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Summary Of Guns, Germs, And Steel By Jared Diamond

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Recommended: Religion in contemporary society

The book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond was first published in 1997, and then revised in 2005. Mr. Diamond is a Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA. Diamond’s interest in bird watching and his study of bird evolution has taken him to several places, including South America, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia, and New Guinea. He has spent an ample amount of time living in New Guinea with a tribe in the forest, and learning from them. He’s said he often feels like a fool when he can’t follow a trail or other endeavors that come second nature to the other tribespeople. Diamond’s mother is a linguist and a teacher, his father studies the genetics of childhood diseases. While attending school …show more content…

He first broached Yali’s question in a chapter of his book, The Third Chimpanzee, but he felt he needed to be discussed in more depth. He then applied this question on a broader scope, “why did wealth and power become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way?” Diamond poses several questions throughout this book and then gives detailed accounts on why history took the course it …show more content…

The author does seem to mention all the relevant facts he needs to while skipping the lengthy journey from apes to Homo sapiens, that we read about in Worlds Apart. Diamond even felt the need after his book was published to republish it so he could add the chapter, “Who Are The Japanese.” He recognized that his first version lacked a discussion about the Japanese and their uniqueness. He describes how their development in isolation took place and the mythologies they created around their own history. I felt that the author skipped any in-depth discussions about religion in this book in favor of cultures. He mentioned most of the relevant facts pertaining to a society’s culture, (Gods, rituals, priests). Diamond (maybe purposely) shied away from any in-depth views on religion or the development of them. Also, the divisions of religion may have been outside of the scope of this

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