The Great Game and Contemporary Central Asia
February 22, 2010
Huntington’s theory that climate changes affected human thinking was very interesting. His theory states: “not only the habits, but to a large extent the character, of the people…appear to have been moulded by physiographic environment…changes in climate must have caused corresponding changes, not only in the distribution of man, but in his occupation, habits, and even character.” (pg183). He uses Persia as an example to further prove his “educated guess”. He states Persia once shared many of the virtues of Ancient Rome but has now become the most degenerate of nations. He claimed that this was simply because in a matter of two thousand years, a change in the climate could potentially have changed the character of the people as well. Places with clear, cool weather could be shown to slow people down and have them process things in a more efficient manner, where as dry climate places such as Persia often made one more nervous, emotional, uncontrolled and lacking in self control. I don’t know if I entirely agree on his theory. Maybe he should have looked at their full history before making this conclusion. What then would he characterize people living in North America as, since we have both hot and cold weather?
On a side note, the section dealing with the Tower of Silence was pretty interesting and at the same time gruesome to read. Laying the dead out to dry in various stages of putrefaction, and having body parts picked out by birds of prey does not seem right. I must say, stealing these body parts, like how Hedin did was also not fair, but it could be seen as an advantage since anthropologists were able to use these specific body parts in their study for cranial measurement.
