Latitude and Longitude
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.
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