I caught bits and pieces of the Guns documentary on PBS the past couple of weeks. I thought it was fairly well done.
One segment that stood out to me was the bit on New Guinea. The comparisons were made between NG and some of the more technologically advanced regions of the world. His premise was that one of the primary reasons for the technology suppression of those people was due to the crops they planted and harvested. For some reason, I can't remember right now, they were unable to plant some of the mass-producing crops more prevalent in other areas. Despite arid, drought conditions, the middle east had wheat, and of course Asia had rice.
The NG people were also never able to utilize animals to aid with their work, in contrast to other regions where cows and horses were commonly used to till the earth. As a result, nearly all of the time of community members was devoted to feeding themselves, rather than advancing technology. Apparently steel was never introduced to them as a tool until the 60's and 70's.
Interesting spin on things. I don't know if I can necessarily draw a causation for the differences in societies from his conclusions, but I thought the piece was fairly well researched and presented.
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