Well, if we look at the book Yali's question is actually
restated in a number of different ways as the book progresses, each of which of course
allows Diamond to cast new light on world history and the way that certain conditions
favoured certain peoples over others. However, perhaps the most encompassing rewording
comes in the Prologue, which can be found in the following
paragraph:
Thus, questions about inequality in the modern
world can be reformulated as follows. Why did wealth and power become distributed as
they now are, rather than in some otehr way? For instance, why weren't Native Americans,
Africans, and Aboriginal Australians the ones who decimated, subjugated, or exterminated
Europeans and Asians?
This
is, essentially, Yali's question in a nutshell, and the rest of the excellent book is
Diamond's attempt (and a very convincing one at that) to answer it. Yali's question
essentially concerns the reason behind inequalities in history, and his rephrasing of
Yali's question in the above quote helpfully gives Diamond a good frame of reference
with which to approach this massive issue.
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