February 2, 2011

Today in class we continued to watch Guns, Germs, and Steel. The people in New Guinea never advanced in society like America and other countries did. The crops that the farmers plants in New Guinea have barely and protein or nutrition. Diamond thinks that another reason could be because of geographic luck, Americans have an advantage over New Guineans because there crops are more nutritious. Scientists have discovered that Americans deal with animals in a better way that the people in New Guinea do. The Americans use the meat, the milk, and the fur of animals while the people in New Guinea are not nearly as resourceful. The invention of the plow helped before the industrial revelation and that helped the Americas. The plow allowed the farmers to grow more food and feed more people. In New Guinea the only animal they really had were pigs and pigs could not pull plows, or provide their hide or fur. Countries want a large meat eating animal that can kill other animals and get more nutrition. People think that zebras could be just as useful as a horse, but they have tempers. Diamond counted 148 animals that weigh over 100 pounds. The 14 domesticated animals are : goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, 2 kinds of camels, water buffalo, llamas, mithan, reindeer, yaks, and bali cattle. Asia, Europe and South America are home of the most domesticated animals.