Culture and Natural Environment

[Jabrosky]

I've been revising my novel's conworld substantially (see here for a new map), and it now features a number of Counterpart Cultures. Among these is a civilization analogous to ancient Egypt, but with at least one major twist: the environment is tropical savanna rather than desert. The civilization is still centered along a river and farms on its floodplains, but they get rain every summer in addition to the annual flood. What I wonder is whether a civilization recognizably similar to ancient Egypt, or at least one with its monumental scale, could develop in a tropical savanna ecosystem. How much would the environment affect a culture's evolution?

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

I'm not going to go into detail (I'm not exactly an expert on Egyptian culture), but I think it goes without saying that the effect of such a difference would be so great that we wouldn't even recognise the culture as 'Egyptian'. With the emphasis shifted even slightly from the river, mythology would change dramatically (just imagine the amount of animal heads you;d have to swap because of the new wildlife)... clothing, architecture, food, materials, even where settlements occur... it'd all be so different.

The environment is definitely one of the biggest factors in determining a the evolution of culture and society.

 

[Jabrosky]

^ At least that would make my culture more original than just a carbon copy of Egypt then.

 

[Hibana]

Also, look at civilizations in tropical savana's. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there've been large civilizations (sometimes massive empires) in all sorts of environments throughout history. Of course, we don't always have all that much information about them, but it might be a good way to fill in some of the gaps. Also, if you really want them to be Egyptian-like, maybe they were originally from a desert but had to leave for some reason (doesn't even have to be recent; it could be a part of their mythology), so many of the aspects of that culture carried over. Or maybe they haven't moved at all, but the climate changed dramatically (can be because of magic or natural) and now it rains when it used to never (maybe a rain belt shifted north or something. Also consider the nature of the rains - if something caused monsoons to start hitting them (and there are areas that are deserts between monsoons) the rains could present more of a danger than not.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

^ At least that would make my culture more original than just a carbon copy of Egypt then.

Definitely, but probably so much that it would make it different in every conceivable way. You could use that method to create a 'new culture', by replacing everything in ancient Egyptian culture to fit the new environment. It might take you a long, long time though...

 

[Neurosis]

How much would the environment affect a culture's evolution?

About 100%. Cultural evolution, as well as biological evolution, is completely at the hands of environment.

Having done a little research I would say its near impossible for an Egyptian culture to evolve on a savanah: but this is fantasy so it doesn't matter in the least.

 

[Hans]

That there is a huge difference has already been said. Let's have a look at what is the difference:
You say, you have rain in addition to the river. With early cultures rain based agriculture is a lot easyer to do than river based agricultur. And that is why river based cultures with agriculture are much more prone to technological advancements. Mainly practical appliances and rules of thumb, not the theories behind that.
You might also keep in mind that, at least in Sumer, I don't know that much about Egypt, the bigest advancements took place after a stable culture has been conquered by some other (non fanatic!) culture with fresh ideas.

After the basic discoverys and inventions have been made, these might find the way to rain based civilizations. Applied there the people suddenly have time for leisure and think about the theories behind the practical applications. That's what happened in Greece.