Quote:
Originally Posted by Zigūr
On the contrary, I see the use of chariots by the Easterlings (and elephant cavalry by the Haradrim, incidentally) as evidence that their cultures were primitive, not advanced. Extensive use of chariots was characteristic of pre-Classical cultures like the Egyptians (among many others). The West had steel weapons and mail, advanced architectural techniques, naval technology etc and a generally more early-medieval flavour.
I have always seen the Easterlings' use of chariots as evidence that their development was "held back" by their long history as thralls to the Shadow.
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I'm not sure that Elephant cavalry can be considered "primitive" either. It seems to me that were are confusing a lack of tech with a lack of resources. The Haradrim use elephant because they HAVE elephants. The West doesn't so it doesn't. In our world, elephant cavalry has been used by pretty advanced civilizations, The Mugals (and all of the other Indian kingdoms, the Khmer and all of the South east asians. Hannibal (elephants or not, he was a Roman trained general and was generally using Roman level tactics.) As for the steel, mail etc. we don't to my knowledge get a full detailed description of Haradrim arms and armor, they could be comperable. And we never see any of thier cities, so thier archetecture is anybody's guess. Yes, Gondor and Arnor have a sort of late roman/early medival feel, but think of what other civilizations were around during ours, and their level of tech. Plenty of them were at rougly the same level of civilization (if indeed such things can really be quantified) In fact, if you are talking early Medival, the Islamic world would probably be slighty MORE advanced tecnically; while we were dealing with whatever setbacks the Dark Ages gave us, they weren't The crusades certinly had an aful lot of cases of "advanced" Medival Europeans getting thier armored asses handed to them by the "Primitive" Islamic empires, and not all becuase of them being closer or better used to the terrain. If you want to put Gondor and Arnor as early Medival Europe, then the kingdoms of the East we'd be talking about would be things like Imperial China, The kingdoms of India, A Kmer who were busy building Angkor Wat, a Japan that was already starting the Samurai period Mayans in Mesoamerica, Mound Builders in Southeast North America, Anasazi cities in Southwestern America, Chaco and Early Incas in Peru and so on. I'm not actually trying to say that your assertion that the West was more tecnically advanced is wholly incorrect, but it seems to me it has less to do with objective facts and more to do with Tolkien's own Eurocentrism and Anglophilia.