IP Blog

Location) is the primary factor that affects multiple events: selling a house, passing a celebrity on the street, catching an out-of-the-park batted baseball, or finding a ten dollar bill on the floor in the mall.  On a more scholarly level, it can be agreed that location is the primary cause “that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production.” Jared Diamond, author of the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, supports this theory.  Throughout chapters four through ten of GGS, he goes on about food production and the things that affect it.  In those chapters, he proves location contains all of the necessary factors that aid in the rise and spread of domesticables (which then lead to enabling food production).  One place contains –and determines- soil richness, climate, and the available resources (ex.: domesticable animals and plants).  It’s simple common sense:  Bad soil, no plants; good soil, many plants. “Like all animal species (including humans), plants must spread their offspring to areas where they can thrive and pass their parents’ genes.” (Diamond, 117) Diamond not only rightfully states that plants must “breed and spread,” but also implies that even animals must reproduce and “spread their offspring to areas where they can thrive and pass their parents’ genes” in order for the individual offspring to survive, and then in the big picture: the entire species to survive.  With this involves moving/migrating, and only to places where the species can survive. (Diamond, 117) This predicts where animals will end up: only in certain areas of the world.  This cycle relies on the three factors listed above.
Soil and climate can be placed as sub-categories under “environment,” because they make up the environment, which is the location.  Climate and soil work hand in hand, both determining the viability of the land and the outcome of the food production process.  Firstly, soil richness influences the success of a society’s food production.  Soil also contains vital nutrients that plants could not survive without.  If the ground is hard and rocky, there is very little chance for plant life [beginning or surviving], if there is soft and fertile ground, there is a much better chance for plant life [beginning or surviving].  If the right plants that are domesticated survive, so do the people.  The climate is just as big a factor.  Again, one can back up the theory with common sense: if the place has too hot or dry a climate, or too cold or dark a climate, little food production will occur (Diamond, 93).  “One advantage of the Fertile Crescent is that it lies within a zone of...a climate characterized by mild, wet winters and long, hot, dry summers.  That climate selects for plant species able to survive the long, dry season and to resume growth rapidly upon the return of the rains.” (Diamond, 136) Diamond also agrees with the importance of the right plants being in the right location.
Not only were certain animals good for their meat and hide (Diamond, 90), but also their labor.  “…the largest domestic mammals interacted with domestic plants to increase food production by pulling plows and thereby making it possible for people to till land that had previously been uneconomical for farming.” (Diamond, 88).  If a society lives in an area where a useful and domesticable animal, such as a horse or cow, does not inhabit, the society’s food production could be doomed, thereby dooming the society.  Horses and Cows are useful for animal-drawn plows; cattle are also useful for their manure to fertilize the plants.  The location influences which plants plants are going to survive and which aren’t.  Also working with soil richness and climate, a location can only house so many types of plants.  Therefore, only some societies were able to benefit from the necessary and most useful plants. This obviously greatly affected crop production and, in the long run, population survival.  Location, location, location; it and what it offers make up the key “contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production.”

Location represents one of the most important proximate factors that encourage or resist the rise and spread of food production. As Jared Diamond expresses in Guns, Germs, and Steel, “We tend to seek easy, single-factor explanations of success. For the most important things, though, success actually requires avoiding many separate possible causes of failure” (157). Although having an excellent location may seem like one factor that can help a society, it is actually a deterrent of multiple problems that lead to a society not developing food production independently. But, what does a good location look like, in terms of developing food production? Diamond explains that having a variety of elevations in your land will guarantee many types of environments, which leads to a diversity in crops (140). Societies in prehistory were either very lucky or unlucky when it came to location. The people living in these places did not choose the benefits they would receive from where they lived. But the people who did have good locations used it to their advantage.

Few places had the capabilities to start food production independently. The Fertile Crescent was one of these few, because of advantages like, “it lies within a zone of so-called Mediterranean climate, a climate characterized by mild, wet winters and long, hot, dry summers” (136). This climate allowed for the perfect growing season. Also, the Fertile Crescent had hermaphroditic plants, which pollinated themselves and a great quantity of edible plants like this (136-137). These advantages proved as a ways to easily begin food production. The abundance of food was able to provide enough calories to sustain life. Food production also lead to sedentary living, which allowed a better lifestyle for families, encouraging food production as a more suitable way of existence. All of these assets explain how places were able to start food production, but this spread throughout the world in a different way.

Location is so important to the spread of food production, because the only way for innovations to expand quickly is through a latitudinal axis. Places that are horizontal of each other, have the same roughly the same day lengths and types of seasons (183). Therefore, these places would be able to share the same types of crops. As history has exemplified, information is also passed quicker this way, as opposed to places that are vertical of each other. Diamond says, “All those other areas became food producing as a result of the spread of crops, livestock, and knowledge of how to grow them and, in some cases, as a result of migrations of farmers and herders themselves” (177). This spread was made possible by the vertical relationship. This explains why Eurasia, which is the continent with the largest latitude axis, was able to gain so much, so fast. Not only was food production easily spread, but also many other advantages that led to the ability to become a successful and advanced society. Although location is not the only reason that food production rose and spread, it is an essential contributory element of this expansion.

Extra Credit Blinklist

Location is the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticates enabling food production. As Jared Diamond explains in, Guns, Germs, and Steel, location is a main cause of proficient food production. The reason why the location of the Fertile Crescent domesticated faster east to west was because the climates were so alike. The 8,000-mile distance from the Atlantic coast of Ireland to the Pacific coast of Japan is the largest land expansion of Eurasia on Earth (Diamond, 185). So how could the crops possibly make that 8,000-mile journey? Diamond explains how the Fertile Crescent’s elevations are an advantage:  “Its range of elevations, from the lowest spot on Earth (the Dead Sea) to mountains of 18,000 feet (near Teheran), ensures a corresponding variety of environments, hence a high diversity of the wild plants serving as potential ancestors of crops.” (140). The Fertile Crescent has the range of altitudes with staggered harvest seasons, so there is always a crop for each season because of the diverse and compromising altitudes. This further proves that location is inevitably the most important factor in food production.

Location determines what crops can grow where. Thus location is vital for any food production. For instance, if a crop needs adequate water to flourish, you are not going to try and grow it in the desert. The Mediterranean Climate was more beneficial than other areas in prehistory. Diamond contemplates the idea that the reason why food production might not have evolved in some areas was perhaps the lack of suitable wild plants in that particular area, and not the people. There are 200,000 species of wild flowering plants, which have furnished almost all of our crops. So there must be a great amount of crops to thrive in all the parts of the world. (Diamond, 131-132). So why did the Fertile Crescent succeed while the other parts of the world struggled? As Diamond points out, “A mere dozen species account for over 80 percent of the modern world’s annual tonnage of all crops” (132). Cereal crops are vital and account for more than half the calories consumed by the world’s human populations. Cereal crops like wheat and pulses blossomed in the Fertile Crescent and these types of crops are high in protein and carbohydrates which equal calories. Calories equal creation that is strong. Location determines the fate of a society.

As discussed in class, distinctive geography rather than distinctive human intellect creates a head start to anything. “The peoples of areas with a head start on food production thereby gained a head start on the path leading toward guns, germs, and steel” (103). Diamond explains that a few areas around the world developed food production independently at differing times. Food production was not invented or adopted, it evolved. The peoples in that area did not choose which crops to grow or to become hunter-gatherers or farmers. Location ultimately chose the life for them (Diamond, 105-107). Food Production is the most valuable piece of technology we have; without it, we cannot survive. Food production in prehistory-great location in prehistory, establishes a strong and stable society.

Extra Credit Link

In the first paragraph of Hemispheres Colliding, Jared Diamond asks, “… why did Europeans reach and conquer the lands of Native Americans, instead of vice versa?
• why did Europeans have such an advantage over the Native Americans?
o collision between Old World (mostly represented by Native America) and New World countries (mostly represented by Europe/Eurasia) is marked by several different distinctions:
 * food production (society or country has little food production room for a few people)
• amount of big domesticable animals
• Eurasia: 13 species
o dogs, cows, pigs, horses, and more to use as transportation
• Americas: 1 specie ( o Llama- No horses, no cows, no big animals that could do dirty work

Five Major Disadvantages That the Native Americans Had:
1. they depended on protein-poor corn, while Eurasia had a variety of protein-rich food sources
2. they hand planted individual seeds, while Eurasia had broadcast sowing
3. they tilled by hand, while Eurasia used animals to plow
4. Native Americans lacked animal manure to fertilize
5. Natives lacked human muscle power
^slowed food production for the Old World^
(and sped it up for the New World, allowing for germs, technology, political organization, and writing)

Eurasia Advantages:
1. Germs
o killed many humans and animal species- especially for the Natives (since they had no knowledge to prevent disease
- With even less animals than they already had, and less man power, the Natives found it very hard to get from point A to point B in a short amount of time)
2.  Population
oEurasia- more centralized government, competing societies Eurasia to acquire important technology long before the Americas

Katherine De Menno
Kailey DeOliviera
Emily Farrell
Brittany Minger
Stacy Brown
Angela Swavely

The history of East Asia

China was the initial area of food production in East Asia. Some research suggests that there may have been more than one initial site of food production in China prior to its unification. North China and South China differ greatly in their environments. The Northern part of China has an arid and cool climate. In contrast, the South of China is humid and warm. Because Chinese crops favored the cool conditions in the north, most crops diffused north to south throughout China. The prevalence of rivers in northern China enabled irrigation to be employed and made the facilitation of food production easier. For this reason only a limited number of crops diffused from South China to North China.

Interestingly, already by 221 B.C., China was unified politically and had only a single writing system. Technologically superior peoples in Northern China later advanced upon the technologically inferior peoples in Southern China, and forced them to adopt their guns, germs, and steel. Consequently, China became unified and monolithic. China’s inventions later diffused into adjacent areas, resulting from the major east-west axis of Eurasia. These products included paper, the compass, the wheelbarrow, and gunpowder. China’s major influence can still be observed in the nearby countries of Japan and Korea today. 

Michael Hamory
Johnny Soler
Megan Cassel
Lindsay Hoolehan
Courtney Loomis
Alex Guttman
Lindsay Ferris

Food production and domesticables has shown a direct cause to all civilization. But what, we ask, caused this plant and animal domestication? Throughout chapters 4 through 10 of Jared Diamonds Guns Germs and Steel; The Fates of Human Societies, he gives several reasons for this domestication. These various reasons include east/west axis and lack of food, but in my opinion the most important of all these proximate causes is Location. Throughout the ancient, unwritten history of our world it is apparent that location plays a vital role in the success of our continents. While places such as Africa and New Guinea had a several thousand year head start, it is places such as North America and Eurasia that have the majority of the Domesticables. Why? The answer is simple. Location. However, just to clarify, even the best location cannot domesticate the undomesticable. According to Diamond the requir,ents for a domesticable mammal are that they must be at least and preferably predominantly a herbivore. Right of the bat it is obvious that location is key, seeing as the continent with the majority of domesticates is Eurasia. Eurasia is a great location for domestication becasue “Eurasia is the world’s largest landmass, and it’s also very diverse ecologically.” (162) It is obvious from this statement that if you’re looking for domestication, the Fertile Crescent is the place to be.

The Fertile Crescent were gifted with, well . . . fertile lands and a termperate climate that made the switch from Hunter-Gatherer to Farmer swifter and less painful. They then learned how to obtain more edible calories “by selecting and growing those few species of plants and animals that we can eat, so that they constitute 90 percent instead of 0.1 percent of biomass on an acre of land” (88) faster than those countries with harsher climates. Therefore, they were able to feed and care for more people and domesticables than they had in their previous Hunter-Gatherer Stage (88). Now you might be wondering where this marvelous place might be. Well the Fertile Crescent makes up much of what is known today as the Middle East. While it might not seem quite as fertile nowadays, in prehistory it was a perfect place for domesticables. It’s land was just fertile enough to grow many kinds of plants and it’s climate was perfect for the agriculatural needs of it’s farmers. It seemed as the Fertile Crescent was the perfect location, and seeing how vital location was, it was the place to be.

Unfortunetly, as I mentioned before, there are some restrictions on what can and what cannot be domesticated. Like I said before it must be a terreststrial mammal that is (on average) over 100 pounds and be predominently a herbivore. But if those are the only conditions, then why are there not more domesticated species? The answer is the Anna Kareina Principle, “Happy families are all alike;every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."(157) Even though the Principle is relating to family happiness, it is also true when it comes to domesticables. All eligable species for domestication are elligable in the same way; All species unelligable for domestication are each undomesticable in their own way. Whether it be that the animal is skittish or tempermental, there are several reasons an animal can’t be domesticated. However, with a good location, all elligable domesticates can be domesticated. While the other causes are important it is clear that location is key to an advanced society. People of the fertile crescent domesticated more plants and animals faster (157) due to their excellent, fertile location. Which just goes to show that if you wish to domesticate, you need to relocate. I think that made my point.   

Africa has a high diversity of people and language because of their diversity in geography and a long prehistory. The North African people resemble whites in the Middle East and Europe. They speak mostly Afro-Asiatic languages. Now part of Central Africa, Pygmies were once widespread. However, they were engulfed by Bantu farmers and languages were lost. Like the Pygmies, the Khoisan was also widespread along with their languages. Now, however, they have been confined to desert areas in which the Bantu couldn’t farm. Blacks speaking Austronesian languages are blended with Indonesians in Madagascar.

Blacks occupy most of the South Sahara and sub-Saharan Africa. Their language revolves mainly around non-Bantu and Bantu versions of the Niger-Congo languages. During 3000 BC to 500 AD, Bantu farmers dominated as they spread because of superior plant and animal domestication. They extended their range to Natal on the East coast and to the Fish River. In 1652, white colonists faced poorly defended Khoisan in South Africa because the Bantu were farther away. They colonists continued expanding and colonization succeeded due to better food production and weapons.

Location is obviously the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of food production. As it is in many aspects of life, location was crucial for a civilization to gain food production. In comparison, when an entrepreneur contemplates opening a new business, he must first choose a location in which there is a demand for his product or service. He must research the demographics and competition in that given area. If everything fits what the entrepreneur is looking for, he will open his desired business and watch it thrive. Unfortunately for ancient peoples, they were not able to choose the area where their people would be located. However, if they were looking to have the wet climate, the fertile soil, and the multitude of crops and animals that allowed for the independent rise of food production, they most certainly would have chosen 1 of 5 areas. The areas where food production arose independently, with the domestication of the crops and animals native to that specific area, are the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes of South America, and the eastern United States (Diamond 98). But what exactly about the location of these areas made them able to cultivate plants and animals? Though these areas acquired food production independently, they are not without their inconsistencies. Diamonds questions, “Among those regions where food production did spring up independently, why did the times at which it appeared vary so greatly?” (94) I intend to explore how location provided the natural resources and fertile land that allowed for food production.

Location determines the natural resources and indigenous plants and animals that the inhabitants of that area will eventually inherit. “Southwest Asia (also known as the Fertile Crescent) has the earliest definite dates for both plant domestication and animal domestication.” (99) Thus, the Fertile Crescent domesticated its local plants and animals earliest in human history. It undoubtedly had received, due to its location, Multitude of Edible Plants and a generous gift of easily domesticable animals. The Fertile Crescent domesticated wheat, peas, olives, sheep, and goats by 8500 B.C., the earliest recorded in history (100). Because it possessed so many key plants and animals, the people of the Fertile Crescent were able to pick and choose which plants were able to be domesticated the best. On the other hand, the people of Ethiopia were given very little to grow and domesticate. Perhaps Ethiopia’s Harsh and Dry Climate contributed to its lack of edible plants and animals. Had Ethiopia received a wetter climate with more fertile soil, its people could have had a variety of plants to domesticate. The only plants independently domesticated in Ethiopia were coffee and teff, and it had no domesticated animals (100). It is still disputed whether Ethiopians even domesticated coffee independently. “It is not yet known whether Ethiopians were cultivating these local plants before or only after the arrival of the Southwest Asian package,” Diamond says (101). Not only were many areas given the gift of a large amount of plants and animals, but its people were smart enough to make domestication work.

With the gift of plants and animals to domesticate, areas had to be able to spread its domesticated food for the benefit of the world. Its ability to spread food production depended on its location. If the area had a lond East-West axis, it had a similar climate throughout the area, and it was then able to move food production through the entire land mass. If the area had a short East-West axis, it had a limited amount of land with a similar climate. The Fertile Crescent was located on the Eurasian land mass, which had a considerably long East-West axis. New Guinea had very few domesticated plants and no domesticated animals (100). This was due to the fact that other countries could not spread their domesticated foods to New Guinea because it was an island. Also, Africa had a difficult time spreading food production. “Contrast the ease of East-West diffusion in Eurasia with the difficulties of diffusion along Africa’s North-South axis,” Diamond challenges the reader (186). Of course, the climate differences that come with a primarily North-South axis make it nearly impossible to adapt plants and animals. Upon obtaining desirable land in a desirable location, one will find that even the most primitive cultures could have domesticated food. But give an advanced society land in a poor location, and they will have very little success in cultivating food.