paleolithic, dendritic, and predendritic cultures

Gerry Quinn · 04 Apr 2013, 13:34 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 14:34:41 +0100
Subject: (urth) paleolithic, dendritic, and predendritic cultures
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From: Ant?nio Pedro Marques


No dia 04/04/2013, ?s 00:48, "Gerry Quinn" <gerry at bindweed.com> escreveu:

> > It may be that sometime between now and the twenty-ninth century or 
> > whenever
> > , such a term will come into use, perhaps with regard to wood and forest 
> > based cultures.
> >
> > Obviously the idea of stages/ages is a somewhat arbitrary taxonomy in
> any case; they are probably among the most 'socially constructed' of all 
> scientific terms.

> I don't know about that. It sounds very plausible that human cultures 
> remained
> mostly static until some invention came along, then moving to a different 
> plateau.
> That's why terms like 'Iron Age' mean different times in different places. 
> If
> anything, I find them much more objective than Antiquity, Classical 
> Antiquity,
> Middle Ages. www.urth.net

I suspect it might sound less plausible if you were there!

I agree that the 'historical' ages are worse in this regard than the 
'technological' ages - indeed I was thinking particularly of the Middle 
Ages, which some folk place the start of around 300 AD, and some much later.

Wolfe has mentioned 'cycles' (which presumably involve ages) before in the 
context of New Sun.  So I don't think he has anything against the idea 
anyway.  The above is just me grumbling about them.

- Gerry Quinn

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