The conversation turned to the obvious differences in power and technology between Yali's people and the Europeans who dominated the land for 200 years, differences that neither of them considered due to any genetic superiority of Europeans. The prologue opens with an account of Diamond's conversation with Yali, a New Guinean politician.

When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures (for example, by facilitating commerce and trade between different cultures) and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. A documentary based on the book, and produced by the National Geographic Society, was broadcast on PBS in July 2005. In 1998, it won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (subtitled A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years in Britain) is a 1997 transdisciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond. Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human SexualityĬollapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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