Study Questions for Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, Chapter 18
1) This chapter should be an easy one--lots of summary. What I
want you to do is to write, using your own words, one paragraph that summarizes
the objectives of this chapter, "Hemispheres Colliding."
Remember the structure of the book itself. We began with introductory
matters where Diamond lays out his argument. We moved on to the ultimate
answers for Yali's question. Then we moved to the proximate answers of
Yali's question. Now we are in a section that does something else.
Be sure that your paragraph uses the logic of proximate and ultimate
distinctions.
2) So this chapter does much to bring it all together. But
Diamond does introduce one last topic. He wonders why the first collision
of the hemispheres (Norse, circa 1000 CE) didn't lead to the demographic
transition that we know begins in the 1500s (i.e., the demographic transition
in the