The domestication of wild plants and the truths of life

I’ve been reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, which means my thoughts have been even more on development recently. But not on work that I am doing, but what laid the foundation thousands of the years ago that I am here and my neighbors are not in the United States.

(If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. It takes some concentration, but its scope is outstanding. That I am reading this book now had a direct effect on my appreciation of it. The question posed in the prologue is a question that I hear everyday: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”)

In Chapter 14, Diamond lays out a nice chart mapping the evolution of societies from bands to states. What struck me when I was reading it was how much the society in which I am currently living lands in characteristics that pertain to all four of the categories of societies he outlines.

Certainly, my village is part of the country of Benin. It relies on a central government to partition resources and enforce laws. But there are many times when if there is a choice between choosing the modern or traditional methods of an action, we go traditional. For example, there is no courthouse in my village. If there is a disagreement between citizens, they visit the King for a resolution. The government has no need to be informed of such things.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, as much as G,G,&S is the most successful explanation of worldwide human development of which I know, it also fails in some senses. It would be impossible to be able to tell all the truths of life and development around the world.

In some way, what I’m trying to do with this blog is tell the truths of life in Benin. (The judgment of my success or failure is up to you.) But even after I will live here for almost 27 months, this is an unattainable goal. I cannot know all the truths of Benin. Even Dave, who lives 5k away from me, is having a difference volunteer experience than I am. His truths of life in Benin are different than mine.

So, I guess that the only thing that you can do is try to find your truths. And realize how those truths will shape the person that you become.