> There may be more, but Australia, Sub Saharan Africa, and the population of early North America are among areas where the 3 Rs never made much of an appearance......in a fashion we generally consider ‘civilised’.....Not sure the wheel showed up either in those places.......
Neither the wheel nor metal nor a written language found their way to New Zealand, yet nobody would seriously argue that the Maori didn’t have a highly developed, rich and sophisticated society that focused on what they did very, very best of all: making war on each other and on other peoples in the region, hooning around the South Pacific in very seaworthy handmade vessels, cooking and eating people and committing centuries of detailed history, bush lore and navigational know-how to memory.
I have met Maori who can recite, word-perfect, their genealogy from today back to 900 AD, complete with cross-references to other genealogies, witty asides and interesting anecdotes about various of their ancestors. This recitation is called their “whakapapa” and as you can imagine it can take a very, very long time.
Not many folk from Mensa could easily do that.
What you seem to be arguing is that different races of people produce different types of cultures, and that each is good at doing what it does best. I can’t disagree with you on that. You also seem to be arguing that it’s subjective to argue that one culture is superior to another. I can’t disagree with you on that, either. Some people may prefer to live in a Maori-style culture.
The problem is, there are people who think human beings are blank slates, and that every race of people is exactly like every other race of people. Such people expect every race to perform identically well at every task, and when that doesn’t happen, they immediately start looking for discrimination, bigotry, oppression, or some external factor to explain the discrepancy. The result is affirmative action, silly arguments about white privilege, and so forth.
And you can prove this assertion how? Unless there is written documentation that his recitation is accurate, then you only have his word that it is valid. You may accept that as verification, but I have seen oral history in action. Watch the commercial for Oreo Cakesters as an example. If you haven't seen it, it starts with a kid a school cafeteria opening a pack of new Oreo Cakesters. The word that he has a pack begins to spread across the room in whispers. By the time the message gets to the other side of the room, the message that kid X has new Oreo Cakesters evolves to the point that the message becomes that kid X has his first chest hair. The point is no matter how much effort is involved, a message gets garbled more and more with each retelling until it no longer resembles its original form.
recitation is indicative of recitation
i used to could recite Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride word for word....all 130 odd lines
and I’m dumb as an ox....just ask anyone here who knows me
tolerance of cannibalism is not considered a benchmark in civilization-speak
though who am I to say..lol
As in a movie called Shaka Zulu or sumtin like that?.........Sorry, can't call "what they did very well"etc etc what we call civilised..Btw, my wifes nurse during her cancer was Maori....
These things didn't exactly wash up on the shore one day in civilized countries, either. Development doesn't just happen, gifted individuals make it happen.