The Technology of Hamitic People
Publishing History:
1960 Doorway paper No. 43, published privately by Arthur C. Custance
1975 Part IV in Noah’s Three Sons: Human History in Three Dimensions, vol.1 in The Doorway Papers Series,
1997 Arthur Custance Online Library (html)
2001 2nd Online Edition (corrections, design revisions)
Introduction
IF YOU enjoy reading catalogues now and then, you will probably enjoy this Paper, although it is dull indeed if read merely as literature. But if treated as intended, namely, as a list of technical achievements, it may come as a surprise to find how many, how varied, and how fundamental have been the inventions of Hamitic people, and how great a service they have rendered to mankind in the field of technology.
Hitherto our ethnocentrism in the writing of history has obscured this fact, but we now have a sufficient and ever-growing body of documented materials to justify this presentation.
Some of these achievements may be considered slight by those who have never actually contributed anything new to the sum total of human invention. But one should not be deceived by simplicity: it may be the hallmark of genius. It could also be argued that if we can only point to one invention of note in some particular tribe, that people can hardly be termed inventive. However, if we have only mentioned one invention that does not mean it was their sole achievement. It was mentioned only because it illustrated a particular aspect of native ingenuity.
Scarcely an anthropologist can be found who would not at once agree that even the most primitive of people are peculiarly ingenious in finding practical solutions to practical problems. That they do not invent more is merely because they do not see the need for more inventions. When needs arise their solutions tend to be uncannily effective and simple.
What may be said with a fair degree of certainty is that up until the time when Indo-Europeans, i.e., Japhethites, began to make extensive contacts with other cultures, Western man’s technology was poor in the extreme. We have been great borrowers, and somewhat tardy in acknowledging the debt. Some of the reasons why this borrowed technology has been advanced in such an extraordinary way are considered in Part V.