Re: The joy of actual numbers, was Democracy

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 03/11/2024 19:49, Peter Flass wrote:

I’ve never understood why native Americans didn’t use the wheel.

 
You kinda need a road to go with it.

I was thinking this, too, but wagons were used extensively, if not
invented, by the “Aryan” Yamnaya people from the eurasian steppes. They
trekked in their wagons from Europe to China.  Likewise the American
pioneers in their covered wagons. What they did have were oxen and horses.
The Indians only had bison, which I don’t think domesticate well. Of course
the Lapps had reindeer, and the americas had elk, which might have worked.
There were roads in the americas. The Mayas had an extensive road system,
as apparently did the amazonian peoples. In the US, Chaco Canyon was the
center of a system of roads connecting outlying pueblos over a couple of
current states.

 

Maybe the
Incas, because mountain trackways aren’t to conducive to wheeled traffic,
but besides Chaco the Mayans and the Amazonian civilization had roads with
no wheels. I also don’t understand why there was no American bronze age
when they certainly used metals, including copper.

 
The chinese would kill inventors who threatened the need for people to
do the work.
 

--
Pete