources and develop specializations in jobs other than food production
● The development of agriculture was crucial to the rise of a powerful military state
Chapter 5:
● Areas agriculture arose independently-Mesopotamia, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes,
Eastern United States
● The regions that developed agriculture earliest had a head start toward guns, germs,
and steel
Chapter 6:
● Humans slowly developed agriculture through a process of trial and error
● Increasingly difficult to be a h-g: wild foods have become considerably less available,
world’s large mammal species have gone extinct
● Agriculture can support larger populations
● Agriculture depended upon the existence of technologies like the hoe and the awl-
environmental changes and the rise of human technology and population density
incentivized the use of agriculture
Chapter 7:
● One of the most important aspects of agriculture is the domestication of crops
● The almond, like many other edible plants, was once dangerous to eat. Domestication
practices where humans chose almond crops without poison planted
them=domesticated almonds outnumbered wild almonds--natural selection
● The agricultural revolution began in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia
● Humans’ preference for mutant grains that grew quickly and could be harvested easily
resulted in domesticated barley and wheat
● Crops have developed over thousands of years due to self-fertilization
● Acorns were never domesticated because 1. They’re slow growing 2. Squirrels eat too
many acorns 3. It’s hard to ‘breed out’ bitterness in an acorn
Chapter 8:
● Two major obstacles to the development of agriculture: 1) humans are unwilling to
experiment with domestication practices 2) there aren’t enough wild plants to experiment
with
● Despite there being a million plants around the world, only a handful are suitable for
domestication
● People with access to certain seeds and crps have formed societies that have gone on
to be more powerful than societies formed by people without such resources
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Diamond insists that there is not link between race/culture and intelligence. Homo sapiens are distinguished from some of their ancestors by their larger skills and their ability to make fire-making use of resources=human traits driving history. Great leap , the development of complex tools, as well as the construction of large houses and buildings and creation of art; The moriori were hunter-gatherers, maori were farmers: Moriori embraced a h-g culture because their island couldn"t support crops of any kind-the climate was too cold. The chatham islands were tiny, capable of supporting only a few thousand people. Maori islands of polynesia, there was a warm, moist climate, good for growing crops. When the maori met the moriori, they slaughtered them within a few days; had resources that lended themselves to warfare and military supremacy; Marina (i. e the flora, fauna, and geographic structures found around the island"s coast)
