Guns, Germs and Steel Yali's Question

What are the 2 important time periods in human history essential to answering Yali's question?

11,000 B.C.E.-1,500 A.C.E.

Why are the 2 time periods so important?

At 11,000 B.C.E., everyone was equal because they were all hunter-gatherers, but after 1,500 A.C.E., everyone was unequal, so we need to figure out when in between that people got unequal and we'd be able to figure out Yali's question.

Why is social Darwinism wrong?

Because if you look at different the time periods in history, other people will be more dominant, and then another group will other dominant that one over time.

Climate theory for the warm (Nile River, Egypt)

Cold climates equal no success because they had less access to resources and were therefore less productive whereas the warm climates had more access to resources and could be more productive.

Climate theory for the cold (Europe)

Cold climates equal success because people were indoors all the time and had time to invent whereas the warm climates had no success due to being too warm and unable to come up with ideas.

IQ test theory

Culturally bias: IQ testes tend to measure cultural learning and not pure intelligence

Objection #2

Doesn't addressing Yali's question automatically involve a Eurocentric approach to history?

Objection #3

Don't words such as civilization convey that civilization is good and tribal hunters were miserable?

How is Diamond's and Yali's feelings for each other affect the types of answers that will be acceptable to Diamond regarding Yali's question?

He and I both knew perfectly well that New Guineans are on the average at least as smart as Europeans. Because they viewed each other equally, they are going to look for a non-racist answer.

Why is objection #1 wrong?

He says understanding is more often used to alter an outcome rather than to repeat it.

Objection #1

If we succeed in explaining how some people came to dominate other people, may this not seem to justify the domination?

Australia theory

In less than 200 years, white people built a literate, industrialized, politically centralized democratic state faster than the Aborigines which have already been around for at least 40,000 years.

Darwinism and Social Darwinism theory

Social Darwinism applies survival of the fittest to humans, its saying Europeans are more fit because they are surviving the best.

Why is objection #2 wrong?

The book will not just talk about Eurocentric Europeans, it will also show how technology came from non-European places but make's Europe dominate.

Why is objection #3 wrong?

There are good things and bad things that come with civilizations like medical care for modern industrialized states and friendships for hunter-gatherers.

New Guineans are probably smarter than average Europeans because #2:

They were in a less passive environment

New Guineans are probably smarter than average Europeans because #1:

They were more intelligent and had to think critically.

Access to technology and perception of intelligence theory

When people who are technologically smarter came to a new area, they could build faster.

Yali's Question is:

Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo for ourselves?