Why is Yali's question in Guns, Germs, and Steel important to us today?

In
, Yali asks Diamond why white men have so much cargo and people in New
Guinea have so little. Many of the multiple conflicting interpretations of the question and of
Diamonds answer are analyzed in Errington and Gewertzs book Yali's
Question. The fact that so many people have taken interest in the question in itself
constitutes an argument for its continued relevance.

One of the key elements
of the question is the term cargo. Most readers (and viewers of the related PBS video) have
interpreted this as synonymous for wealth or manufactured goods. By extension, they have
seen Yali as asking Diamond to explain why the authors native country or region is wealthier
than the one where Yali lives. A primary critique of that perspective is an implicit accusation
of injustice, or a colonialist approach in which the West extracts resources from the rest of
the world and uses them to manufacture goods for sale, often to consumers...