IP Blog

Location is the most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production.  Only a certain amount of edible plants grow in certain locations.  This then limits the society’s amount of available consumable calories.  Most locations have edible plants that are few and far between which makes it virtually impossible to become a stratified society.  Diamond explains, “Among wild plant and animal species, only a small minority are edible to humans or worth hunting or gathering.  Most biomass (living biological matter) on land is in the form of wood and leaves, most of which we cannot digest.” (88) This then means that a location with a suitable amount of edible plants is important to evolve from hunter gather to farmer herder.  Let’s take the Fertile Crescent for instance.  This area appears to have been the first sight of well, civilization, but why?  One advantage they had was that it lies within a zone of Mediterranean climate.  A Mediterranean climate has mild, wet winters and long hot dry summers.  This environment is great for annuals a small plant that lives during the rains, dries up and dies in the dry season and comes back annually.  The Fertile Crescent also happens to have many annual cereals and pulses which are edible to humans (Diamond, 136).  These edible plants then raise the amount of consumable calories a society is exposed to, which then leads to a denser population.  Location is a major factor in not only consumable calories it also plays a large role in demesticable animals.

Location had a huge impact on domesticated animals.  Let’s begin with the definition of a candidate for domestication.  Diamond defines it as “a species of terrestrial, herbivorous or omnivorous, wild mammal on the average over 100 pounds.” (162) Eurasia happens to have most candidates with 72 species while sub-Saharan Africa comes in second with 51.  This seems to be common sense though because Eurasia is the world’s largest landmass after all and has many diverse habitats.  Sub-Saharan Africa being a smaller landmass with fewer habitats obviously will have fewer species of candidates.  The interesting information comes when we look at percentages of candidates domesticated.  Eurasia domesticated 13 (18%) species while Sub-Saharan Africa domesticated none (0%).  Not only did Eurasia domesticate 13 species they domesticated thirteen of “The Ancient Fourteen Species of Big Herbivorous Domestic Mammals” (160-163).  So why did Eurasia domesticate so many species, were they just lucky?  Luck may have played a small factor but I believe it was because their location allowed them to inhabit diverse places that had many suitable species with all the right characteristics.  Location determines things like crops and domesticables but its nothing without and east/ west axis. 

Part of a good location is an east/ west axis.  This is important because once a society has established farming and domesticables it must grow and spread.  To successfully spread your crops and domesticables to other herds and tribes a society must do it in a latitudinal manor (176).  This is because “Day length is constant throughout the year at the equator, but at temperature latitudes it increases as the months advance from the winter solstice to the summer solstice, and it then declines again through the next half of the year.”(184) East/ west axes are also beneficial it will pass through many diverse habitats.  It also promises similar temperatures, day lengths and growing seasons.  Location determines a socities edible plants, domesticable animals, and ability to grow and flourish.  That is why location is most important contributory element that guarantees the rise and spread of domesticables enabling food production.

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