The pre-Colombian civilizations of North and South America left behind a legacy of remarkable agricultural engineering accomplishments that challenged the conventional theory of cultural diffusion. This paper explores the significant advancements made by civilizations such as the Maya, Aztecs, and Inca in agriculture and engineering. In South America, one of the major factors that boosted agricultural and engineering activities was the water catchment region, which enabled the nourishment and steady growth of crops and composed soils (Angelakis & Rose, 2014). These significant achievements include sophisticated irrigation systems, terraced farming, and innovative techniques for maximum arable lands. This discussion will also analyze why Aldar and Pouwels suggest that these accomplishments call for action and into question the diffusion theory of human progress. Through examining scholarly literature, we will justify whether these indigenous advancements challenged diffusion theory and offer insights into the complexity of cultural development in America.
Moreover, the Inca civilization mastered the engineering of agricultural terraces, also known as andenes. The Andenes allowed cultivation in steep mountainous terrain. These terraces were helpful because they minimized soil erosion, boosted the growth of diverse crops, and contributed to sustaining a large population in the Andean region. Additionally, the Aztecs employed Chinampa’s artificial island, which was made of mud and vegetation, and offered extensive farming in Lake Texcoco; this demonstrated their ingenuity in the productivity of arable fertile lands.
Adler and Pouwels suggest that these advanced accomplishments challenge the diffusion theory of progress in humans. This posits that innovations spread gradually from a single point of origin to another point. When addressing modern advancements in agriculture technology, we must consider the interventions made by Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which reduces the use of antibiotics (Roope et al., 2019). Diffusion theory suggests that innovations originate from a single point and then spread gradually from the significant agricultural concentrated region to less developed areas. This implies a unidirectional flow of knowledge and technology from more advanced to less advanced civilizations. However much the theory presents a sequence of technological movement, it has been outmatched by engineering jargon like the Maya, Aztecs, and Inca, who challenge this theory. For example, Maya constructed an extensive canal network that helped the farmers to manage the water resources efficiently. Inca also invented terraces in steep slope farming, which helped control soil erosion and conservation. Aztecs employed artificial islands for intensive agriculture. All these innovations were not borrowed or directly influenced by external societies, but they emerged from the ingenuity and adoption of farmers to their local indigenous environments.
Therefore, the accomplishment of pre-Colombian civilization in the Americas calls into question the diffusion theory assumption of the unidirectional flow of knowledge and technology. Instead, they try to provide insight into the complexity and dynamism of cultural development, where indigenous people played a crucial role in shaping and modelling their own technological and agricultural landscapes.
I agree with Alder and Pouwels’ Perspective, as pre-Columbian civilization’s agricultural and engineering achievements demonstrate indigenous ingenuity and adaptation to local environmental conditions. The diversity and complicatedness of these techniques suggest indigenous innovation rather than diffusion from external sources. Therefore, these accomplishments underscore the need for a nuanced understanding of the cultural development and challenge in the model process.
Tran Saharan Trade: Catalyst for African Civilization Development, 800-1450
The Tran Saharan trade, which occurred betweenapproximately800-1450 CE, played a central significant role in shaping African civilizations in the following ways:
Economic Development.
The Trans-Saharan Trade facilitated the exchange of goods and services across the Sahara Desert between North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The exchange of slave trade between the two sides resulted in significant trading activity from the Sahara to NorthAfrica (Lucas-Sánchez et al., 2022).Other goods and services involved were salt, enslaved people, textiles, and other luxury goods. The revenues generated from the trade contributed to the economic development of various civilizations.
Cultural exchange
The trade routes acted as conduits for exchanging ideas, languages, religions, and technologies between African and Mediterranean regions. Emperors and kingdoms such as Morrocco, Borno, Songhay, and Mali interacted through this trade (Lucas-Sánchez et al., 2022). As goods were traded, cultural borrowing and practices were interchanged.
Political centralization
The wealth generated from the trade contributed to the rise and emergence of solid kingdoms and emperors—states such as Ghana, Mali Empire, Songhai Empire, and various cities along the trade routes. The control over trade routes led to solid and centralized states that could protect trade caravans and maintain order.
Influence of Trans-Saharan trade
The influence of the Trans-Saharan trade on vital areas of life, such as culture, religion, Education, and more, was profound. In culture, trade routes facilitate the exchange of cultural practices in languages, arts, and traditions between different communities worldwide. This led to the enrichment and diversification of African cultures as ideas and customs intermingled along the trade routes. In Religion, Trans-Saharan Trade impacted the spread of Islam across various African societies, leading to the adoption of ruling elites. Trade centres, particularly Timbuktu and Djenne, have become renowned as major learning centres and scholarships in Education. According to (Pliez, 2023), the recent development reflects both the revitalization of commerce along traditional trans-Saharan trade routes and Education.
In conclusion, trans-Saharan trade significantly impacted various aspects of Africans; it shaped trade, Education, culture, and political governance through the contact between the ruling and the subjects. This contact interaction led to the development of major urban centres like Timbuktu and Djenne.
References
Angelakis, A. N., & Rose, J. B. (2014). Evolution of Sanitation and Wastewater Technologies through the Centuries. In Google Books. IWA Publishing. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mbgrBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA69&dq=+Agricultural+and+Engineering+Accomplishments+of+Pre-Columbian+Civilizations&ots=rZUHoW9ho1&sig=qHfZkLck39_W_tCkxFBhLr8C8p8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Lucas-Sánchez, M., Fadhlaoui-Zid, K., & Comas, D. (2022). The genomic analysis of current-day North African populations reveals the existence of trans-Saharan migrations with different origins and dates. Human Genetics, 9(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-022-02503-3
Pliez, O. (2023). Desert City Landscapes: At the Crossroads of Urbanization, Agricultural Intensification, and Trans-Saharan Connections. World Geomorphological Landscapes, 3(4), 185–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47160-5_19
Roope, L. S. J., Smith, R. D., Pouwels, K. B., Buchanan, J., Abel, L., Eibich, P., Butler, C. C., Tan, P. S., Walker, A. S., Robotham, J. V., & Wordsworth, S. (2019). The challenge of antimicrobial resistance: What economics can contribute. Science, 364(6435), eaau4679. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau4679
Suleiman, M. R. (2023). A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF EMPIRE, TRADE, AND RELIGIOUS NETWORKS AS REGIONALIZATION PROCESSES IN THE TRANS-SAHARAN AFRICA REGION. Zamfara Journal of Politics and Development, 4(2), 120–132. https://zjpd.com.ng/index.php/zjpd/article/view/21
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