Guns, Germs, and Steel part 2

          Today in class we watched another part of the movie Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this part of the movie, Jared went "back in time" to see how societies progressed over the years to answer his question about the New Guineas. He first found that about 13,000 years ago there was a lot of forest, trees, and plants; therefore, people would hunt and gather in small groups. This is how the New Guineans are living today. The problem with this is hunting has never been a productive way to hunt enough food this is why most societies rely on gathering since hunting is so unreliable. An example of this is the New Guinean Sago tree. This tree contains a substance in the core of the tree that is very hard for New Guinean women to attain, considering it last only about seven days. Barley and wheat are far more nutritious then saga, they are easy to grow, and they last a lot longer. So far, Jared believes that this is why New Guinea is so far behind: because of their lack of wheat and barley. Jared figured that how can something so little have such a big impact so I’m sure we will learn more tomorrow! 

Guns, Germs, and Steel

           In the video Guns, Germs, and Steel , there was a man named Jared Diamond who was living in Papua New Guinea  to study birds. He also studied to be a professor but moved there for his love of birds ever since he was seven. He is now known as a leading expert in the bird life of New Guinea. One day when he was out on the beach a New Guinean man came up to him and asked, “Why do white men have more things than us?” New Guinea has been there for about 40,000 years, but yet our civilization has so much more only being created for about five hundred years. Jared Diamonds question was why? Well Jared first found out that New Guineans are used to us having so much stuff, also known as “cargo.” They think that our cargo is powerful and they are just kind of used to us having more cargo then them. And that is one of the various reasons why Jared believes that New Guineans have so much less than we do, simply because that’s the way they think it should be.