Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” is a challenging read which does a cursory look at the role that environment and location both have upon human technological development.

But based on the severe critique of the book by other anthropologists, I’m learning to take it with a grain of salt.

The same perceived “environmental determinism” which drives much the book’s narrative can also be tied to the genetic determinism which has been used to justify scientific racism and its many related tragedies.

Instead, it would be better to consider both environmental and social factors.

A people may have been lucky enough to be in a certain place where a certain food crop was plentiful, but they also had to be lucky enough for someone else from somewhere else to show them how to preserve their bodies and food over the winter.

If you’re at the right place at the right time, have the right geography, and encounter the right people under the best terms, your people can go pretty far in the long run.

Those best terms do not include colonialism. Colonialism is one of the worst terms, actually.

#GunsGermsAndSteel #Anthropology