What are the reasons that prevent some societies from developing in the same way as ours did?

[Luís Santos]

In Africa, for example, there are some societies still living in the same way as their ancestors did many centuries ago.

[crookedfriction852]

Why do you think they are prevented? Also you make vast generalisations. I live in the UK, and there are plenty of people still living the same way their ancestors did. I recently saw a program called "Mountain" that showed a Scottish cattle farmer, who was living on his own in a stone barn tending to cattle, just the very same way that his great, great grandfather did. He did not have a TV or radio, as he was so far away from any signal mast. So apart from the different style of clothes he wore, his lifestyle is that of the 1600s. There are many villages that on the surface look the same as they did a couple of hundred years ago, and in the background there may be many changes, like TV and radio, but the same can be said for most of Africa, a family may farm land like they did centuries ago, but they are now wearing synthetic clothes and they have a radio or even TV.

The best examples to support your argument is tribes in deep rain forest regions of the world like South America and Borneo. And the reason they are still tribal and naked is due to isolation. They don't witness the progress of the rest of the world and therefore don't emulate it. Also the terrain limits social interaction and development. There are no roads in the rain forest, so there is no real access to other tribes to trade, and also other tribes don't really have anything different to offer, as they have access to the same resources and can get the same things themselves. Also the density of the terrain limits movement, so the prospects of a community speading out are limited and difficult.

[Don H]

Sanity?

Love and blessings Don

[gentleDestroyer472]

Oh wow, a person could write a thick book on this. There are a LOT of factors that go into how a society develops. Here are a few off the top of my head:

Religion can have a huge effect. On the whole, religion has been largely a hindrance to progress, with one notable exception being Islam during the middle ages. Generally though, religions do not like having their answers questioned, and many religions treat science as a competing belief system.

Traditionalism. Societies that place a large emphasis on tradition are more conservative and more resistant to change. Tradition and religion often, though not always, reinforce one another.

Isolation. Societies which are more isolated from others--either geographically, or by decree, or from lack of trade, or from war or xenophobia--change much more slowly than more open societies. This lack of change, especially from lack of trade and new peoples, also tends to hinder any progress or social evolution.

Education. Some primitive societies, like some in Africa (to use your example), place very little emphasis on education beyond what knowledge is needed for survival and hunting/agriculture. They tend to view other knowledge as being useless or irrelevant, or sometimes even as a threat to their beliefs or status quo. Those societies that place the strongest emphasis on a broad education tend to have the greatest rates of innovation and both the freest and most prosperous societies.

Corruption. In many poor societies, power is a means of bettering yourself, of enrichment. So those in power (and those beneath them) do as much as they can to extract as much as they can from the general populace, either not realizing or not caring that their actions are largely responsible for sucking the prosperity out of their country. Thus, a cycle is set up where poverty creates corruption, and corruption perpetuates and creates more poverty.

Institutions. The types and sophistication of various institutions like gov't, religion, infrastructure, the economy (market vs. socialized), education, justice, etc. can all play a role.

Politics & freedom. Those societies that allow the greatest degrees of freedom are the most dynamic, while those that tend to clamp down on dissent tend to be more stunted. The reasons for this are largely the same as for traditionalism, coming down to a desire for new people/ways/ideas/etc. or a desire for constancy.

Hope this helps!

[jbaudlet]

Because they are no fool; the reasons that some native populations/societies flinch from developing 'democratization' (from escaping from their native customs and traditions of their ancestors) are the same reasons that prevent western societies (with their culture) from developing people's inner senses which link them to the nature and to the wisdom of their ancestors. In the past, colonialisms had destroyed, for example, some forms of animism which were the true believe of our ancestors too.

[vinod s]

political leadership = political organisation = collective effort = education = technolgy = change in living standards.

Each person has the free will to ask himself - What do you want? Some just want to live in the Past.

The speed of change is changing so by 2500 all countries will have more or less the same political organisation and by 2900 humans will be the same if not destroyed by meteors first.

EnjoY