The original inhabitants of the Americas, and (not) the wheel?

Question

What would the plausible, explicable reason(s) be for practically all original inhabitants of the Americas to ignore, if not shun, the usage of the wheel?

Though most did have a notion of the 3-dimensional circle, even with a central perforation, as in Andean weaponry, f. ex., they seem to have missed a logical step. For such superb engineers as many of these pre-columbian Andean peoples, f. ex., to convert holed circular stones on a stick into axles and wheels, I’d imagine “child’s play”, in the true sense of the word! Was it a religious thing, such as Muslims, who do not portrait humans? Why was it then adopted by all “Amerindians”?

Any in-depth clues?

Havelock J. Campbell

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Answer 1

They knew how to make wheels, it&#039;s just that it wasn&#039;t particularly useful, given the animals and terrain that they had. That they didn&#039;t have the wheel is one of those myths that people repeat a whole lot, but is ultimately based on ignorance.

Answer 2

The areas of advanced civilization in the Americas were usually either jungle, mountain, or desert environments, none of which readily lend themselves to cumbersome wheeled vehicles.  Of course, the Maya, Inca, and others built causeways, had a cyclical idea of time, and even had wheeled toys (yes, literally child&#039;s play hits the nail on the head!), had spindle whorls, and may have even used stone rollers to compact the causeways in some cases, but never used wheeled vehicles.

I think that if the Maya had llamas they would have had them cart wheeled transport, but in the mountainous areas where llama are found it was probably easier to simply use them as pack animals as they could climb the steep narrow slopes that a cart might break loose and fly down.

Answer 3

i think it was because wheeled vehicles weren&#039;t seen as an advantage, given the terrain, etc.

Answer 4

They lacked the domestic animals useful in applying the wheel for large scale purposes (plowing fields, pulling carts, etc.).

Answer 5

Maybe long distance travel wasn&#039;t common enough to inspire the thought process.

Answer 6

They could have had wheeled vehicles archaeologist just haven&#039;t found them yet.  With the lack of metals use they would have been predominantly wooden and wood does not preserve well in tropical environments.

Answer 7

The wheel was known and used in the Americas. There are a number of Aztec toys that are equipped with wheels. In addition rollers were used to move heavy objects.

The reason the wheel wasn&#039;t more utilized was that there simply wasn&#039;t a usable animal to pull it. In Europe and Asia, oxen and horses were used to pull wheeled carts. In the Americas the only real beast of burden was the Llama found in Peru.

That animal weighs between 300 and 450 pounds. Most sites suggest that the animal carry no more then 100 to 150 pounds. Horses weigh about 1000 pounds and can easily carry 200 to 300 pounds.

Any wheel carts would therefore had to be pulled by people and large roads constructed for their use. Instead, people carried loads in their backs. The great Inca road network was primarily built so runners could carry information throughout the empire.

In North America the Great Plains culture, shown by the Sioux tribes, could develop only after the horse reached the area. Before that,  the only animal used to carry loads were dogs.

That&#039;s one reason the Spanish and other Europeans were so effective in their conquests. The horse was an unknown animal and a charge by horsemen could be terrifying.

The horse evolved in North America but died out between 10 and 8 thousand years ago.Had the horse survived, no doubt the extensive use of wheels would have occurred and the Europeans would have had significant problems colonizing the Americas.

Answer 8

Your propostion lacks fundamental research.   The original inhabitants of the Americas had many technologies at their disposal that easily replaced the usefulness of the wheel.

Answer 9

Since they came to the new world from siberia I would think the wheel would have been useless for them in the frozen tundra. The rest of us had the wheel because just one person (probably named Gork) invented it. Now all of us take credit for it.