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The Influence of Nature
David Hume explained, in “National Characters”, that the natural environment of a society plays are role in its behavior. If a person were shaped by nature and nurture, then a society’s character is likewise shaped by its natural environment and the social cycles that nurture it.
Lord Bacon observed that the inhabitants of the warm south are generally more ingenious than those of the cold north. But where the native of a cold climate has genius, he rises to a higher pitch than can be reached by the southern wits.
The characteristics that are generally associated with a certain environment or topography:
| Name | Examples | Character | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hill tribes | Romans, Inca, Macedonians, Persians | Conquerors | Being on hills make them see lowlands very easily. This gives them a mentality of dominance |
| Valley tribes | China, Egypt | Culturalists | These usually do not conquer nor colonize. The valley protects them from foreigners and typhoons, allowing them to evolve in isolation with their own culture. The protection of valleys make them not want to go out |
| Island tribes | Greece, Britain, United States, Japan | Colonizers | These have to go out of their island if their population increases, making them natural colonists |
| Archipelago tribes | Greece, Indonesia, Philippines | Natural democracies | Small-islands allow freedom which makes the people prefer democracy over empires |
| River tribes | Babylonians, Indians | Producers | They have a lot of water and flat plain to produce things, making them natural producers |
| Desert tribes | Arabs, Mongols | Raiders | These have to roam around for resources |
| Rainforest tribes | Amazon and Indonesian tribes (Orang asli, Negritos) | Backward | The forest limits their production and forces them to be dependent on nature |
This categorization of societies is useful in predicting or understanding the current behavior of certain societies. For example, these shed light on:
- why China has invaded only Tibet and not Mongolia, Laos, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Nepal
- why Afghanistan fell to the Taliban despite being close to the Soviet Union and Iran
- why the culture of Arab-Egyptians is not as strong as the ancient Egyptians
Moreover, these can be used by future human explorers on other planets when they encounter different intelligent civilizations. In this way, they can have a basic model to guide their policies towards intelligent aliens.
Social Topographic Behavior as a Weight
Social Topographic Behavior is one of the weights that we use, in our social cycles model, to predict the outcomes for a society, or make hypotheses for its missing past.
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