Today in human geography we went into the story of a
scientist, named Jared Diamond, who is troubled by a question and is determined
to figure it out. A man from New Guinea asked him, “Why do you white men have
more cargo than us?” By “us” this man was referring to the New Guineans, whom
had for over thousands of years were hunter gathers. Jared Diamond found out
that this question was more complex than it seemed. What makes a civilization
thrive and prosper? What is a civilization’s downfall? Jared Diamond’s quest to
find the answer took him back thousands and thousands of years to the Middle
East. People of that time were nomads. They went from place to place to find
food and water. But around that time another ice age occurred causing a
thousand year drought, yet the humans survived this. How? The answer is simple:
they un-nomaded themselves! The people of that time began to settle and form
villages. But how did they do that with the drought going on? They began to
advance. The people planted crops of wheat and barley and were able to store
them for long periods of time. This was a huge advancement and was the building
blocks for civilizations to come! I agree with Diamond’s theory that it took
the key step of starting to build villages and staying in one place was the
start to growing civilizations. Jared believes that because the people of New
Guinea haven’t advanced because they are still hunter gathers. I agree with
Jared Diamond’s ideas about this matter because it’s true! Without coming
together and growing food on our own and building villages we wouldn’t be where
we are today!
P.S. I can’t believe this is the last week of human
geography! I’m really going to miss it!
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