GG&S - Homework 4

   Today we finished Guns, Germs, & Steel. Diamond gathered his clues and thinks his found an answer for the man who asked him about cargo. Other countries like the Middle East or the Fertile Crescent, could advance in technology because they weren't hunting and gathering all the time. The people of New Guinea did not develop new technology because they spent all their time and energy trying to hunt for their food. When Diamond went to Papua he saw people still using stone tools. Most of the people from the Fertile Crescent were forced to move from their villages when the land before dry. They could move east or west and they could still raise the same animals and crops as they did in the Fertile Crescent. The same animals in the Fertile Crescent were feeding the emperors in Europe and the Pharaohs in Egypt. They were blessed because of location, latitude and longitude. New Guinean is very different because it is an island. They were unfortunate because of this location. This cause them to stay back on civilization and not communicate with other nations around them such as the people from the Fertile Crescent. Another reason is, because New Guineans did not develop like we did was because of the raw materials they had. So Diamond's answer to, "Why do you white men have cargo, and we New Guinea don't?" is geography.