Blog Response #3 - Guns, Germs, & Steel Excerpts 7-9
Blog Response Part A
Part A: Which excerpt did you most enjoy?
Excerpts 7-9 deliver a wide variety of information, starting with the development of writing which led to other forms of technology, and then wrapping everything up with an examination of Africa and how Diamond’s “Geography Theory” impacted that continent.
Choose the excerpt that was most interesting to you. What did you particularly appreciate learning about? Why does this interest you? Include at least one piece of evidence from the text to support your thoughts.
Blog Response Part B
Part B: Identifying Emerging Topics
Review your list of Emerging Topics for Excerpts 7-9. Which one are you most interested in pursuing at this time? If this topic is related to what you already wrote about in Part A, be sure to explain that connection.
1. Identify the topic and which excerpt it came from (this should include a quote).
2. Explain why this topic is "speaking to you."REPLIES - DAY 2: Read through the posted blog comments. Reply to TWO: one you agree with and one that you disagree with and/or can followup with a clarifying question. Clearly explain why you agree or disagree with the author of the blog comment AND/OR explain your question in detail.
The excerpt that was most interesting to me was excerpt six because it explained the significance that diseases had on people and how diseases assisted in warfare and how diseases from animals affected humans. I think that the diseases that evolved from animals are the most interesting topic because Diamond states that, “The major killers of humanity throughout our recent history—smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera—are infectious diseases that evolved from diseases of animals.” This is interesting to me because its weird to think that people tried really hard to domesticate animals even though they could have gotten serious illnesses from them.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic I found the most interesting was Animals disease immunity in excerpt nine. This is interesting because it explains some of the advantages that animals had because of immunity to certain diseases and it explains how animals immunity could be used to infect other animals that are not immune to that disease. Diamond states that, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” This topic is interesting because it could tie in to how people eventually started using diseases in wars as effective weapons.
I agree with you, I also found the animal disease immunity interesting in except 9. I agree with your use of evidence when Diamond states, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” I feel that this relates to how humans who were immune to diseases could get others sick.
DeleteI agree with you about the topic, I think it was one of the more interesting one's we've read about, I thought it was weird that we tried to domesticate animals with these diseases. About the second quote you used, I had the same thought about it, that it could be one of the reasons that we used diseases as a form of weaponry.
DeleteI agree with you on how animal immunity is interesting because I think it would be something to research about. It would all be interesting to learn about why would they want to raise and or eat them if they could inherit the disease from them.
DeleteI agree with you on this, I found this topic interesting because it explains how we would domesticate animals with diseases and it would be interesting to learn more why humans would risk inheriting the diseases by eating or raising the animals.
DeleteI really enjoyed excerpt 7 because it was interesting learning about the evolution of writing. In excerpt 7 the author says “The third strategy, least familiar to most readers of this book, uses a sign for each syllable. In practice, most such writing systems (termed syllabaries) provide distinct signs just for syllables of one consonant followed by one vowel (like the syllables of the word "fa-mi-ly"), and resort to various tricks in order to write other types of syllables by means of those signs” I found it interesting that they would use signs for syllables and I liked learning about the different ways they had to communicate with either a basic sound like the alphabet, logograms, or using signs and they each had their own way of how it worked.
ReplyDeleteThe topic I am most interested in is the development of Sumerian writing on page 3 of excerpt 7. In the text the author says “the development of Sumerian writing took at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. As we shall see, the prerequisites for those developments consisted of several features of human society that determined whether a society would find writing useful, and whether the society could support the necessary specialist scribes.” This topic is interesting to me because it explains how long it took to develop a way of writing just to see if they found it useful.
I agree that it was very interesting to learn about the development of writing. It is interesting that you chose sylable development as your evidence as it strongly helps your statement. I also liked how this excerpt gave us an idea of how long it took to develop writing.
DeleteI agree with you I think learning about the origins of writing is very interesting.I would also be interested in learning about the development of Sumerian writing. Do you know anything about it even before researching?
DeleteI agree that learning about different languages and their origins is interesting. I think its cool to see how long it took for the different languages to develop. What language do you think would be the most interesting to learn about?
DeleteThe biggest question I have is why did it take such a significant amount of time for them to decide on whether writing was useful or not? Writing was a huge part of technology that was way more important than anyone could have ever guessed, so I am just stuck on why it took thousands of years rather than maybe a couple of decades.
DeleteI too believe that the evolution of writing was the most important thing. What do you believe was the reason on why they would need to develop something like this?
DeleteI agree that excerpt 7 is very interesting, it gives a great example of how writing has evolved, it also explains to people how writing can be used as a very powerful tool and how it is very important for people to learn how to write. By this excerpt putting these specific qualities into it, it gives an explanation to students who question why we have to write blogs or learn about grammar and writing in general.
DeleteThe except that was the most interesting to me was except nine because I found it interesting how the geography theory helped the Europeans in southern Africa. A quote that states this is, “Rather, it was due to accidents of geography and biogeography — in particular, to the continents' different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species. That is, the different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ultimately from differences in real estate.” This quote shows that the settlers from Europe just got lucky that they were almost the same distance from the equator in southern Africa as they were in Europe. And I find this interesting because I want to learn more about how the Europeans ended up in southern Africa, and how they brought domesticated animals and crops with them.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that I found the most interesting was animal disease immunity from except nine. This is interesting to me because it explains the advantages that animals had when they were immune to certain diseases. And it also explains how animals immune to the diseases could be used to infect animals that were not immune to the disease. Diamond states that, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” This is interesting to me because it ties into how certain humans are immune to diseases while others are not, and the people immune to the diseases could get the people not immune sick and they could end up dying or severely sick.
I also thought that animal disease immunity from excerpt nine was the most interesting. I think its interesting to learn how diseases could have been used by animals that were immune to them to infect others animals and wipe them out and I feel this could have been a very early idea of using germs in warfare.
DeleteEven though I did not think excerpt 9 was the most interesting. I do find that the animal disease immunity pretty interesting.
DeleteI agree with you Tyler my post was similar to yours. I think the immunity of disease to some animals is interesting because they can have it without it being known which can be used against people to over power a malicious power to get them severely sick and have it easy to win a fight for territory or whatever is needed.
DeleteI do find animal disease somewhat interesting but I believe the most interesting one is from excerpt 7 where they talk about the evolution and writing.
DeleteI agree with you, I believe that the diseases that Europeans became resilient to was a key reason that the Europeans took over North America. It was said that the disease wiped out almost half of the Native Americans living here.
DeleteI agree with you. I think that the illnesses that the Europeans came up with is why no one could take them away from the land. The whole population of the Native Americans was living there were killed due to the diseases going around.
DeleteExcerpt 7 was very interesting in my opinion because the evolution of writing changed over time and impacted the continent greatly. According to Diamond in this quote, “The third strategy, least familiar to most readers of this book, uses a sign for each syllable. In practice, most such writing systems (termed syllabaries) provide distinct signs just for syllables of one consonant followed by one vowel (like the syllables of the word "fa-mi-ly"), and resort to various tricks in order to write other types of syllables by means of those signs”. It was very interesting how way before we used the alphabet and used words from forming the letters together we used symbols to interact with each other. We were not advanced back then since we started with nothing but the nature of this planet but we started this way and now today we have so many languages that evolved starting from symbols. It amazes me how far we have become with our writing and languages overall.
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt that was very interesting to me and caught most of my attention was excerpt 8. It amazes me how necessity is the mother of invention. The reason why is because until we are satisfied with what we have, right away we want better and anything that can be easier as well. I believe that the inventions we have done is important because according to this quote by Diamond stating that, "Necessity is the mother of invention.That is, inventions supposedly arise when a society has an unfulfilled need: some technology is widely recognized to be unsatisfactory or limiting. Would-be inventors, motivated by the prospect of money or fame, perceive the need and try to meet it. Some inventor finally comes up with a solution superior to the existing, unsatisfactory technology. Society adopts the solution if it is compatible with the society’s values and other technologies." This interests me because if people were not satisfied enough with what they had and did not wait until so, our technology would be way more advanced than we are right now and we would be far more successful.
Do you think necessity was the only mother of invention? I feel necessity is a big part of invention but think curiosity is also a huge reason for invention because sometimes people just like building and experimenting with things. Diamond states that, "Many or most inventions were developed by people driven by curiosity or by a love of tinkering, in the absence of any initial demand for the product they had in mind." I feel that both necessity and curiosity are huge reasons for inventions instead of just necessity.
DeleteI agree, without curiosity people would've never thought about writing as an option. It led to every invention so far.
DeleteI sort of agree with you, but I feel there was more than just necessity as the only mother of invention. I feel this way because Diamond stated, "Many or most inventions were developed by people driven by curiosity or by a love of tinkering, in the absence of any initial demand for the product they had in mind." This quote shows that curiosity was also a major factor in people creating inventions, not just necessity.
DeleteI agree with the fact that this excerpt is interesting but I think the technology that they could of had was pretty important because, if you could imagine Africa being just like the U.S then their economy would be amazing.
DeleteI agree with you, I personally loved reading about the evolution of writing and learning about the different ways they would use to communicate before writing became a primary way we use to communicate today. It really is amazing how much we have evolved with writing and other languages.
DeleteI agree with you that excerpt 7 was really interesting because of how writing evolved over time.
DeleteI agree with you Danny, I too believe that the evolution of writing has really helped us out and that it was one of the most important things that has helped us in the modern world and without writing we would not be where we are at right now.
DeleteI agree with you because without writing we wouldn't be where we are today and who knows where we would be if the evolution of writing didn't happen for another 100 years. It is also amazing how all of our languages have evolved from just symbols and how the people created their languages from nothing.
DeleteThe excerpt that I found the most interesting was Excerpt 8 because it describes how Africa could of had the technology but they did not have enough food to feed the blacksmiths. They could not be fed enough to keep them making metal tools so they just never tried to do it again because they could not produce enough food. This interests me because if they could not get enough food why didn’t they ask from nearby countries to make like a trade or share food or trade resources. “ even though some of the world’s richest copper and iron deposits are in New Guinea and Australia, respectively?” Depending on the climate of the area it allowed them to create this technology because they could grow crops better and gain these resources.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that I want to learn and research more about is the domestication of the animals. “Eurasia's native cows, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs were among the world's few large wild animal species to pass all those tests.” This topic came from excerpt 9. The reason why this topic is interesting to me is because, the domestication of animals took a long time for us to be able to use these animals for our uses. There most likely are more animals that can be domesticated for our use such as farming and other labor that we currently do but in the future animals could be.
Something I also found to be interesting in excerpt 9 was how it talked about Africa having a very small area to live off off which lead to less stuff.This is why I think geography is a very important factor on to why some people might have more things or not. If they have a smaller area of land this means less animals.
DeleteI found it quite strange that they didn't trade with neighboring countries, but I think they got a bad hand geographically wise, they don't have much agricultural prowess. But do you think that if Africa established a trading agreement with other countries, would they be thriving today?
DeleteI agree with you, I find it extremely interesting that crops had such large effects on invention and societal development. and how those developments cause such large effects today.
DeleteIn excerpt 9 Diamond gives a explanation on this, "Like that of the Americas, Africa's major axis is north-south, whereas Eurasia's is east-west. As one moves along a north-south axis, one traverses zones differing greatly in climate, habitat, rainfall, day length, and diseases of crops and livestock. Hence crops and animals domesticated or acquired in one part of Africa had great difficulty in moving to other parts." because Africa could not easily transport resources it would be almost impossible for a stable trade system to be implemented.
DeleteI also agree with that crops had a big impact on them and that Africa is a small area which means that they don't have as much animals. It's also interesting that I don't get why they didn't ask other nearby countries to make trades so they could be able to have the things they don't have.
DeleteI cannot disagree with the opinion you have obviously but I did find excerpt 7 a little more interesting, on the topic of the origins of writing. I think that the origins of writing were one of the leading causes of the development in civilizations throughout the world. Communication is the ability to learn and knowledge is power.
DeleteI don't know how being fed well enough has to do with being able to create metal tools. It doesn't make sense. It's not like you cannot create things or think if you are hungry. Some people skip breakfast and are still able to function at school, and get their work done. How is being hungry linked to not being able to make metal tools?
DeleteI find it very interesting that how because Africa did not have the provision of food they could not have been able to have the technology advancement that we do. This helps me to better understand how they have struggles to become as advanced as other countries in technology.
DeleteThe excerpt that I liked the most was number 9. I found it very interesting to read about how Africa was growing human evaluation for millions of years, until Europe came and conquered them. In this quote “Just as in their encounter with Native Americans, Europeans entering Africa enjoyed the triple advantage of guns and other technology, widespread literacy, and the political organization necessary to sustain expensive programs of exploration and conquest” it states that when Europe got there they were amazed with everything they had and they wanted that for them. This got me to wonder if this is why Africa stopped being that growing evolution that they were.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic I find being the most interesting is excerpt 9. This one is speaking to me because its talking about how geography affected Africa and the production of things. A quote that backs up my thinking is “by Africa's paucity of domesticable native animal and plant species, it's much smaller area suitable for indigenous food production,” it is saying how Africa had a very small area to live off off which lead to less stuff.This is why I think geography is a very important factor on to why some people might have more things or not.
I find this really interesting because it makes me wonder how Africa would be if the Europeans never invaded. Would they eventually progress to a higher level of development similar to the US?
DeleteThis makes me find excerpt 9 interesting now as well with how you explained it from your view. I wonder if Europe never took over would they be more advanced today.
DeleteThe excerpt that I thought was the most interesting was excerpt six because it talked about significances that diseases have on people, and how diseases from animals affected humans. I think that diseases that evolved animals is the most interesting because Diamond states that, “The major killers of humanity throughout our recent history—smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera—are infectious diseases that evolved from diseases of animals.” This is interesting to me because people tried to raise animals even tho they could have experienced severe illness illnesses from them.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that stood out to me was from excerpt nine when it talks about the animals diseases. “Eurasia's native cows, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs were among the world's few large wild animal species to pass all those tests. Their African equivalents — such as the African buffalo, zebra, bush pig, rhino, and hippopotamus — have never been domesticated, not even in modern times.” This stands out to me because it show the advantages and disadvantages that animals had because of immunity to certain diseases and it explains how animals immunity could be used to infect other animals that are not immune to that disease. One question that comes to mind when I think of this emerging topic is “What happened if they would not pass the test?”
I also find it interesting that so many diseases can come from animals. After reading about all the disease that can come from animals and how they get transferred to humans, it makes me wonder why people choose to have and raise, or even eat animals that could possible give them any type of disease.
DeleteI totally agree with you. If people know that animals are the ones with the diseases why risk even having them around you. But at the same time I think they had no choice of weather to eat them or not because the geography of where they lived was not letting them. This could mean having small use of land, so not enough farm growth could grow or even the weather.
DeleteIt amazes me how the diseases started from the animals at least according to the article by Diamond. I strongly agree with you and the fact that it was a a bad thing to get the diseases but also good because now our bodies through centuries have adapted and have gotten used to fighting off the diseases.
DeleteI agree that excerpt 6 is by far to me the most interesting just for the fact that I just love animals. What really sucks though is that Diamond says "Given our Proximity to the animals we love, we must be getting constantly bombarded by their microbes. Those invaders get winnowed by natural selection, and only a few of them succeed in establishing themselves as human diseases." so the only way you can avode getting certain microbes by interacting with certain is to make sure that we get the animals a check up.
DeleteI agree with you saying that people tried raising animals even though they could experience severe illnesses from them, But It gave the people a chance to use the animals for other things such as food, clothing, and farming.
DeleteI agree with you on this because it really is interesting how humans would try to domesticate animals that had severe illnesses and still would want to risk inheriting them knowing the consequences.
DeleteThis helps me find except 6 more interesting and understand it to more depth. I agree with you completely and find it brave people would put themselves at risk for the domestication.
DeleteI didn't get much out of excerpt six it was kinda bland for me but your comment really opened my eyes to its importance. It really shows that if animals are a risk of disease why would we keep them around us for companionship.
DeleteThe excerpt I found the most interesting would have to be excerpt seven because I found it interesting to learn about the evolution of languages. In the excerpt, Jared says, “The third strategy, least familiar to most readers of this book, uses a sign for each syllable. In practice, most such writing systems (termed syllabaries) provide distinct signs just for syllables of one consonant followed by one vowel (like the syllables of the word "fa-mi-ly"), and resort to various tricks in order to write other types of syllables by means of those signs” I thought it was interesting but also kind of weird that they used signs for syllables. I don’t really understand what that means but the way he explains it makes it sound weird to me. I thought it was cool that they used sounds for their communication (obviously we all communicate with sounds but theres was different) or how they used signs which kind of reminds of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
ReplyDeleteOne topic that was the most interesting to me was animal disease and immunity from excerpt nine. I thought that it was interesting because it explained the advantages that animals had because of their immunity to certain diseases and how certain animals were used to infect the others that didn’t have the same immunity. In the excerpt it’s stated, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” I found this interesting because it gives some sort of background on how some humans are immune to some disease and some are not.
This was also a good excerpt in my opinion because the creation of new symbols took a very long time. We still do not know why these symbols took so long. they used symbols from different languages and added more symbols to make a bigger language. The question that I am wondering is why did they not work faster to make a more efficient way to make these symbols/languages?
DeleteI'm personally wondering if one writing system is better than the other. like, did a certain writing system like the alphabet type western writing provide better communication than aisan writing systems, allowing them to advance faster?
DeleteThe most interesting Excerpts is Excerpt 7 about how writing has changed over time. Learning about this has made me more aware how much our writing system has advances and changed over times. The text states in Excerpt 7, “THE THREE BASIC strategies underlying writing systems differ in the size of the speech unit denoted by one written sign: either a single basic sound, a whole syllable, or a whole word”. This is interesting to me that this is how the written language is. Reading about this and how our written language evolved and how each sound and logograms are used. The topic I am most interested in from Excerpts 7-9 is Nikolaus Otto because the text states in Excerpt 8 , “When Nikolaus Otto built his first gas engine, in 1866, horses had been supplying people’s land transportation needs for nearly 6,000 years, supplemented increasingly by steam-powered railroads for several decades”. This is speaking to me because I didn't know who he was until I read this Excerpt and reading this about him makes me wanna learn more about him and any other inventions he has created and how much money/fame he has gotten from making his first gas engine car.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree I think that expert seven was the most interesting. I think that it is really cool how we have devolved this way of writing that we use everyday, and we don't even know where it has come from.
DeleteThe expect that was the most interesting to me was expect seven. Expect seven at first was not the very interesting to me, but then looking over it a little more I found this quote that really got me thinking, “Most alphabets consist of only about 20 or 30 letters.’ This really got me thinking how did we come with alphabets. This something we use everyday and don’t even think about it. Which most probably can’t even answer: where did it come from? The creation of alphabets is my most interesting topic because I would like to know about where this organized group of letters we use everyday has came from.
ReplyDeleteIt’s so interesting the way people just developed a way to communicate through writing. It makes me wonder how everyone in that time period all learned a new way of communicating with each other. Is where and how writing originated a topic you would consider writing about, or is there another emerging topic you found more interesting?
DeleteI agree with you and how 7 was not the greatest at first but I get where you are coming from about the alphabets. When I read this it brings up a question what if some of the letter never existed in the alphabets. Or who came up with the alphabet.
DeleteI completely agree with you that that quote is interesting and can get you thinking. It also has me interested now that you pointed out where did this all come from and who came up with the idea of the alphabet.
DeleteTeagan I am thinking about writhing about how writing has been developed, and came to be what it is today.
Deletei agree with the thought of how did the alphabet get created and how did they know what the letters are going to look like. How do they know how many letters are going to be in the alphabet did they just like guess or something? I guess we will never really know.
DeleteI thought that excerpt 7 was the most interesting to read. In that excerpt, the topic that was most interesting to me was Mexico. In the text, a quote that introduces this topic is “the societies without writing that I just mentioned are ones that got a later start on food production than did Sumer, Mexico, and China”. I thought this was interesting because it says that some of the societies that did not know how to write later on they got into producing food.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that I am most interested in researching at this time is Thomas Edison’s. I got this idea from the text when it said “A good example is the history of Thomas Edison’s phonograph, the most original invention of the greatest inventor of modern times. When Edison built his first phonograph in 1877”. This seems like an interesting topic for me to research because he was someone important and I wanna know more about him and what he did in those years.
I noticed this as well about mexico and they're societies working on food productions. Also nice find on the Thomas Edison quote.
DeleteThomas Edison is always an interesting topic! Are you going to focus on the creation of the phonograph by itself? His general career, friends, what he did? There's so much to cover under his name alone.
DeleteYes it is, well I wanna know more about why he was important in those years and what got him successful and the greatest inventor.
DeleteThank you Jacob, yes Mexico is a state that since the 21st century they started the production of food like beans, coffee, corn and more. I feel that people started to produce food because way back before the food was a little price and people didn't have money to buy food to survive. Anyways the food that people produce was more healthy to eat.
DeleteI agree that excerpt 7 was the most interesting to read. It was interesting because the societies that did not know how to write, started to produce food,
DeleteThe excerpt I found most interesting was excerpt 7 because I found Diamonds theory of writing led to the development of technology is most logical to me. This makes the most since because without being able to read and write developing and evolving technology wouldn’t have been as fast and might not even have happened. Diamond backs this up when he states, “Did Russia's bomb-building efforts depend critically on blueprints of the already constructed American bomb, stolen and transmitted to Russia by spies?” This shows that reading and writing can further your cultures power because you have advantages over other cultures that other do. With this you can further your technology because being able to understand the language of other cultures and then you can use everyone's technology not just your owns.
ReplyDeleteI was most interested in the alien topic and how the culture reacted and what they claimed where aliens to what we say they are now. Diamond states this in excerpt 7 when he says, “ “Extraterrestrial visiting Earth 10,000 years ago.” This is interesting because I wanna see if it was really aliens or that with the technology we know today we can disprove what they believed back then.
I would agree that people learn and sometimes steal information from others to benefit their civilizations. It was interesting that the Russians learned from us about bombs. Your topic also seems interesting about aliens and if they are real.
DeleteI strongly agree with you that technology is what has made us the people we are now. Also without the speed that technology has on helping us finish our work and other things that were needed done, that technology has help us not backtrack ourselves and keep going forward. Great topic and very strong evidence!!
DeleteThe excerpt that was most interesting to me was excerpt 7. I particularly appreciated learning about the evolution of writing and what the earliest forms of writings were composed of. This interests me because I write almost everyday and it is cool to see where this originated from. Like diamond says,”Knowledge brings power.” And therefore it is better to understand how writing was developed. Also he states,”Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest.” This relates to my point because like these other factors we can learn how they develop and how they affect people.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that I am most interested in pursuing is Sumerian cuneiform. This connect to part A because it is one of the earliest systems of writing and was invented by the Sumerians. This topic came from excerpt 7,“The independent invention that we can trace in greatest detail is history's oldest writing system, Sumerian cuneiform.” The topic speaks to me because once again it helps me understand how writing was developed and how people created systems to communicate.
I liked the reason hat you picked excerpt 7. I find it very interesting as well. I liked how you said knowledge is power but are you saying that cultures who were more advanced in writing were more powerful then other cultures? what else do you think was developed that we still use today?
DeleteI agree that its really interesting to learn about the earliest forms of writing especially how long it took to create the Sumerian cuneiform.
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Deletei found this interesting BO because i had the same interest i also wanted to find out if the aliens were real or not and if they can disprove our technology
DeleteLanguages, technology, writing and many other things has developed over time. And to answer your question, I do think the more developed in writing were more powerful.
DeleteOne excerpt that was most interesting to me was excerpt 7. I appreciated the fact that Jared went so into detail of how the idea of using a language came about, and more specifically why. Jared states, “The independent invention that we can trace in greatest detail is history's oldest writing system, Sumerian cuneiform. For thousands of years before it jelled, people in some farming villages of the Fertile Crescent had been using clay tokens of various simple shapes for accounting purposes, such as recording numbers of sheep and amounts of grain” (Pg. 2 Excerpt 7). Writing is something we humans can and did trace back since basically the beginning, reminding us as to why something so basic is so important. This interests me because as one point, the world was working towards a better way to communicate which in my eyes is probably to most beneficial thing ever done by us.
ReplyDelete1. “The Sumerians and early Mexicans happened to have been the first to evolve them in the Old World and the New World, respectively. Once the Sumerians and early Mexicans had invented writing, the details or principles of their writing spread rapidly to other societies, before they could go through the necessary centuries or millennia of independent experimentation with writing themselves. Thus, that potential for other, independent experiments was preempted or aborted.”(Pg. 3 Excerpt 7). The Sumerians and mexicans were the first to use and come up with the invention of writing. However, why were these two the first to come up with such an idea? How did they accomplish this? Was it a team effort?
2. This emerging topic of “Evolving” is speaking to me because like I said above, I believe writing was the most beneficial thing that happened, and like Jared said, “Once writing had been invented by those few societies, it then spread, by trade and conquest and religion, to other societies with similar economies and political organizations” (Pg. 4 Excerpt 7). Everything we are around on a daily basis couldn’t have been possible if the Sumerians and mexicans haven’t evolved language causing a widespread of use.
I agree with your comment, without the origin of our languages which started with symbols we would not be where we are today with our languages and how we interact together. The evolution of writing is a huge factor to our lives.
DeleteI agree with your comment, without the origin of our languages which started with symbols we would not be where we are today with our languages and how we interact together. The evolution of writing is a huge factor to our lives.
Deletethe last comment was a joke but I do agree with you about the most interesting part is how the language/writing came about. I believe its very interesting to learn about how it all started and how we evolved from it.
DeleteThe excerpt I found most interesting is the one about technology. In excerpt 8, Diamond states “All this is not to deny that Watt, Edison, the Wright brothers, Morse, and Whitney made big improvements and thereby increased or inaugurated commercial success.” I find it interesting that these inventors can think of ideas that will help develop a country, and makes me wonder how inventors come up with some of these ideas. Diamond uses the idea of the government having an influence on inventors, “the U.S. government set up the Manhattan Project with the explicit goal of inventing the technology required to build an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could do so.” (excerpt 8). I think government does have an influence, however I believe there is other things that also affect the creation of technology.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic I found interesting is the origin of technology. I found this in excerpt 8 when Diamond states, “Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?”. I find this interesting because technology plays such a role in our day to day lives, yet I never think about how technology was made and where it came from.
I agree it is interesting how someone can think of ideas that will help develop a country and make them better.
DeleteI had written something similar to this, and i agree with what you are saying. I really find the developments of technology within a society very interesting because they affect on each society, and each person in a different way. It's interesting seeing how much we use and rely on technology in our day to day lifes but we don't even know how a lot of it came to be.
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ReplyDeleteFor this blog, I chose excerpt 7 because I found it interesting how writing came about and how it influenced the societies that had it. According to Diamond, “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest.” Which means, to me, that writing had influenced war and the political system we have today. It’s interesting because it shows us where we were to where we are as a species.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that’s most interesting to me came from excerpt 7. It talks about how food is required for a society to grow. Diamond states, “Writing arose independently only in the Fertile Crescent, Mexico, and probably China precisely because those were the first areas where food production emerged in their respective hemispheres.” Which shows that when a group of people have good natural food sources nearby, they can thrive.
I find this interesting but I disagree. writing may have been useful in a war, but conflict of ideas is what starts wars. However, I do agree with the influence in the political system.
DeleteI think excerpt seven was the most interesting because you learned how they communicated for war. I liked learning about what they used for writing and how they used it, “THE THREE BASIC strategies underlying writing systems differ in the size of the speech unit denoted by one written sign: either a single basic sound, a whole syllable, or a whole word.” This interests me because you got to learn about how they used to use writing to how we use it today.
ReplyDeleteIn excerpt nine they he said “As one moves along a north-south axis, one traverses zones differing greatly in climate, habitat, rainfall, day length, and diseases of crops and livestock. Hence crops and animals domesticated or acquired in one part of Africa had great difficulty in moving to other parts.” this topic stood out to me because if the crops and animals are getting diseased what are they using for food and if they don't have much food does that leave them at a disadvantage to anyone else that actually has food.
I agree that the use of writing seems pretty interesting. in connection excerpt 9 briefly talks about the development of literature and even though it was developed in Egypt it didn't spread much throughout Africa till European and Arabian settlers came.
DeleteExcerpt 8 was the most interesting to me because I like the part when Diamond is talking about all of the different inventors and some things and when they had invented them. I liked learning about this because it he gave them credit for making the things they had made. “Edison’s famous “invention” of the incandescent light bulb on the night of October 21, 1879, improved on many other incandescent light bulbs patented by other inventors between 1841 and 1878.” Diamond said who originally invented the light bulb and other inventor helped improve the light bulb.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting topic to me was the when Diamond talked about the motorcycle’s an how they were made. In excerpt 8 he says, “...engines improved to the point that Gottfried Daimler got around to installing one on a bicycle to create the first motorcycle.” I would like to learn more about the making of motorcycle and how they look then compared to today’s motorcycle. This emerging topic connects with the excerpt that I choose because like when he talked about inventors and what they invented and my emerging topic that I choose is the evolution of the motorcycle and who made it and how is was invented.
I agree that does sound interesting like when the phonograph was introduced even though I don't know what a phonograph is it just sounds pretty cool to know about all the inventions that were made by famous creators.
DeleteI don't agree I think expert seven was the most interesting, I still think expert eight is inserting. I just I don't how things where invented is as cool as how we came up with are way of writing.
DeleteThe excerpt that I found the most interesting was excerpt 7 Where he described the origins of writing and how it developed and spread throughout the people. I think that it is safe to say that the ability to write and read increased knowledge through the whole region it was originated, therefore further developing the civilization on basis of knowledge and communication. A quote from the excerpt says. ”Knowledge brings power.” This is a very true statement and would support the theory that the ability to read and write had helped further develop certain regions of the world.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic of the domestication of animals is what i find the most interesting “Eurasia's native cows, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs were among the world's few large wild animal species to pass all those tests.” im curious to see the tactics they used to domesticate these animals
Domestication of animals is quite the topic. A lot of factors can go into domestication, or just simply catching the creatures before taming them. Are you going to compare the tactics they used then to how we domesticate animals today?
DeleteI agree with you because if your civilization has furthered there ability to read and write then comprehend material which further advances your civilization. I think out of all the topics this one allowed people to gain more cargo over other cultures and this is how we have devolved over the years. What regions do you think it benefited the best?
DeleteI'd have to agree to disagree, don't you think if there wasn't a way of writing they would have just found a different path to go down? Was writing the thing that they needed to excel? Or was there a different path they could've taken but just decided not to.
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ReplyDeleteThe topic I found most interesting to me was the how usage of language came about. I thought it was interesting to read about how language was invented/came about. In excerpt 7 page two it states “ The independent invention that we can trace in greatest detail is history's oldest writing system, Sumerian cuneiform.” also how people communicated without the usage of letters but symbols or pictures. “The first Sumerian writing signs were recognizable pictures of the object referred to (for instance, a picture of a fish or a bird).” I also think it's pretty crazy how people can solve what they are saying.
ReplyDeleteThe topic I am most interested in pursuing would have to be human evolution in excerpt 7 page 4. These two topics are related because some people began with using pictures/drawings to communicate and now we are using words and letters.
In excerpt 7 page 4 it talks about human evolution it says “ Thus, food production and thousands of years of societal evolution following its adoption were as essential for the evolution of writing as for the evolution of microbes causing human epidemic diseases.”
This topic is speaking to me because I think it is very interesting to learn how the usage of writing helped evolve colonies. I also think it's very interesting to think how people can understand the symbols and writing of old languages like the Egyptians or older Chinese writing.
I disagree with you saying that writing helped advance human evolution
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DeleteReading how Chinese and Egyptians used symbols, who do you think was the first to use these symbols?
DeleteMy favorite excerpt was # 9 because it was really interesting to read but it was also like it didn't make much sense to me especially when Diamond says “The remaining factor behind Africa's slower rate of post-Pleistocene development compared with Eurasia's is the different orientation of the main axes of these continents. Like that of the Americas, Africa's major axis is north-south, whereas Eurasia's is east-west. As one moves along a north-south axis, one traverses zones differing greatly in climate, habitat, rainfall, day length, and diseases of crops and livestock.” what is he talking about in this paragraph because i'm so confused as to what this Post-Pleistocene is.
ReplyDeleteOne of the emerging topics that I found interesting in the last excerpts is in excerpt 8 when Diamond is talking about laypeople “Why were all New Guineans and Native Australians in A.D. 1800 still using stone tools like ones discarded thousands of years ago in Eurasia and most of Africa, even though some of the world’s richest copper and iron deposits are in New Guinea and Australia, respectively? All those facts explain why so many laypeople assume that Eurasians are superior to other peoples in inventiveness and intelligence.” Who are these laypeople that Diamond is talking about.
I agree that Excerpt 9 is half exciting, and half confusing, as there is no idea of what the Post-Pleistocene is, or what he means by the continent's axis, however, Diamond could be talking about Europeans coming in slowly to Africa due to the continent's axis being north-south instead of east-west, and a time of survival of the fitess.
DeleteDiamond went into a different direction of excerpt 9 and it left me confused, Why do you think he would talk about the Post-Pleistocene and didn't explain much on it?
DeletePost-Pleistocene means 'the time after the ice age'. He talks about the factors on why Africa may have been behind on development after this time period. Lay people are people who do not have professional or specialized knowledge in a particular subject. Calling people laypeople is pretty much just a nicer way to call them unintelligent.
DeleteI also was confused about the quote you used in the beginning but it's basically talking about Africa has a really difficult time transporting their resources to different places in the world.
DeleteThe excerpt that most interested me was excerpt 7 because without the evolution of writing we wouldn’t be where we are right now with our communion across states, countries, and the whole world. On page 1 of excerpt 7, Diamond says, “While all those types of information were also transmitted by other means in preliterate societies, writing made the transmission easier, more detailed, more accurate, and more persuasive.” Without the evolution of writing the languages wouldn’t have been able to evolve either because without the writing or the language we wouldn’t have been able to more forward and be able to create the many inventions that we have.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that has most interested me is how long it took the Sumerian writing to evolve. “We know that the development of Sumerian writing took at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. As we shall see, the prerequisites for those developments consisted of several features of human society that determined whether a society would find writing useful, and whether the society could support the necessary specialist scribes.” This topic is interesting because they first started with symbols and then pictures and they eventually created the alphabet. A question that I have is what made the people want to start making a language for themselves and what helped them along the way.
I agree that this section was very fascinating. It's crazy to think about how far many of the languages have come. For example, the hieroglyphics in Egypt. What do you think the world would be like if many of these languages didn't develop and were stuck the way they use to be?
DeleteThe excerpt that interested me the most, and mostly enjoyed, would be excerpt 9, due to Diamond explaining slow colonization of Europeans, domestic animals, and crops from Europe, had difficulty moving really slowly into Africa through differences of geography and biogeography, as it was said through this quote, "The remaining factor behind Africa's slower rate of post-Pleistocene development compared with Eurasia's is the different orientation of the main axes of these continents. Like that of the Americas, Africa's major axis is north-south, whereas Eurasia's is east-west. As one moves along a north-south axis, one traverses zones differing greatly in climate, habitat, rainfall, day length, and diseases of crops and livestock. Hence crops and animals domesticated or acquired in one part of Africa had great difficulty in moving to other parts. In contrast, crops and animals moved easily between Eurasian societies thousands of miles apart but at the same latitude and sharing similar climates and day lengths......In short, Europe's colonization of Africa had nothing to do with differences between European and African peoples themselves, as white racists assume. Rather, it was due to accidents of geography and biogeography — in particular, to the continents' different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species."
ReplyDeleteAn emerging topic that had also interested me is called "Another Deadly Weapon" from Excerpt 7, “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest. The commands of the monarchs and merchants who organized colonizing fleets were conveyed in writing. The fleets set their courses by maps and written sailing directions prepared by previous expeditions.” How this speaks out to me in such a way is basically how writing is designed for humans, whether it is used as a special gift, or has been taken advantage, due to the usage of different writing styles and languages.
I believe the most interesting excerpt is excerpt eight. It made me think about how people in South Africa didn’t have similar technology to the Eurasians who settled there, because the people of South Africa had a similar climate due to the distance of the equator, so they should also have similar amounts of food, animals, etc. I would like to know what is the requirements for good inventors to be born. The question that inspired these thoughts was on the second page, when they were comparing Eurasia to Africa,
ReplyDelete“But why were Eurasians, rather than Native Americans or sub-Saharan Africans, the ones to invent firearms, oceangoing ships, and steel equipment? The differences extend to most other significant technological advances, from printing presses to glass and steam engines. Why were all those inventions Eurasian?”
I feel like a question like this has a very good, and complicated answer, it is something that I would like to look into and learn more about.
An emerging topic of mine that I would like to pursue also has to do with my last paragraph, I would like to look into excerpt 8’s question of why were the Eurasians the one to create all these inventions instead of the Africans. I always hear about all great European, and American inventors, but I never hear about any inventors from Africa. One question related to this from excerpt eight brought a great idea, “Could such geniuses have equally well been born in Tasmania or Namibia? Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?” I would like to pursue this, because I wonder what it takes to create a genius / good inventor. Right now my stance is that it is only due to accidents of the birthplace, but I feel like with research, my view could easily change.
I also think that the development of technology is both interesting and one of the biggest factors of economic differences between 1st world and 2nd world countries. For example Europeans developed ways to produce more food earlier, this would give them a huge economic advantage.
DeleteThe excerpt that was most interesting to me would have to be excerpt 8 because of my interest in the progression of technology through history. It was especially interesting when Diamond revealed how many people who made famous inventions did not actually come up with the concept and that earlier versions made by other people were already invented. Such as, “For historians of technology, the Phaistos disk is even more baffling; its estimated date of 1700 B.C. makes it by far the earliest printed document in the world… The printer evidently had a set of at least 45 stamps, one for each sign appearing on the disk. Making these stamps must have entailed a great deal of work, and they surely weren’t manufactured just to print this single document… However, those next efforts did not appear until 2,500 years later in China and 3,100 years later in medieval Europe.” This shows that the printing press was not originally invented in Europe, but instead in Crete three thousand years earlier, according to all evidence, and maybe even elsewhere and earlier than that. I find that incredibly fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that I am most interested in was found in excerpt 8, when Diamond said, “Inventors often have to persist at their tinkering for a long time in the absence of public demand, because early models perform too poorly to be useful. The first cameras, typewriters, and television sets were as awful as Otto’s seven-foot-tall gas engine.” And my topic is if necessity and requirement or curiosity and tinkering more effective in Inventing.
Excerpt 7 had interesting points to me the one that intrigued me was about Sumerians as Jared diamond talked about, “The independent invention that we can trace in greatest detail is history's oldest writing system, Sumerian cuneiform.” Sumerians were older Europeans who created stone slabs to create the first forms of writing and eventually evolved over time.
ReplyDeleteMy question is why did they use the stones for accounting purpose? Another excerpt i found interesting was number 8 talking about the technology of weapons Diamond says “Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other peoples.” This was always big in human history conquering other countries or areas. I found this interesting because this has evolved for many years. Why is this important to us? To me it’s because we used it for either trading or buying hence why there is transportation involved.
I agree that Excerpt 8 had delved deep into the usage of human technology, however, I disagree about Sumerians for Excerpt 7, as, though it talks about the Sumerians being one of the first creators of writing, however, most of Excerpt 7 delves deep into the history of writing and what different types of writing excist.
DeleteI agree with you and disagree with hope. I find it extremely interesting to see the development and progress of machinery and technology throughout the timeline. It was the revolution in conquering other countries like you said.
DeleteI agree with your comment because I too think that technology in the form of weapons and transport was always a big part of human history. This idea of evolving whether its weapons or written language all has a common theme.
DeleteI agree that technology has a big impact on improving weapons, and that it also helped us in many other things such as conquering and trading for good like you brought up. Strong piece of evidence as well.
Delete(Delayed due to field trip) The excerpt I most enjoyed was Excerpt 8: Necessity’s Mother. This is mostly because I appreciated the topics that I pulled out. Diamond specifically talked about ‘glass vessels’ as an example of the results from Roman discoveries we’ll never know the accumulation of that lead to the creation of it, saying, “it was impossible for them to foresee the long, serendipitous accumulation of discoveries that would lead to the first Roman glass windows […] and the first glass vessels (around 1500 B.C.).” I hadn’t known about Roman glass vessels specifically, and it’s actually an emerging topic I had pulled!
ReplyDeleteA pulled topic that spoke to me most, though, was the Nubian Kingdom mentioned in Excerpt 9. Diamond states, “Although writing developed in Egypt by 3000 B.C. and spread in an alphabetized form to the Nubian kingdom of Meroe, and although alphabetic writing reached Ethiopia [...] writing did not arise independently in the rest of Africa, where it was instead brought in from the outside by Arabs and Europeans.” I’m sorry, what? Who are these people and where the heck is Meroe again? Were they not developed enough to try to make a language themselves?
The excerpt that I found most interesting was the evolution of writing and how it advanced over time in excerpt 7 it says “In the last centuries before 3000 B.C., developments in accounting technology, format, and signs rapidly led to the first system of writing. One such technological innovation was the use of flat clay tablets as a convenient writing surface. Initially, the clay was scratched with pointed tools, which gradually yielded to reed styluses for neatly pressing a mark into the tablet. Developments in format included the gradual adoption of conventions whose necessity is now universally accepted: that writing should be organized into ruled rows or columns (horizontal rows for the Sumerians, as for modern Europeans); that the lines should be read in a constant direction (left to right for Sumerians, as for modern Europeans); and that the lines should be read from top to bottom of the tablet rather than vice versa.” I found this interesting to learn because we once used clay tablets and symbols to write.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic I found most interesting was excerpt was the Evolution of Germs in excerpt 6 it states “Until World War II, more victims of war died of war-borne microbes than of battle wounds. All those military histories glorifying great generals oversimplify the ego-deflating truth: the winners of past wars were not always the armies with the best generals and weapons, but were often merely those bearing the nastiest germs to transmit to their enemies.” The reason this speaks out to me is because it shows that more people died from diseases than anything else and even in war it just wasn’t the weapons it was the deadly diseases.
I also thought that excerpt 7 was the most interesting, Its interesting how we developed our way of writing and how we pronounce each letter. Its also interesting because we basically use writing everyday but most of the time we don't know exactly where it comes from.
DeleteThe excerpt that I found interesting was excerpt 6 because it explain the effects that diseases had on people and how diseases helped in battles and how diseases from animals affected humans. I think it's interesting how people tried to tame animals even though they got diseases from them. “The major killers of humanity throughout our recent history—smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera—are infectious diseases that evolved from diseases of animals.”
ReplyDeleteAn emerging topic I found interesting was Animals disease immunity in excerpt 9. This is interesting because it explains how animals that had a disease were able to use that against other animals to get them sick because their immune system couldn't handle it. “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” I found that interesting because that's what people kinda did because when they discovered new land they brought diseases and bacteria that people who were there before didn't have so people would get sick or die because their immune system could not handle it.
I personally find excerpt 9 to be most interesting of the 3 excerpts we read this week. The fact that due to the geography of the continent it was difficult for resources and technology seems like a reasonable explanation to why some africa isn’t as developed as the rest of the world. Diamond states the point that, “ Although writing developed in Egypt by 3000 B.C. and spread in an alphabetized form to the Nubian kingdom of Meroe, and although alphabetic writing reached Ethiopia (possibly from Arabia), writing did not arise independently in the rest of Africa” which supports the argument that people like Africans are no less smart than white Europeans, but simply just were not given the right environment.
ReplyDeleteA emerging topic I found in excerpt 9 was the development of the use of animals in armed conflicts. In the excerpt he talks about how Africa would have been virtually unstoppable if they domesticated rhinos and hippos to use in battle like European horses.
I also agree with you that excerpt 9 is the most interesting out of the others because it seems to have the largest impact on Africa not evolving as quickly as the rest.
DeleteExcerpt 8 was the most interesting to me, as it poses me with a question I gathered from this statement; "Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other peoples." This led to the question: Out of combat, did the transport actually help develop these civilizations any further than if they had no transport? I enjoyed learning about this because it really made me think about how much early transportation really helped, if it didn't include helping to move large objects normal people couldn't carry by hand.
ReplyDeleteAn emerging topic I found was Technology, in excerpt 8. Using the same evidence, being; "Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other peoples." This topic speaks out to me as again, it really made me think about how much help they actually were to people without a need to really carry anything they couldn't by hand.
I agree, your question that you brought out of the reading hits the nail on the head. How different and longer would evolution be if they wouldn't of had transportation.
DeleteGreat response, I agree that technology really spearheaded evolution of humans. What do you think would happen if there was no transportation?
DeleteI also thought that technology in excerpt 8 was interesting. It was interesting to me because the way he describes it. It gives me a different perspective and makes me think. Its also interesting because we use technology on a daily basis and we all use for different reasons and it has helped us in many different ways. Having more technology gives us more advantages. Technology helps us to aim better living.
DeleteThe best excerpt was excerpt 8 because it tells us how Africa couldn't invent anything because it is so hard for them to find a good food source so they always have to find their next meal. Their harsh living environment keeps them from evolving like the rest. The Geography Theory impacted Africa because they had the most harsh living environment. I like this excerpt because it gives us the main reason for Africa not evolving.
ReplyDelete“many or most inventions were developed by people driven by curiosity or by a love of tinkering, in the absence of any initial demand for the product they had in mind.”
I am most interested in pursuing research on the development of Africa and access to food. I think it ties into all the rest of reasons for evolving faster than others because they don't have a good food source which means that less people have time to invent. Instead, they need to be working to get food all of the time to survive.
“plant and animal domestication was concerned, the head start and high diversity lay with Eurasia, not with Africa.”
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt that I liked the most would have to be excerpt 6, this is because it speaks on the biological level and effects of germs. In excerpt 6, on page 2, its states, “Many of our "symptoms" of disease actually represent ways in which some damned clever microbe modifies our bodies or our behavior such that we become enlisted to spread microbes.” With this being said, we can make out the idea of how much power these “microbes” have. They alter our bodies to make them more habitable for them, while generally making it nearly impossible to live in. This stuff just amazes me, mainly because of the fact that our bodies are victim to microbes. It is said and seen that in certain areas of the world there are different types of bacteria that some bodies aren’t adapted to.
I agree that learning about the germs on the biological level is very interesting. Especially how in depth Diamond gets about how such a small virus can kill so many people. What do you think would have happened if humans had developed immunity to the diseases earlier in life?
DeleteOne of the most interesting excerpt to me was excerpt 6, because it talked about the importance the diseases had on people and how diseases had a part in hostilities and how diseases from animals affected humans. I believe that the diseases that grow from animals are the most fascinating topics because Diamond states that, “The major killers of humanity throughout our recent history—smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera—are infectious diseases that evolved from diseases of animals.” This is the most interesting to me because, even tho they knew that they could get some serious disease domesticating these animals, they still went forward with it despite the consequences.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that i found the most interesting was the animal immunity to disease in excerpt 9. This interests me because it elaborates the advantages that the animals had to certain diseases and the disadvantage of animals that were not immune to certain disease getting infected. Diamond states, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” This topic is compelling to because it could show how people started using diseases in war as a deadly weapon.
That would be interesting why animals or immune to diseases.
DeleteI agree with you people still decided to tame animals even though they got diseases from them but with time their immune system got use to it so they didn't get sick.
DeleteThe excerpt that I found the most interesting was Excerpt 8. It describes the lack of technology in Africa due to not having enough food to feed the blacksmiths and base workers. Due to being malnourished, their bodies could not handle the constant grind. This interests me because it forces Africa into a panic and propose trades to neighboring countries. In the excerpt it says, "Even though some of the world’s richest copper and iron deposits are in New Guinea and Australia, respectively?” Their climate depended on what they could grow and harvest.
ReplyDeleteA topic I am passionate to continue to pursue and learn more about would be the domestication of animals for recreational use and farm use. “Eurasia's native cows, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs were among the world's few large wild animal species to pass all those tests.” I want to know what helped these animals migrate and want to become a mans companion. If anything, this process could continue and more and more animals could continue to be domesticated.
The excerpt that was most interesting to me was excerpt 7. I found it more interesting because of the evolution of writing and how writing evolved over time. A quote that I found in this excerpt is In the last centuries before 3000 B.C., developments in accounting technology, format, and signs rapidly led to the first system of writing. One such technological innovation was the use of flat clay tablets as a convenient writing surface. Initially, the clay was scratched with pointed tools, which gradually yielded to reed styluses for neatly pressing a mark into the tablet. Developments in format included the gradual adoption of conventions whose necessity is now universally accepted: that writing should be organized into ruled rows or columns (horizontal rows for the Sumerians, as for modern Europeans); that the lines should be read in a constant direction (left to right for Sumerians, as for modern Europeans); and that the lines should be read from top to bottom of the tablet rather than vice versa.
ReplyDeleteAn emerging topic that I found the most interesting to me was technology in excerpt 8. Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other people. This topic interests me the most because technology is really important in everyone's everyday life. And technology helped people conquer other people
I agree with you, evolution of writing is very interesting because it help conquer other groups and how they used symbols before not words.
DeleteI think the excerpt that I enjoyed the most was excerpt 7. Why I like this excerpt the most is because it talks about the evolution of writing and I find that really interesting to see how different languages developed their writing. What I found most interesting about the writing topic is how different countries developed such as some that developed different logograms which in the excerpt the author brings up “The second strategy uses so-called logograms, meaning that one written sign stands for a whole word. That's the function of many signs of Chinese writing and of the predominant Japanese writing system (termed kanji).”
ReplyDeleteI think the emerging topic that I am most interesting in pursuing at this moment is from excerpt 7 and it is the development of different languages in the world "That's the function of many signs of Chinese writing and of the predominant Japanese writing system (termed kanji)." Why this topic is speaking to me is because I am very curious as to know how different languages were developed and why logograms were also created.
I also thought seven was interesting, because I also wonder how languages and different kinds of writing came to be that country's means of communication.
DeleteThe excerpt that was interesting to me was excerpt 7 because of Sumerian language. “The earliest Sumerian writing consisted of nonphonetic logograms. That's to say, it was not based on the specific sounds of the Sumerian language, and it could have been pronounced with entirely different sounds to yield the same meaning in any other language." They can say the same thing in different sounds that they make.
ReplyDeleteA topic that I would research would be infectious diseases from animals because how do germs adapt to humans and get us infected.
If you are planning on researching that topic do you think it was worth having the animals around even with that pomposity
DeleteThe excerpt I found the most fascinating was excerpt 7 and the discussion Diamond has about the writing from history. The reason I was intrigued by this topic was because it’s quite mind boggling to think about how far languages all around the world have come. A fascinating quote from Diamond that I believed was interesting was when Diamond stated on page 1 of excerpt 7, “Actually, most alphabets consist of only about 20 or 30 letters, and most languages have more phonemes than their alphabets have letters. For example, English transcribes about 40 phonemes with a mere 26 letters.” I enjoyed this quote because I never thought about how many phonemes the English alphabet has.
ReplyDeleteThe quote I am most interested in researching is the Manhattan project. Diamond discusses it on page 2 of excerpt 8. He states “In 1942, in the middle of World War II, the U.S. government set up the Manhattan Project with the explicit goal of inventing the technology required to build an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could do so.” This topic is speaking to me because I know that the Manhattan project led to the atomic bomb being built, but I don’t know much after that. I don’t know who worked on it, how many trials they went through, and much more. So I would be interested in looking more in depth.
That quote is very interesting because even though we only have 20 to 30 letters, but have about 40 phonemes. Do you think that is why it is so hard for someone to learn our language? They might know our alphabet but since we have so many phonemes they don't know how each of the letters are used differently.
DeleteThe excerpt I found the most interesting would have to be excerpt seven because I found it interesting to learn about the evolution of languages. In the excerpt, Jared says, “The third strategy, least familiar to most readers of this book, uses a sign for each syllable. In practice, most such writing systems provide distinct signs just for syllables of one consonant followed by one vowel and resort to various tricks in order to write types of syllables by means of those signs” I thought it was interesting but also kind of weird that they used signs for syllables. I don’t really understand what that means but the way he explains it makes it sound weird to me. I thought it was cool that they used sounds for their communication or how they used signs which kind of reminds of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that was the most interesting to me was animal disease and immunity from excerpt 9. I thought that it was interesting, because it explained the advantages that animals had because of their immunity to certain diseases and how certain animals used to infect the others that didn’t have the similar immunity. In the excerpt it’s stated, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” I find this interesting because it gives background on how some humans are immune to some disease and some are not.
The excerpt I found most interesting was excerpt eight, because Dimond talks about the advances in technology, “Some invention finally comes up with a solution superior to the existing, unsatisfactory technology. Society adopts the solution if it is compatible with the society’s values and other technologies.” I think it's really interesting how Dimond stated this, because he's saying a society will adopt a way of technology if it fits within that society's value. So it makes me wonder what other kinds of technology have been invented but haven't been seen because it doesn't fit that societies value.
ReplyDeleteI'm most interested in the topic of how different is one society from another, and how did they evolve the way they did because of the influence of that technology, “The people seem perfectly intelligent as individuals; the problem seems instead to lie with their societies.” I find the influence of technology within society's very interesting, because they impact each society or culture in different ways around the world.
I agree this is useful, but i think maybe the other two excerpts were more useful. food and domesticated animals were very important for travel and writing made info gathering a must. i just think they're a little more important
DeleteThe most interesting excerpt was excerpt 7 because I found that the diamonds theory of led that the development of technology is sound the most reasoning to me. This makes sense because without reading and writing and evolving technology wouldn’t be as fast. Diamond states, “Did Russia's bomb-building efforts depend critically on blueprints of the already constructed American bomb, stolen and transmitted to Russia by spies?” This shows that reading and writing can be helpful to your cultures because you’ll have an advantages over other cultures. With this you can further advance your technology because you will being able to understand the other language of other cultures and then you will be able to use everyone else technology.
ReplyDeleteI was most interested in the Alien topic and how the culture reacted and what they were aliens to what we say they are. Diamond states this in excerpt 7 when he says, “ “Extraterrestrial visiting Earth 10,000 years ago.” This is interesting because I wanna know if it was really aliens or that with the technology we know today we can disprove what they believed back then.
Do you think they all received the education they deserved?
DeleteThe most interesting topic that I picked was excerpt 5 but the second one I find the most interesting is excerpt 7, and I love the evidence and reasoning behind why you chose excerpt 7 and I cannot agree with you more. Whichever countries held the most technological advancements were the countries that were ahead.
DeleteThe 7th expert would be my second choice. Aliens are a very interesting topic. I also like the evidence that you used.
DeleteI think it's interesting how you used the diamond theory to prove how writing was influential in the development of technology. Your quote helped your point because it shows how others can read ideas or blueprints, learn of that, and make it better. After a while, it can become a constant battle of building the most advanced technology out there, which overall can help a society, however can also destroy it with the development of the nuclear bomb.
DeleteI like your evidence it really supports your reasoning and I agree with you if weren't for the education we wouldn't have the technology we have.
Deletei also found the aliens topic interesting i want to find out if it was really aliens and if they can disprove our technology today
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ReplyDeleteWith excerpts 7-9 I found 9 to be the most interesting. The part that was most interesting was as
I was reading paragraph two I can almost imagine how much destruction the Europeans did to the whole development. “Those advantages manifested themselves almost as soon as the collisions started: barely four years after Vasco da Gama first reached the East African coast, in 1498, he returned with a fleet bristling with cannons to compel the surrender of East Africa's most important port, Kilwa, which controlled the Zimbabwe gold trade. (pg 1)”. The reason I found this so interesting was because of how they had a power over the natives and used that to their advantage to take their goods. This reminded me of how the U.S was constantly giving taxes to Europe and then finally broke off. This posed the question of “Where would Yali and his people be today if no one had control over them?”
I would like to extend my research on this because having a higher power that simply doesn't care about your people makes more sense on how they developed a lot slower than other continents rather than just climate and food production.In short, “Europe's colonization of Africa had nothing to do with differences between European and African peoples themselves, as white racists assume.”
I also think that excerpt 9 was the most interesting. I like how you said you could almost imagine how much destruction the Europeans did to the whole development because that also crossed my mind while reading paragraph two. Have you ever thought about how it is actually geography, not racism, that explains the outcome? This is the topic that spoke to me and made me want to learn more about it.
DeleteThe excerpt that I enjoyed most was excerpt 9 about Africa. As Diamond comments on page 1 in the first paragraph, “Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution for millions of years, as well as perhaps the homeland of anatomically modern Homo sapiens.” So, the earliest humans were there, as well as a large variety of plants and animals, which would seem to lead to the early development of civilizations and technologies. But that did not happen because few of the varieties of plants, and none of the big animals, could be domesticated — a few might be tamed, but taming is different than domesticating. But it is the ‘remaining factor’ Diamond talked about that was most interesting to me. I was interested in his explanation about how movement flows through a continent (the axis he called it), and the advantages of east to west movement on a continent, over north to south movement. The advantage is that a larger area of land is in the same latitude, especially when that latitude is one that has good climate for farming of livestock and plants, as is the case with Eurasia. Eurasia is a broad continent with big areas that fall in latitudes that are good to farm. Africa is narrower and has north to south movement, meaning many different latitudes with different climates, daylight, plants and animals. I also appreciated the way he concluded by pointing out on page 3, that it was “...accidents of geography and bio-geography” that led to Europe colonizing Africa, not differences in the people themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that ‘speaks to me’ is the same as discussed in my blog response. The topic is that geography, not racism, explains the outcome. Excerpt 9, page 3, ends with the conclusion that “Europe’s colonization of Africa had nothing to do with differences between European and African peoples themselves, as white racists assume.” European’s geography gave them the advantage to develop agriculture, tools and weapons, centralized government, and eventually writing, which led to their strength. Africa’s geography did not give Africans the same advantages. This topic speaks to me because I reject the white racist explanation.
I agree with you excerpt 9 was the one I enjoyed the most too.
DeleteI found excerpt 7 the most interesting, because it discussed the development of languages. For example: “The second strategy uses so-called logo grams, meaning that one written sign stands for a whole word. That's the function of many signs of Chinese writing and of the predominant Japanese writing system (termed kanji).” This quote shows that countries in Asia where able to develop complex languages. This also shows how different cultures developed different languages. In Europe they developed a language based around letters forming words whereas in Asia they developed languages based around complex symbols meaning a single word.
ReplyDeleteI find this interesting because I have been learning Japanese for the past 7 years. Because of this I know quite a lot about how languages have changed over several hundred years. I would like to learn the origins of the language I have been learning for so long.
I can't agree with you on this. I feel this excerpt was the most uninteresting and less informative than the others.
DeleteI love excerpt 9 the most its the most interesting because of how it describes why Africa did not develop as fast. One of the main reasons they state is how its taller than wider so points on the map that can farm a type of food don't have as much area due to not having a lot of room to expand and develop as a continent.
ReplyDeleteBut food production was delayed in sub-Saharan Africa (compared with Eurasia) by Africa's paucity of domesticable native animal and plant species, it's much smaller area suitable for indigenous food production, and its north-south axis, which retarded the spread of food production and inventions. Let's examine how those factors operated.
This piece of evidence shows that it was hard to domesticate plant and animal species due to this problem.
The topic that speaks to me is the problem with domestication in southern Africa due to the limited space. But food production was delayed in sub-Saharan Africa (compared with Eurasia) by Africa's paucity of domesticable native animal its much smaller area suitable for indigenous food production, and its north-south axis, which retarded the spread of food production and inventions. Let's examine how those factors operated. This shows the problem of why it was hard. It interests me because i feel domestication of animals is a big deal in any area to grow and since south Africa couldn't i would like to see if its just because of the space or if there are any other problems.
I agree with you, Excerpt 9 was the most interesting to me as well
DeleteI think the excerpt I enjoyed the most was excerpt 9. I enjoyed excerpt 9 the most because it explained the life of Africa in a way and everything it has from crops, to resources and wildlife. The most interesting thing I learned was on page 1 “It's true, of course, that some large African animals have occasionally been tamed. Hannibal enlisted tamed African elephants in his unsuccessful war against Rome, and ancient Egyptians may have tamed giraffes and other species. But none of those tamed animals was actually domesticated — that is, selectively bred in captivity and genetically modified so as to become more useful to humans. Had Africa's rhinos and hippos been domesticated and ridden,” It's interesting to now know that they rid on giraffes and hippos.
ReplyDeleteThe topic I wanna pursue at this time is probably finding out all the animals that were tammed and used for good in Africa which I talked about above. “It's true, of course, that some large African animals have occasionally been tamed. Hannibal enlisted tamed African elephants in his unsuccessful war against Rome, and ancient Egyptians may have tamed giraffes and other species. But none of those tamed animals was actually domesticated — that is, selectively bred in captivity and genetically modified so as to become more useful to humans. Had Africa's rhinos and hippos been domesticated and ridden,” It speaks to me because I wanna learn more about the animals there.
I also think excerpt 9 was very interesting. Wild life in Africa is cool because of all the animals that are not in our area but they have. Its also interesting how they tried to tame certain animals for human use but it didn't always work.
DeleteThe excerpt that I found most interesting was excerpt 8. The development of technology was a way people advanced production and efficiency as a whole in a society. It enabled new ways of transportation and forms of power. In the excerpt, Diamond says, “Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other peoples. That makes it the leading cause of history’s broadest pattern.” Technology allowed societies to overpower other societies and take take their land and resources. This makes technology a strong use in wars as show with the creation of the atom bomb in WW2. It makes me wonder how the future will use the known technology to of today and make it stronger.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that I am most interested in using is Human neurobiology. This Topic came from excerpt 8 on page 2. I find this topic interesting because when talking about human development, we always talk about social or economic development. I’m interested in how we physically gained the ability to organize our ideas and how we might change in the future. Our future is based on our actions so if we start learning how our minds work, we can form a better tomorrow.
Although I chose excerpt 9, I think this is a very interesting topic as well!
DeleteThe excerpt that was the most interesting to me was Excerpt 7 because without the evolution of writing we wouldn't be able able to communicate the way we do today and how far we have come. With the evolution of writing we now have communication between, states, countries, and even the whole world. In excerpt 7 Jared Diamond says, “While all those types of information were also transmitted by other means in preliterate societies, writing made the transmission easier, more detailed, more accurate, and more persuasive.” Without the evolution of writing, languages would have not been able to evolve either. With writing evolving so did many other things it was a very important factor to how we communicate with everything today. With that we have been able to move further and help develop many things.
ReplyDeleteOne emerging topic that would be very interesting to do some more research would have to be how the first forms of writing and how they came to be and what caused them to appear. In excerpt 7 Jared Diamond says, “In the last centuries before 3000 B.C., developments in accounting technology, format, and signs rapidly led to the first system of writing. One such technological innovation was the use of flat clay tablets as a convenient writing surface.” This shows that one of the first forms of writing were on clay tablets and with the evolution of writing it has become so much more. This would definitely be a interesting research topic to find out what cause them to develop something like that and why they would need to communicate in such a way.
I agree with how you said without writing we wouldn't be able to communicate the way we do. After reading the excerpt, it made me think of all the things writing has either helped advance something or how it's been vital throughout time.
DeleteThe excerpt that I found most interesting was excerpt 5. I found it very interesting that animals alone, put civilizations ahead. They provided people with many more advantages that a lot of other people around the world didn't have. For example, in excerpt 9 it states, "As a result, domestic animals did not reach sub- Saharan Africa until thousands of years after they began to be utilized by emerging Eurasian civilizations." So those countries that had domesticated animals were much more advanced and they held a lot more advantages than those that didn't. You can see this in excerpt 5 when Diamond states, "In human societies possessing domestic animals, livestock fed more people in four distinct ways: by furnishing meat, milk, and fertilizer and by pulling plows."
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt that interests me the most through excerpts 7-9 is excerpt 7. The basic topic of excerpt 7 is the advancements of technology. Technology played a huge part in which civilizations were ahead and which were delayed. This is shown on page 4 where it states, "the societies without writing that I just mentioned are ones that got a later start on food production than did Sumer, Mexico, and China." This excerpt speaks to me because technology is huge in which societies were ahead of others and It also speaks to me because I find it extremely interesting. If I didn't pick excerpt 5, I would have picked excerpt 7 right away.
Out of excerpts 7-9 the excerpt that I most enjoy is excerpt 8 because it talks about how technology was first made and it has developed into modern society. “Ever since it was unearthed, the disk has posed a mystery for historians of writing. The number of distinct signs (45) suggests a syllabary rather than an alphabet, but it is still undeciphered, and the forms of the signs are unlike those of any other known writing system. Not another scrap of the strange script has turned up in the 89 years since its discovery. Thus, it remains unknown whether it represents an indigenous Cretan script or a foreign import to Crete.” I find it interesting that Phaistos disks were made back in the early 1900’s because it was a different type of writing system back then than what we have now. The topic that I’m most interested in pursuing at this time is the Sumerian cuneiform because it talks about history’s oldest writing system and it brings it way back in time even when farming villages would use clay tokens. “The independent invention that we can trace in greatest detail is history's oldest writing system, Sumerian cuneiform. For thousands of years before it jelled, people in some farming villages of the Fertile Crescent had been using clay tokens of various simple shapes for accounting purposes, such as recording numbers of sheep and amounts of grain.”
ReplyDeleteI agree with you because I realized that technology now days have change. Back in the days they only had computers but you could barley use because people were afraid that if they messed up they would've start all over again. But now in society now everyone is addicted to their technology because people have more access to the internet.
DeleteThe except that was most interesting to me was the ninth expert. I found it interesting that the geography theory helped the Europeans in southern Africa. In excerpt nine it states, “Rather, it was due to accidents of geography and biogeography — in particular, to the continents' different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species. That is, the different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ultimately from differences in real estate.” This quote from the expert explains that the settlers from Europe just got lucky that they were almost the same distance from the equator in southern Africa as they were in Europe. I find this interesting because I want to learn more about the Europeans and how it ended up in southern Africa, and how they brought domesticated animals and crops with them.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that I found the most interesting was animal disease immunity from the ninth except. This is interesting to me because it explains the advantages that animals had when they were immune to certain diseases. It also explains how animals immune to the diseases could be used to infect animals that were not immune to the disease. Diamond states, “Africa's tsetse flies, carrying trypanosomes to which native African wild mammals are resistant, proved devastating to introduced Eurasian and North African species of livestock.” This is very interesting to me because it ties into how certain humans are immune to diseases while others are not, and the people immune to the diseases could get the people not immune sick and they could end up dying or severely sick.
I did the same excerpt I agree to your second paragraph but also to disagree. I thought the shape of the continent was more of an interesting and bigger focus just because there isn't change for the shape of up and down for successful production then left and right for neighboring country's in Europe. What do you think it would be like if Africa was shaped left and right for there production?
DeleteI feel like it would change the weather and climate.
DeleteI thought that excerpt 9 was the most interesting to read. In that excerpt, the topic that was most interesting to me was that Africa didn’t have any opportunity to have technology because they didn’t have enough food from crops or any animals that they could raise. This meant that they were delayed in developing technology. Also in the text, a quote that introduces this topic is “By Africa's paucity of domesticable native animal and plant species, it's much smaller area suitable for indigenous food production,” I thought this was interesting because it’s saying that Africa has a really small area to grow crops which you don’t really have an opportunity to have everything that you ever wanted since they’re really poor. This is also the topic that I am most interested in researching at this time. I got this idea from the text when it said “Like that of the Americans, Africa’s major axis is north-south, whereas Eurasia’s is east-west. As one moves along a north-south axis, one traverses zones differing greatly in climate, habitat, rainfall, day length, and diseases of crops and livestock. Hence crops and animals domesticated or acquired in one part of Africa had great difficulty in moving to other parts.” This seems like an interesting topic for me to research because Africa has a really rough time transporting their resources to different places around the world but also different places within a continent and it’s not easy for them to do it.
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt I found most interesting was except 8. Some things I found interesting were the excavations they went on. They ended up finding something that at first they didn't even realize was important at all. The thing they found was a hard baked clay circle that had writing with numbers all around and it also spins. This interests me because I find ancient history very interesting and would like to learn more about the objects they find and what they were used for. “At first glance it seemed unprepossessing: just a small, flat, unpainted, circular disk of hard-baked clay, 6½ inches in diameter.”
ReplyDeleteThe topic I found most interesting is Sumerian writing from excerpt 7 page 2. This topic interests me because when speaking the language the exact sound for words was not always the same for every person. It could be said in a completely different sound and tone but still mean the same thing which I think would be very confusing. “The earliest Sumerian writing consisted of non phonetic logograms. That's to say, it was not based on the specific sounds of the Sumerian language, and it could have been pronounced with entirely different sounds to yield the same meaning in any other language” This topic speaks to me because it reminds me of when i first started taking spanish in elementary school and had no idea what anyone was saying.
Out of the three excerpts 7 through 9, the one I enjoyed the most was excerpt 7 and how writing and language changed so many aspects of society, and was probably the most important invention ever created. The creation of language and writing played a huge part in communicating ideas and opinions on topics, and allowed others to share inventions and important events that could be remembered and understand thousands of years in the future. Language also advanced how war works, with orders being clearly communicable, changing tactics of war drastically. Excerpt 7 states this clearly when it states on page 1, “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest. The commands of the monarchs and merchants who organized colonizing fleets were conveyed in writing. The fleets set their courses by maps and written sailing directions prepared by previous expeditions.” This shows how writing not only helped send out commands, but also helped set courses of fleets or caravans, and kept documents on past events.
ReplyDeleteAn emerging topic that I found highly interesting was in excerpt 7, and it relates the the fall of the Roman Empire to Barbarians, and how even the greatest of civilizations can fall to the most “uncivilized” of people. The quote I got my topic from is on page 1 of excerpt 7, when it states, “Of course, some peoples (notably the Incas) managed to administer empires without writing, and "civilized" peoples don't always defeat "barbarians," as Roman armies facing the Huns learned.” I like this topic a lot as I find the Roman Empire and it’s ending rather interesting and it can show how to combat or defeat an enemy who’s much more powerful than yourself.
I agree with the facts stated of how communication was an important role of how to communicate ideas and use it for useful things such as war. Plus the fact that it would change for greater in the future. What do you think it would be like without or not even having the thought of communication like they invented?
DeleteI feel that society itself would be far behind thousands of years without proper communication. The fact that humans couldn't communicate themselves would still put us in the caveman era, and we might be a species of loners, hunting for themselves and no one else. Communication is the basic part of being a human being, and it's how we've came so far, and having that taken away from us would strip of ideas or thoughts being shared, and therefore a society that wouldn't really exist at all.
DeleteIn excerpts 7-9 I was interested in reading excerpt 9 because it talked about slow adaptation of Africa's production of mainly food but very slow adaptation. This was due to North and South Africa having low amount of domestic animals to use for farm and crop use for more production. This then gave Europeans an advantage over Africa through guns, literacy, and food production. The one group at the start of the excerpt that had the most problems brought up was the sub-Saharan African people. Here's a small quote to back this up, "As we have discussed, all three arose historically from the development of food production. But food production was delayed in sub-Saharan Africa (compared with Eurasia) by Africa's paucity of domesticable native animal and plant species, its much smaller area suitable for indigenous food production, and its north-south axis, "
ReplyDeleteThe topics that spoke out to me the most in the excerpt was the fact that Africa's shape of the continent was the effect of why it was hard for them to adapt faster because it was shaped up to down instead of the rival that gained production faster shaped left to right. And the topic about how scarce animals are to North and South Africa making it harder for production over Europeans having plenty. "A second factor is a corresponding, though less extreme, disparity between sub-Saharan Africa and Eurasia in domesticable plants. The Sahel, Ethiopia, and West Africa did yield indigenous crops, but many fewer varieties than grew in Eurasia. "
I agree, this excerpted was very interesting because Africa's food production was very slow. They didn't have lots of animals like other groups or crops to grow.
DeleteI also agree with Andres. Africa crops didn't grow as fast and they didn't have a lot of animals to help with the farming and I also agree with the reason that other countries had a advantage over Africa guns and foods.
DeleteOut of the excerpts we had to choose from I believe that Excerpt 7 was the one that really caught my attention. The thing that was brought to my mind from Excerpt 7 was the Evolution of writing. Writing has made a major impact in our lives, and without writing civilizations wouldn't be able to evolve. In excerpt 7 Jared Diamond says, “While all those types of information were also transmitted by other means in preliterate societies, writing made the transmission easier, more detailed, more accurate, and more persuasive.” Like I brought up before without the advancing of writing or the creation of writing we wouldn't be able to evolve. As we know now the development of writing has impacted us in a very positive way.
ReplyDeleteOne of the emerging topics that caught my interest was the difference between the new world and the old world.In Excerpt 7 Jared Diamond say, " However, the Sumerians and early Mexicans happened to have been the first to evolve them in the Old World and the New World, respectively." This topic really catches my eye because I always imagined how would the world be without North America and South America? It just seems interesting on how we would develop our civilization in Asia, Africa, Europe, etc.
Writing has and good point and the speed of which information is spread is seriously important. how do you think life would be if we never implemented a scripture?
DeleteThe excerpt that i found most interesting was the 9th one. they talked about the geography and the biogeography, such as terrain and animals. i like when he brings up all of the african animals that are there but not domesticated. like zebras and stuff, also they weren't ready for the diseases and sheer number that the europeans had when they came to take it over. they were not resistant to the diseases, so any domesticated animals fell to it. ,Eurasia's native cows, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs were among the world's few large wild animal species to pass all those tests. Their African equivalents — such as the African buffalo, zebra, bush pig, rhino, and hippopotamus — have never been domesticated, not even in modern times.' further backing my point. The most interesting topic however is the geography. the land was flat and that made it easier to fire a lot before the enemy could actually reach the target.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you because I think that animals made a huge impact on humans throughout life. I think so because we used them for food and clothing to survive and have them as resources.
DeleteThe excerpt that was the most interesting to me was excerpt seven. I liked this excerpt because it’s crazy how forms of communication came about. The excerpt starts by stating, “Knowledge brings power. Hence writing brings power to modern societies, by making it possible to transmit knowledge with far greater accuracy and in far greater quantity and detail, from more distant lands and more remote times.” I find this intriguing because you don’t really think about how important writing is on a day to day basis. The development of writing has helped the development of technology. From excerpt seven, the idea of blueprint copying and idea diffusion is the most interesting to me. I like this topic because the way it’s described it can be both a good or bad thing. In excerpt seven, page three, it states, “to take a recent example, historians are still debating whether blueprint copying or idea diffusion contributed more to Russia's building of an atomic bomb. Did Russia's bomb-building efforts depend critically on blueprints of the already constructed American bomb…”
ReplyDeleteThat makes a lot of sense, Technology picked a huge roll. Makes you think how different life would be if we progressed slower or stopped progressing technology earlier on.
DeleteI thought that excerpt 8 was the most interesting to read. In that excerpt, the topic that was most interesting to me was where they talked about the development of the atomic bomb. In the text, a quote that describes this topic is “In 1942, in the middle of World War II, the U.S. government set up the Manhattan Project with the explicit goal of inventing the technology required to build an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could do so. That project succeeded in three years, at a cost of $2 billion (equivalent to over $20 billion today).” I thought this was interesting because the US came up with the development of the atomic bomb before any other countries could come up with anything.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that I am most interested in researching at this time is “Why would you want to build the atomic bomb?” I got this idea from the text when it said ”Society adopts the solution if it is compatible with the society’s values and other technologies.” This seems like an interesting topic for me to research because I want to know if the development of the atomic bomb was in line with our values.
I chose excerpt 7 because it seemed interesting how writing was created and how it advanced societies worldwide as it spread. Diamond stated, “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest.” Which shows that writing had one of the largest impacts in the evolution of humans and societies. The excerpt shows the evolution from where we began to where we are now.
ReplyDeleteThe topic that’s most interesting to me is from excerpt 7. It shows how food has always required for a society to grow. Diamond shows, “Writing arose independently only in the Fertile Crescent, Mexico, and probably China precisely because those were the first areas where food production emerged in their respective hemispheres.”The text shows when a group of people have multiple food sources nearby, they have a larger chance of thriving.
All of the excerpts to me were really interesting but the one that I enjoyed reading about the most was excerpt 7. I found it really interesting how writing has evolved over time and where writing actually started. This excerpt was also interesting because I learned new things I didn't know about. One thing I learned and found interesting was on pg 1 of Guns, Germs, and Steel. Where it states. "Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest. The commands of the monarchs and merchants who organized colonizing fleets were conveyed in writing." I found this very interesting because It states how writing is designed for us to use on a daily basis. I also found the "Three Basic Strategies " to be interesting to me as well because it tell us how each letter is written “either a single basic sound, a whole syllable, or a whole word.” I would like to learn more about this because is something we use on a daily basis but a lot of us don’t really know the history behind each letter and pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that I found the most interesting was the domestic animals, In excerpt 9 it states “As a result, domestic animals did not reach sub- Saharan Africa until thousands of years after they began to be utilized by emerging Eurasian civilizations." ” This proves that countries that had the domesticated animals had more advantages than other countries that didn’t have them by then. I also found it interesting how Diamond described the colonization of Europeans and the crops from Europe steadily moved into Africa and what were the reasons behind it.
I agree with your second paragraph. I also found this interesting. Why is it that they were advanced in pretty much everything yet, lagged behind in the domestication of animals, plant species and native animals?
DeleteThe most interesting excerpt for me is number 7 because how writing evolved and who it help them conquer into the writing now in days is every interesting. In excerpt 7 Diamond states that, “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest.” This is very interesting groups that had good writing systems conquer other groups and how writing contribute to conquering other groups the same way as guns.
ReplyDeleteThe emerging topic that I'm most interested in right now is the fall of the Roman Empire to Barbarians in excerpted 7. On page 1 Diamond states that, “Of course, some peoples (notably the Incas) managed to administer empires without writing, and "civilized" peoples don't always defeat "barbarians," as Roman armies facing the Huns learned.” This very interesting to me because how did a group that wasn't very strong took down the most powerful empire in that time.
The excerpt I find most interesting was #9. I found it interesting but not surprising that Africa was a a human evolution for millions of years, until Europe came and conquered them. They had a huge jump start on many things so one could see why other countries would want what they had. Diamond makes the reasoning behind this very clear as he says " Just as in their encounter with Native Americans, Europeans entering Africa enjoyed the triple advantage of guns and other technology, widespread literacy, and the political organization necessary to sustain expensive programs of exploration and conquest. Those advantages manifested themselves almost as soon as the collisions started: barely four years after Vasco da Gama first reached the East African coast, in 1498, he returned with a fleet bristling with cannons to compel the surrender of East Africa's most important port, Kilwa, which controlled the Zimbabwe gold trade." But the question still stands "why did Europeans develop those three advantages before sub-Saharan Africans could?" Well this is a very complicated part of our nation's history but white folk, like usual, messed a lot of things up along the way then hid their hands and left future generations to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteThe topic I find most interesting as of right now is the lag in domestic animals, crops and plant species. As said in excerpt 9 "The slow passage or complete halt of crops and livestock along Africa's north-south axis had important consequences. For example, the Mediterranean crops that became Egypt's staples require winter rains and seasonal variation in day length for their germination. Those crops were unable to spread south of the Sudan, beyond which they encountered summer rains and little or no seasonal variation in daylight." This is intriguing because it makes you wonder why they were advanced in so many other things but this.
the excerpt i found most interesting was excerpt 7 because i found that the diamond theory of writing led to the development of technology makes the most sense to me. i say this because without reading and writing the devolving of technology would not have gone that fast if people could not read or write. diamond states "did Russia's bomb building efforts depend critically on blueprints of the already constructed american bomb stolen and transmitted to Russia by spies?" this shows that people that can read and write can further their culture power because they have advantages over the people that cant read and cant write. with this you can further your technology because being able to undertstand the language of other cultures and then you can use everyones technology not just your own
ReplyDeleteI was most intrested in the alien topic and how the culture reacted and what they claimed where aliens to what we say they are now. Diamond states this excerpt 7 when he says “exraterrestrial visting earth 10,000 years ago” i found this intresting because i wanna see if it was really alens or not. I also wanna find out if the technology we know today can be disproved of what they call back then
Out of the three excerpts we read in class currently, I found excerpt 7 to be my favorite. Excerpt was my favorite because it showed the power of writing and how it can sway people, I learned that if you are a writer you have the power to show others how there is another way to solve problems than just violence. It also give you the ability to record history that could someday be worth gold in knowledge. Writing is a very important and valuable skill to have. This was of interest because I am a writer and would like to pursue it as a career. “Knowledge brings power. Hence writing brings power to modern societies, by making it possible to transmit knowledge with far greater accuracy and in far greater quantity and detail, from more distant lands and more remote times.”
ReplyDeleteFrom the excerpts I read I had found an emerging topic that I think to be of interest to me. In excerpt seven it explained how writing is a very powerful tool, so I started thinking of how writing is made to be powerful and what it would take to be an author. “Writing marched together with weapons, microbes, and centralized political organization as a modern agent of conquest. The commands of the monarchs and merchants who organized colonizing fleets were conveyed in writing. The fleets set their courses by maps and written sailing directions prepared by previous expeditions. Written accounts of earlier expeditions motivated later ones, by describing the wealth and fertile lands
awaiting the conquerors”. This topic I have chosen to pursue is connected to part A of this blog post because of the involvement in writing. I would very much like to learn more about authors and how they can become successful so I don’t have so much of an issue getting off the ground, and so I can improve as a writer.