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Mackenzie Foster Ms. Bettye Boone AP World History 22 August 2012 Questions Posed and Answers Given The secondary source Guns Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond is thought to be an ambitious and highly important account on the worlds history by James Shreeve of the New York Times Book Review. Jared Diamond started this account of history with a prologue. This prologue would be considered an important piece of the book because of the ability of the reader to infer what knowledge they will acquire while reading and studying with this book. He begins this source with several questions that are important to the information given in the book. Without the questions stated in this prologue, this book would have had no basis for which to start. Diamond states at the beginning of this prologue that much of his book is written to answer the questions of one of his peers in his residence of New Guinea. This inquisitive man was named Yali. The first question posed is, Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own? Much of this book pertains to this question, although it is broadened to the point where it is asked why certain people in certain areas are able to produce more, therefore being able to live with more. This question is answered with small stepping stones throughout the book, until we are able to get a full grasp on the reasoning of why certain people have what they do.

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One of the initial points in the direction of answering this major question was to state that when an empire or civilization begins to advance more rapidly than their peers they begin to acquire skills, materials, and knowledge with a head start. When you are able to mature faster than your future opponents you give yourself an advantage such as the example used on page sixteen, Empires with steel weapons were able to conquer or exterminate tribes with weapons of stone and wood. This example is then further explained allowing the reader to better understand the beginnings of this world. A brief statement of this explanation is that all people started as hunter-gathers. Only when people began to evolve did we begin to acquire more useful technologies. Therefore, those who acquired these technologies the fastest were the first to evolve and threw themselves ahead in the race to civilization. Another portion of this piece of the source is the explanation to the objections of answering the question posed to begin this book. Diamond tries to hit many of the statements given to object to the writing of his book, while doing this he explains why these objections do not stand due to the way he wrote his book. Three examples given pertain to the points of domination, Eurocentric beliefs, and the positive AND negative fact of civilization. Diamond is able to thoroughly explain how these objections do not hold any substantial reasons for the book not to be published. He portrays to his audience that the fact that certain countries may dominate others but he does not state that this is a good thing in society. Also he explains that although Yalis question has to do specifically with Europeans he doesnt center his book on European countries, he actually converses about the European countries the least. Lastly he states that he does not consider civilization completely good, it has both advantages and disadvantages and that there is nothing wrong with a hunter-gather lifestyle if that is what you choose.

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While Diamond is distinguishing between what is and is not an argument on why this book should or should not be written he addresses the common mistake of intelligence. Many have come to belief that societies centered on hunting and gathering are less intelligent than civilized peoples. Diamond counters that this is not the case. Although hunting and gathering may be an old way of life doesnt mean that it does not involve much intelligence. Diamond argues that much intelligence is needed for both lifestyles and that lifestyles are much based around the environment and the climate you live in. The environments you are accustomed to have much to do with your lifestyle. If an environment is not suitable for an industrialized civilization then you must work with what you are given. Hunter-gathers may not have the knowledge of industrialization, but they have an extensive knowledge of the area that surrounds them and the environment of which this Earth supports. This prologue goes into great detail about the arguments that are going to be made and the questions that are going to be answered. Much of the information given is essential to much of the understanding of this book. Not only does Diamond do a very precise job of explaining the topic of this book, he elaborates of the details not specifically given in the main body of the source. As I believe many would agree, this prologue gives a good starting ground for the Diamond to elaborate on.