Development of Civilizations along the Amazon?
by Rit NosotroComparative Essay
Why didn't the early Amazon River develop great civilizations as did the Tigris, Nile, Huang He, and Indus Rivers? Focus on geo-political, migratory, and biological reasons for cultural development.
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Summary:
Three explanations could be offered as to why the Amazon River in South America never developed any great civilizations along its banks as did the Tigris, Nile, Huang He, and Indus rivers. First, the Amazon River discourages the building of cites along its banks since the surrounding rainforests flood during the rainy season creating marshy, and otherwise inhospitable conditions to settlers. Second, migration was too difficult and too far for large groups of people to travel. Lastly, the few cultures and tribes who did settle on the Amazon River found no urgent needs to unite for political, economic, and religious reasons since they had all essential resources, especially food and wood, in abundance right at their fingertips. Although there are some similarities between all of these rivers, there are also key differences between the Amazon and its Mesopotamian and Asian counterparts.
Definition of Civilization
Before understanding why the Amazon River did not develop any great civilizations,
we must understand the definition of civilization. World Civilizations
describes the conditions for a civilization this way: "Civilizations, unlike
some other societies, generate surpluses beyond basic survival needs. This in
turn promotes a variety of specialized occupations and heightened social differentiation,
as well as regional and long-distance trading networks. Surplus production also
spurs the growth of cities and the development of formal states, with some bureaucracy,
in contrast to more informal methods of governing. Most civilizations also developed
systems of writing."1 Although
the Amazon Basin did develop several villages, wandering tribes, and agricultural
communities, none of these met the conditions for a true civilization since
they did not develop any formal systems of government, writing, or people with
specialized occupations other than food gathering. "If one thinks of large rivers
as the cradle of civilizations (the Nile, the Indus, the Euphrates and Tigris),
the obvious location in South America would be the Amazon. But the rainforests
of the Amazon and its tributaries are so tropical that there is little need
for irrigation-based agriculture. While recent archaeological research (Heckenberger
et al., 2003) uncovered complex regional settlement patterns with large central
plazas, wide curbed roads and patches of cultivated or otherwise altered land
dated to 1200 - 1600 in the Brazilian Amazon region, there was little need for
an administration to look after public works, and the Amazon settlement pattern
cannot be called a civilization."2
However, many of the city-states, cultures, and empires along the rivers in
Mesopotamia and Asia did meet these requirements to be considered a civilization.
The Inhospitably of the Amazon to Settlers
One reason why the Amazon River Basin did not develop any great civilizations
could be the inhospitable environment compared to the rivers in the midst of
desert regions of Asia and Mesopotamia. Although the Amazon River overflows
in its flood season, washing the islands and surrounding rainforests with rich
nutrients, it overflows too much. The surrounding rainforests become too wet,
marshy, and otherwise too harsh for civilization. In the Amazon's flood season,
the river can widen up to 50 miles wider than normal. Shifting channels and
lakes, marshy islands, and swamps surround the river. These conditions would
make it very difficult if not impossible for any cities to be built along the
banks of the Amazon. Also, the thick rainforest surrounding the river could
seriously hinder city-building. Cities are an essential ingredient for a civilization
since there must be a central place holding political and economic power and
a place for learning and arts to thrive. "The ideal place for a civilization
to develop is a place where life is not an everyday struggle, but it requires
some effort to make it comfortable. Such a place is often a river valley in
a subtropical latitude (e.g., about 30 degrees N) with desert or semi-desert
conditions around it. The latitude keeps temperatures moderate, the river insures
a steady supply of water all year round, and the dry environment will make the
people gather around the river."3
The Nile, Indus, Huang He, and Tigris river valleys all are located in the ideal
locations of 30 degrees north of the equator, unlike the Amazon River Basin
which lies directly on the equator. The Asian and Mesopotamian rivers overflow
in a flood season either flooding the surrounding farmlands with rich nutrients
or filling irrigation ditches to moisten the parched ground of the surrounding
arid farmlands. This soil would provide ideal farming conditions each year.
Although all of these rivers overflow in a flood season potentially bringing
soil enriching nutrients, the harsh conditions of the Amazon River drive potential
settlers away, while the Tigris, Nile, Yellow, and Indus rivers welcomed people
from the desert environment.4
Migration Difficulties
Secondly, migration could have been too difficult for people to travel in large
enough numbers to have a necessity for uniting and building civilization. After
the Fall of Babel, those who ended up in the Americas (probably descendents
of Shem)5 would have had
to travel across Mesopotamia, through all of Asia, and then either go south
to Polynesia and Australia and cross the Pacific Ocean by boat or north and
cross the hypothetical ice bridge connecting the peninsulas of Russia and Alaska.
Even then, the settlers would not be finished with their journey! As some settlers
wandered and some wanderers settled, they may have crossed the Rocky Mountains,
the Great Plains, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Andes Mountains before arriving
in the Amazon Basin. This arduous journey undertaken over the course of several
generations led to the spiritual degeneration of monotheism into polytheism.
The superstitions compounded with each confrontation with the unfamiliar and
hostile environment. "Climate was the most important factor in determining where
civilization would begin again. Most of the world is too hot, too cold, too
wet, or too dry for people to live comfortably in. In deserts, Arctic regions,
and other inhospitable places, the people living there have to spend most of
their time struggling against nature just to stay alive. Little culture can
develop under these conditions, and since most people in an unfriendly environment
live by a nomadic lifestyle, the art, architecture, literature, and other things
which we define as 'culture' are limited to what they can carry when it is time
to move on."6 Since the
Amazon Basin was a hard place to settle in because city development was difficult,
these people did not have the technology due to degenerating knowledge after
the Fall of Babel to settle the harsh Amazonian environment. "The great American
civilizations were confronted with much harder conditions than the ancient civilizations
of the Indus valley, Mesopotamia and Egypt, which developed in parallel with
each other and established contacts between each other at a very early stage.
The exchange of knowledge, particularly in the form of transfer of inventions,
was an important ingredient of their development. The American civilizations
arose on an isolated continent and had to be much more self-sufficient."7
Abundance as a Detriment to Production
Another possible reason is that the surrounding tribes simply became lazy and
found no need to unite. Since resources, especially food resources, were abundant
in the rainforest, people had no need to set up extensive agricultural system
therefore decreasing the people's reliance on each other and the need to unite.
The few tribes and cultures who did settle on the Amazon could easily fish from
the river, find fruits in the jungle, or hunt for the abundant animals in the
rainforest. Some of the cultures did, however, develop small independent agricultural
food sources. "And then there are places with the opposite problem, where it
is very easy to live; they are not likely to develop a civilization, either.
Under tropical paradise conditions, like on the islands of the Pacific and the
Caribbean, food can be gathered from trees and the ocean with almost no effort,
and the constantly-warm temperature means that clothing and shelter are only
necessary to keep off the rain. People who live under these conditions are not
motivated to achieve much."8
The Bible warns against laziness in Proverbs: "Lazy hands make a man poor, but
diligent hands bring wealth" (Proverbs 10:4). "Diligent hands will rule,
but laziness ends in slave labor" (Proverbs 12:24). Also, since the settlers
had degenerated into polytheistic animism, the people did not see have the motivation
to unite to worship the one true God. Instead the small tribes worshiped a multitude
of individual nature spirits. In other words, "they worshiped the creation instead
of the Creator" (Romans 1: 25).
In conclusion, there are three possible reasons as to why the Amazon River was never settled by any major civilizations. First, the Amazon overflows a tremendous amount in the flood season which discouraged the building of permanent cities. Second, the people had difficulty migrating in large enough numbers all the way from Mesopotamia to the Amazon and did not retain the knowledge to establish huge colonies in the Americas. Lastly, perhaps the people who did finally reach the Amazon found no reason to unite because they had all the essential resources right at their fingertips. Perhaps, in God's sovereignty, He had a divine reason for isolating the American cultures from the civilizations surrounding the fallen Tower of Babel.
Quick Quiz:
Endnotes:
1 Peter N. Stearns, Michael Adas, Stuart B. Schwartz, Marc Jason Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP Edition, Pearson Education, Inc., New York., 2003, page xxx.
2Matthias Tomczak, "Science, Civilization, and Society," Science in pre-Columbian America. The South Pacific," 2004, http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/science+society/lectures/lecture18.html, October 1, 2004
3Charles Kimball, "A Biblical Interpretation of World History, Chapter 2," A Biblical Interpretation of World History: Chapter 2: Before 3000 B.C.," 1998, http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist02.html, October1, 2004.
4n/a, "Amazon River - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia," Amazon River, October 1 2004, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River, October 3, 2004.
5Charles Kimball, "A Biblical Interpretation of World History, Chapter 2," A Biblical Interpretation of World History: Chapter 2: Before 3000 B.C.," 1998, http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist02.html, October1, 2004.
6Charles Kimball, "A Biblical Interpretation of World History, Chapter 2," A Biblical Interpretation of World History: Chapter 2: Before 3000 B.C.," 1998, http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist02.html, October1, 2004.
7Matthias Tomczak, "Science, Civilization, and Society," Science in pre-Columbian America. The South Pacific," 2004, http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/science+society/lectures/lecture18.html, October 1, 2004
8Charles Kimball, "A Biblical Interpretation of World History, Chapter 2," A Biblical Interpretation of World History: Chapter 2: Before 3000 B.C.," 1998, http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/Hist02.html, October1, 2004.
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