Why did some cultures build cities and other big/permanent structures, while others didn’t?

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Cultures around the world have been building temples and tombs and cities for thousands of years; most people think of Europe, but there’s also the Americas, parts of Africa, parts of Asia. Everyone can name some famous historical buildings or ruins from multiple countries.

Why is it then that other people didn’t? I’ve never heard of or seen anything really permanent built by the Australian Aboriginals for instance – arguably the oldest culture on earth – and I’m Australian!

In: Culture

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Possibly political structures have something to do with it, too- Kings build palaces and monuments and other large edifices for whatever purposes they require because they can command the resources of a very large number of workers.

Individual workers doing their own thing will build efficient dwellings for their own use, or the use of their immediate family or clan group- they’ll probably be much smaller.

So the work of the monarch survives the ages, and the lowly serf’s works die not long after the serf does.

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