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SEQUENCE:18825227
CREATED:20121109T005500Z
DESCRIPTION:\nFilm evenings begin with optional potluck refreshments & social hour at  
 6:30 pm,\nfollowed by the film at  7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after 
 the film.\n\nGUNS, GERMS and STEEL\nEpisode I:  Out of Eden\nby National 
 Geographic\n\nBased on Jared Diamond’s book of the same name, this 
 National Geographic film Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity’s journey 
 over the last 13,000 years — from the dawn of farming at the end of the 
 last Ice Age to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.  This 
 ambitious, ground-breaking film, following the book, portrays Jared 
 Diamond’s discovery of an answer to the question:  Why were Europeans the 
 ones to conquer so much of our planet — why wasn’t it the Chinese or 
 the Inca?   And why are the tropics now the capital of global 
 poverty?\n\nTo examine the reasons for European dominance, Jared Diamond 
 realized he had to peel back the layers of history and begin his search at 
 a time of equality — a time when all the peoples of the world lived in 
 exactly the same way.  At the end of the last Ice Age, around thirteen 
 thousand years ago, people on all continents followed a Stone Age way of 
 life — they survived by hunting and gathering the available wild animals 
 and plants.  When resources were plentiful, this was a productive way of 
 life.  But in times of scarcity, hunting and gathering was a precarious 
 mode of survival.  Populations remained relatively small, and the simple 
 task of finding food occupied every waking moment.  Around eleven and a 
 half thousand years ago, the world’s climate suddenly changed.  In an 
 aftershock of the Ice Age, temperatures plummeted and global rainfall was 
 reduced.  It was at such a time of scarcity and stress that the 
 agricultural revolution took hold.  The impact of this catastrophe was 
 keenly felt in the Middle Eastern area known as the “Fertile Crescent.” 
  Agriculture was introduced here, including the domestication of certain 
 animals.  Plant and animal domestication — agriculture — was a 
 precursor to the development of advanced civilizations.  Along with the 
 Fertile Crescent, independent domestication of wild plants is believed to 
 have occurred in Ancient China, in Central and Southern America, in 
 sub-Tropical Africa, and in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.  With the 
 introduction of agriculture, social equality became obsolete.  The 
 invention of agriculture, some 12,000 years ago, was the critical turning 
 point in the origins of global inequality.\n\nWheelchair accessible around 
 the corner at  411  28th  Street\n\n$5 donations are expected\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/08/18725327.php
SUMMARY:Film: Guns, Germs and Steel
LOCATION:Humanist Hall\n390  27th  Street\nuptown Oakland, between Telegraph and 
 Broadway\nhttp://www.HumanistHall.org
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/08/18725327.php
DTSTART:20121115T033000Z
DTEND:20121115T053000Z
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