question: Historically, Why did some civilizations seem to get stuck in the hunter/gatherer stage while others excelled in so many tangible ways?
comment: Appropriate beasts of burden seem to have been a big factor. Notice that south america didn't have animals like oxen to till fields or pull carts (also, they had yet to develop the wheel) leaving all manual labour powered by human hands. Things like the shape of continents can influence agriculture and trade in ways that are hard to notice at first. plants are adapted to particular latitude & climate, it's easier to move crops east-west than north-south, leading to eurasia having more plentiful variety of crops than the americas without developing from hunter/gatherer into agriculturual communities, people don't have time to invent writing, metallurgy, etc. The Australian aboriginals, Pacific Island cultures, etc had some very smart inventions & tools for their region, but didn't develop the huge agriculture of the middle east and the following explosion of population & innovation. Then there's the factor of more advanced cultures bumping into less advanced ones and giving them all smallpox, pillaging, shooting, and otherwise mucking up whatever development they might have made had they been left alone.
passages: BULLET::::- Lithics that have been found suggest they were used as high-status items and gifts, or they were used in craft production (Roosevelt 1991: 396)
  
  BULLET::::- Basketry, woodworking, pottery-manufacture, food preparation
  
  BULLET::::- Elaborate pottery vessels were found in garbage fills between houses and in graves, but not around hearths, which contained only plain domestic wares (Roosevelt 1991: 37, 402)
  
  BULLET::::- Additionally, the low mound and non-mound sites contain very little if any fineware (Roosevelt 1991: 37)
  
  BULLET::::- Some artifacts are found only at specific sites
   Humans back to and including the Cro-Magnons seem to have had clearly defined rulers and status hierarchies. Digs in Russia at the Sungir Archaeological Site have revealed elaborate funeral clothing on a man and a pair of children buried there approximately 28,000 years ago. This indicates a considerable accumulation of wealth by some individuals or families. The high artisan skill also suggest the capacity to direct specialized labor to tasks that are not of any obvious utility to the group's survival.
  
  Section::::Anthropological views.:Control of arable land.
   As with pastoral societies, surplus food leads to a more complex division of labor. Specialized roles in horticultural societies include craftspeople, shamans (religious leaders), and traders. This role specialization allows people to create a wide variety of artifacts. As in pastoral societies, surplus food can lead to inequalities in wealth and power within horticultural political systems, developed because of the settled nature of horticultural life.
  
  Section::::Types.:Pre-industrial.:Agrarian.
   Assessments of what level of civilization a polity has reached are based on comparisons of the relative importance of agricultural as opposed to trade or manufacturing capacities, the territorial extensions of its power, the complexity of its division of labour, and the carrying capacity of its urban centres. Secondary elements include a developed transportation system, writing, standardized measurement, currency, contractual and tort-based legal systems, art, architecture, mathematics, scientific understanding, metallurgy, political structures and organized religion.
   Section::::Characteristics.
  
  Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society. Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood, settlement patterns, forms of government, social stratification, economic systems, literacy and other cultural traits. Andrew Nikiforuk argues that "civilizations relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities" and considers slavery to be a common feature of pre-modern civilizations.
   Other archaeological finds show that domestic craftsmanship, along with farming and cattle, is also evolving. Weaving, painting, pottery and metalworking have become more popular in home art. Along with these, the ancient inhabitants of the Far East achieved significant successes in the development of fine arts items. Bracelets, earrings, various beads, breasts, etc., made of metal, bone, agate and pasta. are currently the best exhibits of our museums.
   The people of the Poverty Point culture who constructed the earthworks were hunter-fisher-gatherers rather than agriculturalists. They are an example of a complex hunter-gatherer society that constructed large-scale monuments. The vast majority of other prehistoric monuments, ranging from Stonehenge in England to Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, were constructed by agricultural societies, in which crop surpluses allowed greater density of population and stratification of society. 
   Within each tribe the activity of individuals was differentiated to specific activities, and the characteristic of some of these activities were limited by the resources naturally present and available from within each tribe's territory, creating specializations of skill. By the "... division of labour and evolution of new crafts ..." (Cameron p. 25) "tribal units became naturally isolated through time from the over-all developments in skill and technique present within their neighbouring environment. To utilize artifacts made by tribes specializing in areas of production not present to other tribes, exchange and trade became necessary."
   As the number and size of agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. This process of agriculture-driven expansion led to the development of the first forms of government in agricultural centers, such as the Fertile Crescent, Ancient India, Ancient China, Olmec, Sub-Saharan Africa and Norte Chico.
  
  As a result of the now near-universal human reliance upon agriculture, the few contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures usually live in areas unsuitable for agricultural use.
  
  Archaeologists can use evidence such as stone tool use to track hunter-gatherer activities, including mobility.
  
  Section::::Common characteristics.
  
  Section::::Common characteristics.:Habitat and population.
   The three centers or three hearts of their culture stand out for the very varied ceramics, the stone sculpture, the monumental architecture and advanced urban conception of the cities. Advances and perfection of forms achieved in the production of yokes, palms, axes, snakes, smiley faces and monumental mud sculptures are admirable.
  
  Section::::Toponimia.
   Aided by their division of labour and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse cultural traits. These include organized religion, development in the arts, and countless new advances in science and technology.
   This planning depth is also seen in the presence of exotic raw materials at a variety of sites throughout the MSA. Procurement of local raw materials would have been a simple task to accomplish, yet MSA sites regularly contain raw materials that were obtained from sources over 100 km away, and sometimes farther than 300 km. Obtaining raw materials from this distance would require an awareness of the resources, a perceived value in the resources, whether it be functional or symbolic, and, possibly, the ability to organize an exchange network in order to obtain the materials.
  
  Section::::Evidence for modern human behavior.:Innovation.
   Farming permitted far denser populations, which in time organized into states. Agriculture also created food surpluses that could support people not directly engaged in food production. The development of agriculture permitted the creation of the first cities. These were centres of trade, manufacturing and political power. Cities established a symbiosis with their surrounding countrysides, absorbing agricultural products and providing, in return, manufactured goods and varying degrees of military control and protection.
   Section::::Early scholars.
  
  One of the first contributors to what can be deemed biohistory was Ellsworth Huntington (September 16, 1876 – October 17, 1947). Although a geographer by study, Huntington discovered an interesting correlation between the nature of climate, human geography, and culture. In his book, Climate and Civilization published in 1915, he found that there is a positive correlation between the amounts of energy exerted based on climate regions and the perceived areas of civilization. Ellsworth defines civilization as “those characteristics which are generally recognized as the highest value.”
   BULLET::::- Jeffrey A. McNeely has recently suggested that "a review of historical evidence shows that past civilizations have tended to over-exploit their forests, and that such abuse of important resources has been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society".
   Although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time and work in reshaping and cultivating the flora indigenous to the Americas. Although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, city-states, chiefdoms, states, kingdoms and empires. Among these are the Aztec, Inca and Maya states that until the 16th century were among the most politically and socially advanced nations in the world. They had a vast knowledge of engineering, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, writing, physics, medicine, planting and irrigation, geology, mining, sculpture and goldsmithing.
   Section::::History.:Neolithic through classical antiquity (10 ka – 300 CE).:Energy and transport.
   The Archaic period in the Americas saw a changing environment featuring a warmer more arid climate and the disappearance of the last megafauna. The majority of population groups at this time were still highly mobile hunter-gatherers, but now individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally. Thus with the passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization like the Southwest, Arctic, Poverty, Dalton and Plano traditions. These regional adaptations would become the norm, with reliance less on hunting and gathering, and a more mixed economy of small game, fish, seasonally wild vegetables and harvested plant foods. Many groups continued to hunt big game but their hunting traditions became more varied and meat procurement methods more sophisticated. The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social differentiation based upon status in some groups.
   Engels suggests that the subsequent major developments following from the development of the meat diet were the control of fire, and the domestication of animals. Then, finally, they reach a point at which they are capable of developing the institutions associated with human civilization: “Agriculture was added to hunting and cattle raising; then came spinning, weaving, metalworking, pottery, and navigation. Along with trade and industry, art and science finally appeared. Tribes developed into nations and states.” 
   In northern North America, many hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies thrived in the diverse region. Native American tribes varied greatly in characteristics; some, including the Mississippian culture and the Ancestral Puebloans were complex chiefdoms. Other nations which inhabited the states of the modern northern United States and Canada had less complexity and did not follow technological changes as quickly. Approximately around the year 500 during the Woodland period , Native Americans began to transition to bows and arrows from spears for hunting and warfare. Technological advancement however was uneven. During the 12th century was the widespread adoption of Corn as a staple crop in the Eastern United States. Corn would continue to be the staple crop of natives in the Eastern United States and Canada until the Colombian Exchange.
   Section::::Mesoamerica.
  
  Southeastern Mesoamerica became the first to develop into a complex society. Maize was very important in early pre-classic period. Even though farming was very important, there were also hunters, gatherers and fisherman. Food produce besides corn, bean and squash, squirrel, deer, birds, snakes, crocodile, iguana were also consumed. Labor was also presented in making crafts. Important objects that were created were stone bowls and jade beads. Social status was seen by the goods a person had, such as jade, fine pastry
  
  Section::::Egypt.
   A primary characteristic of these civilizations was monocentrism and, together with historical developments such as hereditary rule, it led to a new era of statehood for several civilizations. Accounts also hold that there are evidence that show "uncivilized" periphery has provided technologically superior tools and technologies to the civilized core as demonstrated in the case of the spread of European and North Caucasian shaft-hole axes in advanced civilizations of the Asia Minor. Chinese written sources dating from the latter time frame of the 1st millennium BC also spoke of being "compelled to borrow technology and weapon forms from the "wild peoples" of the steppes and foothills of Central Asia."
   Tools were made from wood, stone and bone. Arrows for hunting were made from wood and tipped with arrow-heads chipped from special rocks. Antlers from animals were used for digging roots. In addition to their traditional tools, they later adopted the use of metal items such as pots, needles, and guns acquired from trade with Europeans.
  
  Section::::Material culture.:Housing.
   In ancient history, economics began when spontaneous exchange of goods and services was replaced over time by deliberate trade structures. Makers of arrowheads, for example, might have realized they could do better by concentrating on making arrowheads and barter for other needs. Regardless of goods and services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more elaborate economies.Technology is seen as primary source in economic development.
   As a taxonomic classification of artefacts, industries rank higher than archaeological cultures. Cultures are usually defined from a range of different artefact types and are thought to be related to a distinct cultural tradition. By contrast, industries are defined by basic elements of lithic production which may have been used by many unrelated human groups over tens or even hundred thousands of years, and over very wide geographical ranges. Sites producing tools from the Acheulean industry stretch from France to China, as well as Africa. Consequently, shifts between lithic industries are thought to reflect major milestones in human evolution, such as changes in cognitive ability or even the replacement of one human species by another. Therefore, artefacts from a single industry may come from a number of different cultures.
  