That's unfair. They had a different philosophy of life. The Egyptians didn't discover the wheel either. They saw enemy chariots and copied them.Rokcet Scientist wrote:Egypt – 3,500 years BC and all through ancient history – was a land of plenty too, Frank*. So, according to your theory, they also had "little incentive to advance technically". Yet, the contrary is true: civilisation and technologies advanced greatly in ancient Egypt...Frank Harrist wrote:This [North-America] was a land of plenty. There was little incentive to advance technically.
I.o.w.: living in a land of plenty does NOT automatically mean there's no incentive to develop technology! There is no link!
* Greek writers amply documented their surprise at the Egyptians' easy life. The Egyptians didn't work hard at all. 'Cause they didn't have to. They lived the good life. The Nile brought everything they needed.
So, since there don't seem to be any other explanations, and since nobody on this forum actually (apparently) has the guts to say it out loud (though Bob hinted at it), I'll say it for you:
the reason NA Indians' civilisation and technologies have stagnated in the past 11,000 years is because they are stupid and lazy!
In fact the NA Indians, as a people/race, were so totally useless for normal day-to-day work*, that real workers were desperately needed. Ergo: the reason for the black slave trade!
*Has anything changed...?
A stupid, lazy person wouldn't be able to live off the land, or independently invent agriculture. Or build huge earthen mounds one basket of dirt at a time. Or take only what they needed from a buffalo herd or team up to slaughter a mammoth. They were different, but that doesn't make them inferior. Who says our way of life is better? Technology isn't necessarily always a good thing. We as a technologically advanced people have lost a lot. How many of us could live for even a few days in the wild with only the tools we manufacture for ourselves? We destroyed their way of life by exterminating bison nearly to extinction. By taking the land they needed to hunt and farm on. The sterotype of "wild plains indians" doesn't fit the majority of people who were here. If you think that superior technology is what made it possible for the europeans to practically wipe out the NAs you are mistaken. It was disease, which they had no way to combat, because it was diseases they had never encountered before. They had medicine, admittedly some of it was primitive, but some worked better than our modern stuff. But having had no reason to come up with cures for diseases they didn't even know existed they were very vulnerable. They were human and had their faults, but they also had their virtues but judging them by our standards isn't fair. They saw no need to invent things to make life easier, their life was just like they wanted it. Comparing one culture to another like that (NAs to Egyptians) isn't an accurate way to judge a culture. They all have their reasons for being the way they are.
); what they thought, how spend their time, the facts of ten thousands years where have gone? 