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Jared Diamond Argument

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The Unexplained Cultural Aspect of Jared Diamond’s Argument As each day passes the human world becomes increasingly more educated and sophisticated, whether it is in the form of new discoveries, inventions, or ideas. However, not all societies are advancing at an equal rate. The power gaps between first world and third world countries seem to be increasing by the day. How, then, did this disparity come to be? Jared Diamond attempts to answer this question through his historical narrative on the rise of civilization presented in Guns, Germs, and Steel. By drawing from his personal experiences, Diamond offers an explanation for this situation by explaining how the geographical location of past societies determined their rate of technological and societal advancement, ultimately defining the amount of international power modern states possess today. Although Jared Diamond’s argument seems to successfully trace the source of inequality between states back to the fact that not all geographic regions have the same nor equal amount of resources available, his reasoning is not completely compelling. …show more content…

While discussing the emergence of agriculture, he mentions how there is no explanation for why “[...] food production [failed] to appear, until modern times, in some ecologically very suitable areas [...]” (Diamond 93). Agriculture is widely accepted as one of the most important factors that contributed to the establishment of societal hierarchy. The introduction of specialized roles assigned those less intelligent to tending the food supply, thus allowing the more innovative individuals to produce products beneficial to the population. This system of established food cultivation favored those higher up on the social

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