Non-European Technology

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences,University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

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Primary emphasis on Americas, some on polynesia, Africa; Japanand China are covered elsewhere.

Technologically "Simple" Cultures

Often have highly ingenious technologies.

• Stone-working (pressure flaking).
• Sewing.
• Pottery.
• Atlatl or throwing-stick.
• Bow and arrow, blowgun.
• Bomerang (Australia)--an amazingly sophisticated aerodynamic device.
• Toggle-joint harpoon (Inuit).
• Boat making
  • Dugout
  • Skin or bark over framework
  • Reed
• Fire bow or drill.

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Technologically higher cultures

• Animal domestication.
• Agriculture.
• Metal work.

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Some achievements of Native America

• Metal working
  • Hammered copper--Great Lakes
  • Casting originated in Colombia ca. 100 B.C.
  • Lost-wax casting in gold
• Urban centers, mound building.
• Astronomical accomplishments
  • Astronomically aligned buildings
  • Maya calendar
• Rotary flywheel (Navajo)
• Crops: maize, squash, potato, tobacco
• Inca accomplishments
  • Roads, bridges
  • Incredibly precise stonework
  • Movement of massive stones
  • Highly organized state
• Why were the following not developed by native Americans?
• Wheel (used in children's toys)
• Iron
• Writing (except Maya)

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Some achievements of other cultures

• polynesian seafaring and colonization
• Statues of Easter Island
• Malay fire-piston
• West African discovery of iron smelting

How Did They Do It?

Time, patience and concentration

Western society emphasizes high output in a short time.

Allied POW's in Germany during WW II accomplished surprising feats with little material but lots of time.

• Forged documents by hand.
• Counterfeited uniforms and civilian clothing.
• Made compasses.
• Cast replicas of buttons and medals.
• Dug lengthy tunnels.

Until the advent of mass-production in the early 19th Century, every object was hand-made and unique.

Moral: the great feats of pre-technological cultures become easyto understand from a standpoint of slow output and greatpatience. Pyramid builders from outer space need not apply.

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European attitudes toward less-developed parts of world

Concept of "wilderness" as desirable is very recent, for the mostpart

• Biblical descriptions of paradise invariably picture cultivatedlandscape; descriptions of wilderness used to portray desolationand destruction.
• General belief that God's original plan for Earth was smooth,cultivated.
• Mountains often viewed as ugly deviations from ideal, rather thanbeautiful.
• North America extraordinarily benign to human occupation: therewere few large carnivores which generally feared humans, fewpoisonous animals
• Eurasia was originally more dangerous; recall fairy-tale accounts of dangerous animals.
• Frontiersmen sometimes valued frontier as place to perform featsof prowess or to conquer or be free from social constraints, but not necessarily as wilderness per se.
• Technology has freed most people from natural dangers of wilderness, hence played leading role in developing wilderness ethic.

Idea that native cultures should be preserved also very recent

• Greco-Roman notions of "barbarians."
• Judeo-Christian concept of "Fall"
• Missionary zeal
• "White man's burden"
• Genuinely abhorrent customs (e.g., human sacrifice by Aztecs) in somecultures.
• Differing concepts of land use and ownership.
• Assimilation as means of eliminating resistance.
• European institutions may have satisfied needs of some members ofculture that own institutions did not.

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Created 20 May 1997
Last Update 20 May 1997