The Rate Of Development Of Material Culture

They include tools, dwellings, artifacts, war machinery and music instruments among others. Material culture advanced at different speeds in different communities depending major on the needs of the community at that particular time and technological ability. Building structures such as homes and roads, which are products of architecture, provide the major contribution to material culture. This brings out clearly the importance of architecture in the development of material culture, and the same way, material culture is so important in architecture and other fields as discussed below.

For architects, material culture can be a great source of inspiration in designing of buildings. Many architectural designs source their inspiration from the material culture of a society. Physical cultural elements such as the African hut, the gourd, the African pot and the African mat have inspired African architecture. A good number of buildings in Africa have their inspiration from very old buildings in Asia and Europe, mostly religious places of worship such as the churches and mosques, almost all mosques have a similar design that traces its origin way back in the Asian countries where McHugh style of architecture was plopped.

Such are forms of material culture as they played a central role in defining the religion of the people during that time. Since material culture is tangible, and in most cases very durable, it provides a concrete support and evidence in proving historical facts. By collecting and studying material culture, historians are able to validate and prove their claims. In the study of the origin of man, Charles Darwin could have not in any way convinced a single person that man evolved from the same evolutionary path as primates.

But through the evidence gathered from the mains of the stone tools and artifacts at the areas belied to have been the dwellings of the early man, it was much easier for him to prove his point that man evolved from apes. Material culture enables us to gauge the level of development of a people. In the modern world, there exists a different level of gauging the development of societies I. E. The developed countries such as USA china, Japan and Britain, the developing countries such as Brazil Kenya and south Africa and also the third world countries.

What leads to such difference in classification is mainly the kind of materials these societies use and their technological advancement. We are able to measure how advanced the ancient societies were through the study of their material culture, for example the early civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt, through studying the remains of their agricultural tools, we are able to comfortably conclude that such civilizations had sophisticated technology as per that time. In the more recent societies of Rome and Jerusalem, by getting knowledge of their architecture, we find how much they were technologically advanced.

This is important in that it gives us onscreen evidence to use in gauging the level of development of a people. Material culture is a source of heritage and pride of a people. The tangible evidence of the technological advancement is a source of pride as a heritage of a people, historic buildings and artifacts owned by a society provides them with something to show off their history and advancement in various fields of Science and Mathematics. For example the Fort Jesus building in Lama, the Geed ruins, these are sources of pride for Kenya as they are historical places that define the history of Kenya.

Famous old buildings such as the Dome of the Rock located on the Temple Mount in the old City of Jerusalem, SST. Pewter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy, Acropolis of Athens, the Pantheon in Rome, the Parthenon in Athens, Decent Mosque in Mali, the Great Pyramids of Egypt and Haggis Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey are great heritages of the communities that associate with them and the countries in which they have been in existence for centuries. They are a source of pride and give a visual impression of the history of the people in those places. References; www. Du. Com