![]() Even the cultural inventions of the first category are addressed, although they are clearly of less weight in Diamond's opinion, being more derivative than foundational. But Diamond's intellectual range is so wide that the materialist foundation (germs) also bulks large in the book. As one might surmise from the book's title, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is an example of this last category two-thirds of the study is concerned with human interactions with the environment via technologies. A third group has focused on the interaction between these two domains, emphasizing the ways in which humans have manipulated their material surroundings by means of technologies such as stone tools, the lateen sail, the steam engine, or the integrated circuit. Others have based their inquiry on a more materialistic foundation, emphasizing geography, climate, the biosphere (interpreted broadly to include food and disease), human genetics, or energy flows. Some scholars have emphasized human social inventions, such as states, empires, religious faiths, economic institutions, or cultural practices. ![]() The search for a paradigm that informs our understanding of global history has concentrated on fashioning a unifying vision or organizing principle that scholars can use not only to describe an enormous variety and number of events, but also to explain how these events were connected to each other and how they fit into some larger picture of the past. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |