Guns, Germs, and Steel 2

Today I've got another post on Guns, Germs, and Steel, specifically about chapters 5-8. These four chapters describe the introduction of agriculture to humans and why agriculture went in the direction it did. To begin with, why did some cultures begin farming earlier than others? It wasn't an issue of geography; many fertile areas were not farmed earlier than less fertile ones, but an issue of necessity. Some cultures found that hunting and gathering was more effective than farming.

More importantly, why did some plants and animals become domesticated and others not? The answer is that there are certain criteria that all domesticated life must meet, if a certain plant or animal fails in one of these areas, it's not worth domesticating. In my opinion, this means that the success of certain culture comes down mainly to chance. If, in the beginning, you found that the area you lived in was full of game, you wouldn't bother with farming. On the other hand, a less lively area with fertile land would support farming and eventually those farmers would discover the benefits of having a food surplus and their society would advance. Also, the lazier hunters mentioned above would have hunted most domesticate-able animals. We can see this through Native Americans who hunted the indigenous horses of the Americas. Later, they would find that without horses, they were militarily disadvantaged since they had no cavalry which undoubtedly made it easier for the Europeans to exterminate them. All in all, it was the time an circumstance of human introduction to a certain region that determined the success of those particular humans, although the results may take thousands of years to play out.