Guns, Germs, and Steel Video Notes

• Jared Diamond
• author (video inspired by book)
• professor in ULCA
• biologist in training
• real passion: study of birds
• specialist in human physiology
• expert of birds in New Guinea
• the haves = have money, power, food
• the have-nots = do not have money, power, food
• story begins in Papua, New Guinea
• people have been living in Papua, New Guinea for over 40,000
• poorer than most Americans 
• most diverse culture
• "why you white men have so much cargo, and we, New Guineans, have so little?"
• cargo (defined by New Guinean) = material goods that Western Americans brought and evidence of white mans power
• colonist believe power determined by race (ex. making New Guineans carry colonists across water to avoid becoming wet)
• all great civilizations have something in common (ex. Greek, Romans, Egyptians)
• advanced technology
• large populations
• a well organized work force
• pre-history = before we started to write things down
• New Guineans still live like in pre-history
• 13,000 years ago everyone in the world lived the hunter and gatherer lifestyle
• no tribes, villages, groups
• ate --> once everything was gone, moved on to new area
• most of gathering is done by women
• most effective, but not a lot of calories and nutrients
• sago = main food of New Guineans
• low protein, high carbs, hard to store
• fills you up, easy to process
• grains that grew back then
• barley and wheat --> could be stored for years
• draa = one of earliest permanent villages
• granary = enclosed area to store food
• people are growing own food
• planting where they want
• controlling food --> don't have to keep moving