Therefore, for early foragers harvestability must have been a high priority. Ripe seeds of wild plants separate from the mother plant very easily: They shatter. The natural tendency for a wild plant is to spread its seeds as far and wide as possible so that next generation will have more chance to grow on favorable habitats. However recent genetic findings in major crops that have been domesticated independently in different parts of the world tell us a very fascinating convergent story. Diamond lumps plant domestication traits such as nutrition, productivity, harvestability and storability as if they were selected by our ancestors simultaneously. However as it happens to every documentary domestication of plants needs an update. There’s also a simplified narrative of the book by PBS.ĭiamond captured the essence of animal domestication superbly. You can find a great encapsulation of this episode published in Nature Magazine in 2002. This first episode is dedicated to plant and animal domestication in different geographical settings. Throughout the book historical and geographical roots of global inequality and resource distribution is explored. It is a very successful non-racist whirlwind tour of human history. Guns, Germs and Steel is a landmark Pulitzer prize winning book by Jared Diamond published in 1997.
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