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re: Why has sub-Saharan Africa never progressed beyond mud huts?
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:23 pm to Bayou445
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:23 pm to Bayou445
Read the book Guns, Germs and Steel.
The basic answer is that the Sahara Desert kept them isolated from the world for centuries while the rest of the world was traveling, progressing, sharing technologies and languages.
It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist.
Other factors are IQ and tribalism, which the book doesn’t address (probably from fear of not being published)
The basic answer is that the Sahara Desert kept them isolated from the world for centuries while the rest of the world was traveling, progressing, sharing technologies and languages.
It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist.
Other factors are IQ and tribalism, which the book doesn’t address (probably from fear of not being published)
3
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:26 pm to Thundercles
i believe it goes back to the original groups of people who migrated from africa. they had to deal with a whole set of new environmental challenges and circumstances that made them become more creative in their building, farming, hunting and overall living situations.
when its cold enough to kill you for half the year, the same old way of life doesn't work anymore. necessity is the mother of invention, and once that inventiveness is engrained in a society and people see it working to produce better life outcomes, they adopt similar philosophies and teach others.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:26 pm to Bayou445
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:29 pm to Bayou445
They did.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:30 pm to LordSaintly
quote:
Nairobi
Entire continent...names ONE city
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:35 pm to Bayou445
A grass hut and self sufficient lifestyle sounds kind of nice right now. Maybe we’re the idiots?…
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:37 pm to LordSaintly
quote:
It’s not all mud huts. There are modern cities by western standards, like Nairobi.
I'm sure it's all African architecture and African engineering and construction techniques.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:39 pm to Bayou445
Bono stole all their money.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:39 pm to Bayou445
Idk enough about their societies to judge one way or the other.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:40 pm to Masterag
quote:
i believe it goes back to the original groups of people who migrated from africa. they had to deal with a whole set of new environmental challenges and circumstances that made them become more creative in their building, farming, hunting and overall living situations
The same is true for Africa proper. It is an exceedingly large landmass with several distinct biomes in close proximity to one another. It's one reason why humans can live in a wide variety of environments, as human ancestors were highly suited to multiple environments.
A post-Neolithic example is the habitation of the Niger River Delta around 3000 BCE. The area was relatively uninhabitable for humans until environmental changes in the region made it difficult for diseases of zoonotic origin to survive, although the surrounding area still was endemic with them. Large-scale habitation occurred only after then.
quote:
when its cold enough to kill you for half the year, the same old way of life doesn't work anymore. necessity is the mother of invention, and once that inventiveness is engrained in a society and people see it working to produce better life outcomes, they adopt similar philosophies and teach others.
Life in pre-colonial Africa was not idyllic or something. There are several features of it that indicate high degrees of adaptation, especially robust trade networks that were Trans-Saharan, including routes between points that currently do not have roads linking them. Indeed, every inhabited area of Africa was linked to the wider global trade network.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:42 pm to LordSaintly
quote:
There are still hunter gatherer tribes in South America.
Modern civilization in South America is due to European colonization. It was basically identical to Africa before that.
I'm guessing you never heard of the Incas, or all the others that pre-date them.Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:43 pm to Tantal
quote:
I'm sure it's all African architecture and African engineering and construction techniques.
I never said it was.
Most of the modern world is influenced by the west and European culture. Why should Africa be any different?
Skyscrapers are a Western invention, but they are on every continent.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:46 pm to Errerrerrwere
quote:
Entire continent...names ONE city
Do you think Kinshasa, Nairobi, Lagos, Luanda, Dar es Salaam and Accra, among many others, are still made of mud huts or something?
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:48 pm to greygoose
quote:
Why, in the ENTIRE history of humans is, there has never been a group of people there that has evolved beyond hunters and gatherers..
This is entirely wrong.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:49 pm to Bjorn Cyborg
quote:
The basic answer is that the Sahara Desert kept them isolated from the world for centuries while the rest of the world was traveling, progressing, sharing technologies and languages.
So, what you are saying is, PEOPLE evolved and grew more intelligent. Meanwhile, in sub-Saharan Africa.....just like it was 100,000 years ago?
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:50 pm to Bayou445
That there’s bait!
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:51 pm to greygoose
quote:
I'm guessing you never heard of the Incas, or all the others that pre-date them.
The Inca were mostly in Peru. Wasn't the rest of the continent mostly hunter-gatherer?
Subsaharan Africa also had localized empires in a mostly hunter-gatherer continent.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:53 pm to Bjorn Cyborg
quote:
Read the book Guns, Germs and Steel.
The basic answer is that the Sahara Desert kept them isolated from the world for centuries while the rest of the world was traveling, progressing, sharing technologies and languages.
Guns, Germs, and Steel isn't entirely accurate. He makes the case for geographic determinism but doesn't use cases in Africa. Regardless, the notion that the Sub-Saharan landmass wasn't connected to the larger Eurasian trade network is not true in the slightest.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:54 pm to Errerrerrwere
quote:
Entire continent...names ONE city
It was just an example.
Posted on 8/29/22 at 10:54 pm to Bjorn Cyborg
quote:For a good laugh.
Read the book Guns, Germs and Steel
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