Re: The Kra'Vak,and alien cultures in general

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, laserlight wrote:

>    Aztecs had a stratified society which included commoners, warriors,
> priests--and merchants.  The merchants got wealthy.  This also
happened in
> Europe (and eventually rich merchants bought titles from broke nobles)
and
> in Japan; if I recall correctly, the Hindu caste system also had a
place
> for merchants.  So I'd have to say I don't see why castes would
necessarily
> cripple the development of an effective economy.

Also none of these developed a highly technological civilization, or
started industrializatin, except for Europe, where capitalism replaced
merchantilism.	As for the Hindu system, even now many Indian scholars
are
realizing how much damage it (especially the Brahmin caste) had done to
the intellectual history of the subcontinent.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----

Even the engineers are not *this* depraved.  This must be the work of
the
Med. students.

						- A friend of mine

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----