Reasons for the cultural lags in the Indian civilizations of the Americas

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Thomas Sowell in some of his writings points out some facts giving great insight into the cause of the cultural lags of the Indian civilizations of the Americas as compared to those of the Old World.

For thousands of years the people of the Old World living on that great Eurasian land mass stretching over Europe, Asia, China, India and Africa thought that that land mass was the entire world. They didn’t realize that other large land masses also existed. They were totally unaware of that large American land mass consisting of North, Central and South America. And they were unaware of the Australian land mass and that land mass of Antarctica.

The main foods of man in the Old World were the cereal grains rice, wheat, oats, rye, and barley; flesh and milk from cattle, sheep, and goats; and other foods such as fruit, dates and honey. In addition the people had tamed horses, donkeys and camels and used them in pulling and carrying loads and as sources of milk and meat for thousands of years. Draft animals were in common use in Mesopotamia before 3000 BC for farm work and for pulling wheeled vehicles. Horses and camels were used in warfare. All of these things defined their agriculture, way of life, and way of thinking through the centuries. The draft animals allowed them to plow fields using an invented plow and gave them an incentive to invent the wheel and the cart for hauling things.

Now all of this contrasted with the situation over in the New World. None of these grains or domesticated animals native to the great Eurasian land mass are native to the American land mass and did not exist there until they were brought there by Europeans. For thousands of years people on the Eurasian land mass had these beasts of burden for pulling and carrying things to help them in their lives and the people on the American landmass didn’t. Foods native to the Americas included corn (maize), squash, beans, tomatoes, peppers, avocados, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, peanuts, sunflowers, wild rice, papayas, chocolate, and amaranth but methods of growing them didn’t include the draft animal farming techniques of the Old World. Animals native to the Americas include the racoon, llama, alpaca, jaguar, bald eagle, groundhog, American bison, American alligator, California condor, pronghorn antelope, armadillo, capybara, caiman, and anaconda but there were no domesticated cows, goats, sheep, horses, etc. There were wolves, mountain lions, lynxes, and other animals.

Although in the high Andes the llama was used as a beast of burden, throughout most of the Americas there were no beasts of burden or draft animals capable of pulling things (except for dogs which some tribes used). There were no animals comparable to the horse, oxen, donkey and camel that could be used for plowing fields (or pulling carts) — ruling out the kind of agriculture practiced in the old world and all of the economic efficiencies of such techniques. As a consequence, there was no incentive to invent the wheel or the cart.

American Indians raised corn, potatoes, and other foods but only by hand labor.

The Indians of the Americas had canoes but there was little incentive to build large boats because of lack of ways to move large loads to and from the boats. Consequently ease and volume of trade was much less in the Americas compared with the Old World.

There is another fact that is insightful in understanding the differences in economic and cultural development of the Americas as compared to the Old World. The Eurasian land mass stretches from east to west while the American land mass stretches from north south. Because similar crops grow at similar latitudes, agricultural knowledge (knowledge for growing a particular crop as, say wheat) could easily move from east to west in the Old World. Because different kinds of crops grow at different latitudes agricultural knowledge does not move readily from north to south. Knowledge of how to grow a particular crop as, say, bananas, doesn’t get transmitted in a north-south direction. Similarly many tropical animals do not exist in colder climates so knowledge of how to hunt or domesticate animals does not transfer as far from north to south as from east to west.

Another cause of the difference in cultural development between these two land masses is the great size of the Eurasian land mass compared to the American land mass and the many rich cultures that developed there (as the Greek, Roman, Chinese, Indian, Mesopotamian and Egyptian). Communication between cultures causes the spread of knowledge and discoveries and the total store of knowledge increases.

Lack of draft animals and beasts of burden (along with isolation) would also account for the lack of cultural advancement of the aborigines of Australia.

13 Dec 2023