Had humans evolved and spread from Mesoamerica rather than Africa, things would be so much different. The livestock would be different as well as the domestication of the animals. On page 160, Diamond lists the major five species of big herbivorous domestic mammals and mentions that the top five are sheep, goats, cows, pigs, and horses. What I noticed was that it says that these animals were found either in West and Central Asia, Eurasia, and North Africa. These animals were and still are very important because they provide so much. For example cows produce milk, cheese, and meat and pigs can be eaten as well so as far as those animals, they are very important.
Horses were very helpful when it came to humans spreading. Humans domesticated these animals and they turned out to be very useful. It would've taken much longer for humans to spread around the world without the help of horses, mainly. The reason it would've been different had humans evolved in Mesoamerica is because horses weren't found in that area of the world. Everything would've been much slower. If humans started spreading from Mesoamerica and moved west to Eurasia and Africa, it would've been harder for them to domesticate these animals. It would've taken them much longer to begin working with crops if they didn't have domesticated animals because these animals have been proven to be very helpful with crops. For example cows provide the plants with very good fertilizer. Of course Mesoamerica had animals of their own such as llamas and alpacas but even then, it would take longer for them to spread. Humans who evolved in Africa, of course, had a difficult time at first with getting food since almost half of Africa is dessert, but once they stumbled upon the Fertile Crescent, they were good to go. With all this being said, one can only say that had Mesoamerica been the new Africa, the whole spreading around the world process would've been slower, animal domestication would've been more difficult, and it would've taken longer for societies to develop.
I believe you overlooked animal and human evolution together and its impact. The reason there were so few animals in the Americas to domesticate is because the people killed them all when they arrived. The animals hadn’t evolved with humans and therefore didn’t know how to respond to them, so it was easy for the people to kill them off. If life started in Mesoamerica those same animals would have known how to react to humans. But, the animals in Africa and Eurasia wouldn’t have evolved with humans and wouldn’t know how to react to them. So it is very likely that when human beings finally reached Eurasia and Africa rather than try to domesticate those animals they would have killed them all off first, and as a consequence we would have never had Eurasian chickens, cows, pigs, horses, etc…
ReplyDeleteThe statement that you made about horses providing transportation for humans is true, but I think that you forgot that horses were also used for battle. Horses were very helpful on the battle field because they allowed the owners to escape and attack by surprise. It also allowed them to attack much quicker which would overwhelm the people under attack. Horses were like battle tanks and nothing could have stopped them. I believe that their purpose in battle was much more valuable than their purpose in transportation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your argument because all the animals that Diamond mentioned are still very important to us today. I also have to commend Richard on the fact that he mentioned the horses were also use for battle and a way to escape. When changing the geographic location of our evolutional process you have to consider factors such as climate change, technology, and food differences.
ReplyDeleteLike Erika mentioned above, I have to agree. The domestication of these animals are very important to us even today! If we would have tried to domesticate Zebras instead of Horses, even though they are alike, it would have complicated many things. For example, they are carnivores, ad they live in the wild. So domesticating them would have become difficult.
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