Why did the Aborigines not develop complex metal tools, writing or politically complex societies?

Question

from guns, germs and steel book

Answer 1

They had an abundant supply of flint and obsidian and could weave baskets with such a tight weave that they were waterproof and so didnt need pottery.

Politically complex?

Corroborees werent just gatherings for ceremonies.

They were intra and inter clan and tribal gatherings used for negiotating for hunting rights and for trading goods and suppplies networked from all across the continent.

Answer 2

From a strictly unprofessional view why develop something that isn't needed? If their culture required something they would have followed that need. Don't you think? Look at that culture today mostly it is still without all the encumbrances that other societies find so enthralling.

Answer 3

Which aborigines? The first impression was that this is about the Australian aborigines.

In Australia, people arrived some 40,000 years ago. They adapted to the desert conditions and were nomadic. Put simply, they couldn't carry a lot of processions and couldn't gather in big groups for too long a time.Much the same conditions and adaption is found in the Great Basin region of the United States.

On the other hand a great plains culture established a complex social culture. There were various societies that guards the camp and enforced the rules and multiple chiefs for management or war. That the society wasn't a twin of the Western European isn't justification for not seeing it as complex.

Note the use of the word "Aborigine." It means "first people in a region or natives" Who coined the phrase and who applied it to the inhabitants? Seems evidence that history is written by the victors.

Answer 4

If you read Jared Diamonds book you should know that it all comes down to food production.  

Answer 5

Oh come on. They were using face paint long before William Wallace. What more do you want?

Answer 6

It takes quite a lot of technology to be advanced before you get to forging steel.  Usually it starts by making pottery.  As the ability to make hotter fires grows and more materials are available, they would probably smelt copper or some metal they find on the ground.  Iron takes more heat and technology and steel even more.  The Australian Aborigines were nomadic so wouldn't have had the same need for pottery which is more useful in a non-nomadic society.  They were also isolated from other people who would have brought in new technology.  Writing supposedly develops only rarely.  It is believed that most of the writing except in America was influenced by the Babylonians that that influence never reached Australia until modern times.   Being hunter gatherers, they couldn't support nearly the population that could be supported by agriculture.  That sort of society also tends to not have skilled craftsmen because gathering food takes so much time.