What factor(s) determine the speed at which a culture goes from primitive to highly developed.?

Question

is it just luck to some degree? is it related to ease of info sharing. what is the most primitive culture today and do they know about the modern world and its ease of life.

Answer 1

When the more primitive cultures learn about technology and modern wonders, the young soon abandon the tribe to search for new treasures. Take the Kung Bushman for instance, ever since we filmed the movie "The God's Must Be Crazy" and its' sequel we have abliterated that tribe and welcomed them into our crazy modern world. The Aborigines tribes in Australia suffered a similar type of fate. The youth abandoned the tribes and now they are living in modern cities in tenement housing.

The speed of which a culture goes from primitive to highly developed is gaining speed with television, films, computers, radio, and all the other communication venues we have to offer. In the old days it would take months/ years for word to travel... now info is a telephone call away.... or a plane ride a way to see the proof. Look how fast disease can spread now. It is scary.

Answer 2

'Primitive' and 'Highly-developed' are extremely insulting terms our country bestows upon others. Basically they are akin to "unlike us" and "like us", respectively; because we like other countries to be like us, in values, behaviors, and looks.

Answer 3

Prior to the modern age where the world is all connected, I suppose it was more or less luck. If a culture was lucky enough to have a person amongst them that invented something really advanced that led to more inventions, then they became more advanced.

In modern times, like I said above, the whole world is connected and so it's not so much the case that primitive cultures don't know about technology as it is that they are too poor to get it.

Also, some cultures intentionally resist modernization and technology. Like tribal people in Africa and South America. or old-style farmers in China. They live like that because they want to.

Answer 4

Environmental factors are key.  Technology develops the quickest when there are resources for its development, like metal deposits and fossil fuels, and competition.  Europe gained prominence because its geography encouraged the development of many small countries that had to compete against each other lest they were overrun.  A certain amount of freedom is also key.  Science could only go so far while the Church was still all-powerful in Europe, and religious fundamentalism is partially responsible for the Islamic world's decline from light of the scientific world to relative scientific backwater.  Jared Diamond's _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ is a really excellent resource to learn about all this.

You can really only rank a society by its technology.  Religions and social structures can be more or less complicated, but that doesn't make them more or less primitive or more or less productive.  It's also not necessarily related to technological achievement.  The Christianity of many Americans- go to church on the major holidays, try to be halfway decent, and God'll probably forgive you- is far less complicated than, say, the Dreaming.  Technological advancement also doesn't necessarily lead to happiness or equality for the society's members.  The US is trying so hard, and failing so spectacularly, to regain the egalitarianism common in hunter/gatherer societies.  Those societies also generally only have to work about 20 hours a week to ensure that their people are fed, while most Americans work at least twice that often with far less of a safety net.    You should check out _The Forest People_.  It's a nice look at a modern hunter/gatherer group.

Answer 5

Technology is the key: advancing mind, body, spirit, or machines... and the modern world isn't all that. In a primitive culture life might be hard in some aspects but its simple and far less stressful then the 9-5 hustle and bustle of todays so-called ease of life. I recently met a 90 year old woman in 3rd world Dominica Republic and she was in d**n good shape compared to the 50 year old heart attack victims of the modern world.

Answer 6

Factors for a community to evolve from primitive to a higher civilized one are so many and social scientists would like to discuss and argue about these.

I would like to discuss change in the Rise and Fall perspective; according to Toynbee, the way t o civilization is through challenge and response. A challenge that is responded with a positive action. The ancient societies first challenge was how are they going to survive, the Egyptians challenge was what are they going to do in a very hot climate. The solution is irrigation, and this paved way to change. But Toynbee would like to argue that it is not purely technology or geographical expansion that will make a society develop, society should consist of creative minority freely imitated and followed by the majority. Meaning somebody's got to lead and if this creative minority becomes tyrannical and become lax, disintegration would start.

Answer 7

Technology, plus our readiness to accept the social impact it produces. Without social restraints we would see anomie and a deteriorating human life into extinction. Each day you live as a human you make a difference in the world's resistance to anomie. The world of communication has gone to the uttermost depths to find a primitive culture and obviously they knew of us beforehand. Too Bad!

Volunteer Counselor Western Illinois University