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steorran_woruldeOne set of questions I've been asking about my imaginary blind society is:
a) At what point in technological/societal history did they branch off from a sighted society?
b) How do they get their food?
c) What kind of tool production do they have?
I've been thinking about prehistorical stages and whether they could plausibly have branched off at any of these.
Could they plausibly have started off with a stone-age hunter-gatherer society? I think tentatively yes. I can imagine that making stone tools might be possible without vision. There are two basic techniques involved, striking and pressure-flaking. Striking requires aim, but a combination of proprioceptive/tactile memory and echolocation might be enough. I suspect that pressure-flaking could be done on a purely tactile basis. (I've actually tried a bit of pressure-flaking at a flint knap-in event once - of course it was just a first attempt so I wasn't any good at it, but I have at least some idea of what's involved.) Okay, so let's say stone tools are possible. What about the hunter-gatherer aspect? Trapping and fishing seems highly plausible to me, but more active hunting seems more questionable. Hunter-gatherer societies are typically nomadic, but I don't think that needs to be an obstacle.
But they don't need to be a hunter-gatherer society. Some degree of farming seems pretty clearly possible. The simplest seems like vegetable-garden type farming. That's only a small step away from gathering - you plant the plants you'd gather in an easily available place so you have ready access to them when you want them, and you get rid of the plants you don't want so that the ones you do want can grow unimpeded. And it can be done with only human labour. What about staple crops? Do they grow grain? Root vegetables? Root vegetables fit more easily in a vegetable gardening pattern; grain farming usually involves labour animals. I'd need to do some more research to find out about how necessary labour animals are for grain farming. (What's the relative chronology of horse/cattle domestication and grain farming in the Neolithic Revolution?)
And that brings up the question of whether they have domestic animals and if so, of what sorts. It's easiest for me to imagine that they have small domestic animals - chickens, ducks, rabbits, honeybees. I'm sceptical about the practicalities of taming and managing large domestic animals - sheep, goats, cattle, horses, pigs, etc. - without being able to see. But I would gladly be persuaded that it's possible. Dogs are also something to consider. Potentially very useful - but feral dogs could be a problem.
Their technology also doesn't necessarily have to be merely stone-age. What about bronze/copper or iron/steel tools? One thing worth noting about historical technological development is that bronze tools were largely cast, while iron tools were largely blacksmithed, partly because the temperature needed to melt iron for casting is so high. I find casting more plausible than blacksmithing; with casting, you can make a mold by touch, then pour in the hot metal. With blacksmithing, you have to aim your hammer precisely at an object that's too hot to touch. Such aim seems difficult to achieve, especially when the object is so hot that you can't touch it to figure out details of its shape and location. So I am going to suppose that they have cast bronze/copper tools, but not blacksmithed iron tools. At some point they may develop furnaces hot enough to make cast iron.
So, current working assumption: small domestic animals used for meat, eggs, honey, skins, feathers. Garden-type farming, possibly including some grain farming. Trapping and fishing as well. No dogs or large domestic animals until I conclude that they're feasible. Bronze/copper tools, and possibly still stone tools. Could have separated from sighted society anywhere from stone-age hunter-gatherer society through bronze-age agricultural society.
a) At what point in technological/societal history did they branch off from a sighted society?
b) How do they get their food?
c) What kind of tool production do they have?
I've been thinking about prehistorical stages and whether they could plausibly have branched off at any of these.
Could they plausibly have started off with a stone-age hunter-gatherer society? I think tentatively yes. I can imagine that making stone tools might be possible without vision. There are two basic techniques involved, striking and pressure-flaking. Striking requires aim, but a combination of proprioceptive/tactile memory and echolocation might be enough. I suspect that pressure-flaking could be done on a purely tactile basis. (I've actually tried a bit of pressure-flaking at a flint knap-in event once - of course it was just a first attempt so I wasn't any good at it, but I have at least some idea of what's involved.) Okay, so let's say stone tools are possible. What about the hunter-gatherer aspect? Trapping and fishing seems highly plausible to me, but more active hunting seems more questionable. Hunter-gatherer societies are typically nomadic, but I don't think that needs to be an obstacle.
But they don't need to be a hunter-gatherer society. Some degree of farming seems pretty clearly possible. The simplest seems like vegetable-garden type farming. That's only a small step away from gathering - you plant the plants you'd gather in an easily available place so you have ready access to them when you want them, and you get rid of the plants you don't want so that the ones you do want can grow unimpeded. And it can be done with only human labour. What about staple crops? Do they grow grain? Root vegetables? Root vegetables fit more easily in a vegetable gardening pattern; grain farming usually involves labour animals. I'd need to do some more research to find out about how necessary labour animals are for grain farming. (What's the relative chronology of horse/cattle domestication and grain farming in the Neolithic Revolution?)
And that brings up the question of whether they have domestic animals and if so, of what sorts. It's easiest for me to imagine that they have small domestic animals - chickens, ducks, rabbits, honeybees. I'm sceptical about the practicalities of taming and managing large domestic animals - sheep, goats, cattle, horses, pigs, etc. - without being able to see. But I would gladly be persuaded that it's possible. Dogs are also something to consider. Potentially very useful - but feral dogs could be a problem.
Their technology also doesn't necessarily have to be merely stone-age. What about bronze/copper or iron/steel tools? One thing worth noting about historical technological development is that bronze tools were largely cast, while iron tools were largely blacksmithed, partly because the temperature needed to melt iron for casting is so high. I find casting more plausible than blacksmithing; with casting, you can make a mold by touch, then pour in the hot metal. With blacksmithing, you have to aim your hammer precisely at an object that's too hot to touch. Such aim seems difficult to achieve, especially when the object is so hot that you can't touch it to figure out details of its shape and location. So I am going to suppose that they have cast bronze/copper tools, but not blacksmithed iron tools. At some point they may develop furnaces hot enough to make cast iron.
So, current working assumption: small domestic animals used for meat, eggs, honey, skins, feathers. Garden-type farming, possibly including some grain farming. Trapping and fishing as well. No dogs or large domestic animals until I conclude that they're feasible. Bronze/copper tools, and possibly still stone tools. Could have separated from sighted society anywhere from stone-age hunter-gatherer society through bronze-age agricultural society.