Why white people dominate (part 1)

Why do some people do better than others? Or, rather, why do some peoples do better than others? Why do some nations become prosperous and powerful, when others endure poverty? Or why do some nations invade, while others are invaded? Why, for instance, did the Spanish sail to America and conquer the Inca, rather than the Inca sail to Europe and conquer the Spanish? This is question Jared Diamond sets out to answer in his book Guns, Germs and Steel.

Traditionally, the answer has been that some peoples are inherently different to others. Europeans are just more intelligent, more innovative and more inquisitive than native Americans. And therefore they developed states, weapons and ships, when the Inca did not. This explanation has a long history. It was given scientific credibility as social Darwinism, and was used, in various iterations, to justify colonialism, the slave trade, racial segregation and apartheid.

And the attitude is as prevalent today as it ever has been. In his New History of Art, Paul Johnson explains that today’s stone age cultures (e.g. in New Guinea) can’t inform us of the artistic traditions of our European stone-age ancestors because they “self-evidently don’t have the dynamism and imagination to lift themselves out of their situation.”  Johnson is really just saying that Europeans are better than New Guineans. Why else would they still be stuck in the stone-age, while Europe has been civilized for thousands of years?

Unsurprisingly, however, this assumption just doesn’t hold water when it is investigated. Diamond spent decades in New Guinea, studying the birds and the cultures. Contrary to racist assumptions, he found that New Guineans are just as intelligent, just as innovative and just as inquisitive as the the natives of his home town, Los Angeles. A New Guinean knows the location and properties of thousands of wild plants. They can navigate accurately through dense jungle, as well as navigate the jungle of tribal politics and alliances.

Why then are they still using stone tools? If people are just as intelligent and imaginative wherever you go, why have some societies developed printing and parliaments, while others have not?

Stay tuned for part 2.

Photo by laurieciao via Flickr