06-03-2005, 05:03 AM
An anthropological principle is that transfer of human genes, goods and ideas is a lot more efficient along the east-west axis (it was extremely difficult over north-south axis).
This âruleâ however started to have an impact on the way hunter-gatherer societies transitioned toward sedentary agro-societies â about 15-20K years ago. By the time we come to year 2000BC, the result is that east-west axis has consistently distributed human population centers â the logistics are smoothened out and the spread is autocatalytic. Along north-south axis, if you look at Americas you basically end up with only 3 main population centers: SouthEast-North America, Mexico region and the Andes area.
These three civilizations remained largely insulated from each other because the transfer of goods, people and ideas requires intermediate population centers, which were absent. So although the Andean people domesticated lamas, Mexico never really benefited from it and remained without draft animals till they saw horses brought in by the Spaniards.
Domestication of cow and horse was followed by widespread use throughout Eurasia â facilitating the transition from hunter-gatherer society to agrarian societies, which can invest time and effort on innovation and sophistication.
South African Bushmen did not see a âwheelâ till after the arrival of Europeans.
This âruleâ however started to have an impact on the way hunter-gatherer societies transitioned toward sedentary agro-societies â about 15-20K years ago. By the time we come to year 2000BC, the result is that east-west axis has consistently distributed human population centers â the logistics are smoothened out and the spread is autocatalytic. Along north-south axis, if you look at Americas you basically end up with only 3 main population centers: SouthEast-North America, Mexico region and the Andes area.
These three civilizations remained largely insulated from each other because the transfer of goods, people and ideas requires intermediate population centers, which were absent. So although the Andean people domesticated lamas, Mexico never really benefited from it and remained without draft animals till they saw horses brought in by the Spaniards.
Domestication of cow and horse was followed by widespread use throughout Eurasia â facilitating the transition from hunter-gatherer society to agrarian societies, which can invest time and effort on innovation and sophistication.
South African Bushmen did not see a âwheelâ till after the arrival of Europeans.