> > It also makes Genertela culturally crowded - there are far more distinct and very different
> > cultures for a similar sized area than anywhere on earth at any one time.
>
> I fear you underestimate our own diversity. Want diversity in the real world? Just check out
> the Bronze or early Iron Age Near East. Radically different languages, religions, cultures,
> agricultural practices - you name it. All in an area about the size of the Lunar Empire.
I may be wrong here but my understanding is that different groups gained a technological advantage over their neighbours, rose to dominate their area and were in turn overtaken by others. Not that there were multiple diverse cultures existing at the same time.
On religion you can see this development in the Old Testament with parts which are largely the same as Bronze Age stories.
Agriculture is a poor guide to culture - what works in one place may not work twenty miles away. It is absurd to suggest the sheep farmers of the Cheshire plains are a different culture to those of the Pennine hills.
> >In turn that leads
> > to the conclusion that there was a long period of time (thousands of years) when there was
> > very limited contact between cultures to allow them to develop independently.
>
> Not thousands, but certainly hundreds of years during the Closing. For over 450 years the
> oceans were simply Closed to almost everyone. That cut Genertela off from Pamaltela and
> the East Isles - and from itself.
I wasn't thinking of the Closing although that would have helped keep them separate. The cultures were already distinct in the Second Age before the Closing. My thoughts are that it was the Dawn Age including the Sunstop. The latter explaining why only about 450 years achieved this rather than longer as I'd expect.
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Donald Oddy
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