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by synergy on January 25th, 2008

synergy

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Some civilizations move foward. Some do not. Ancient rome was very advanced, being a catalyst for how we live now. Third world countries seem not to advance. Ex: Zooloo tribe, Amazon tribes. Why is it that some advance, invent, etc.. while others don't?

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  • by rinvor on January 29th, 2008

    rinvor

    Really it's a combination of a number of factors. One of the main things is the suitability of conditions. Civilisations like those which arose in the Fertile Crescent, along the Yangtze etc had favourable conditions in which to develop technologically e.g. good farming land, relatively easily domesticated animals, climate not too extreme etc.

    For example, much of sub-Saharan Africa has more extreme climate, and do you fancy trying to domesticate lions and quaggas? Or take South America -peoples like the Incas developed a complex civilisaqtion but were limited by their mmountainous Andes location. That has implications for farming and so on, and they had no work-animals or beasts of burden bigger than llamas.

    Again some of these countries did actually develop and advance quite far - I've already mentioned the Inca empire and there are plenty of others. Looking specifically at the ones you mentioned, there is evidence emerging that Amazon cultures may actuallly have been much more complex and urbanised in pre-Columbian times than we realised, with cities along the riverbanks. The Zulus may also have been developing greater political organisation, cultural complexity etc at the time of Shaka before Europeans attacked them in the Zulu Wars. The Zulus and Amazonians many not quite have been the equivalents of Rome but they weren't doing too badly considering the difficulties they faced. Would you have preferred to be setting up a civilization in the Mesopotamian plains along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates at the crossroads of cross-fertilizing cultures that was the Fertile Crescent, or along the banks of the river Amazon in the depths of the tropical jungle?


    (Btw if you want to read more on it one good book would be '1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus' by Charles Mann').

    Comments

    • I thankyou for the answer. But I still don't understand why some people are driven to invent, question, re-invent etc. While others do not. Great answer, but I tend to grasp simplicity. I'll check out the book. Thanks again

      synergy

      by synergy on February 2nd, 2008

    • You're welcome - sorry it didn't really help. A simplified version....

      There are different reasons.

      Luck and the environment are important - much easier for cities and civilisations to advance in fertile farmland than in a desert or jungle.

      Some cultures also seem to be simply more conservative in outlook, especially isolated ones that don't have the benefit of new ideas from neighbours who have a different culture.

      extragon20

      by extragon20 on February 5th, 2008

    • yeah, I suppose the original joint answer was a bit complex and not as coherent as it might have been.

      rinvor

      by rinvor on February 5th, 2008

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