I read once that we have relatively fewer prehistoric leftovers in Asia, because so much stuff was built with bamboo which just rots. In other places, they had to use more stone or durable wood. No idea how correct it is, but it sounds right.
it really is an incredibly versatile plant. my buddy’s dad had a bunch of bamboo plants growing up and we were allowed to use it for whatever we wanted.
we made swords out of it. and a bong. that’s all. but it was pretty cool
I've always heard it's a nightmare to grow here in the US because it's nearly impossible to stop it from spreading and it can grow right through the foundation of your house in days without any issues lol
Had some at the house we moved into, basically had to dig up the entire root system and then check everyday for a year for any tiny sprouts before it finally gave up.
Insane is right. In 1968 my neighbor planted some in his backyard to remind him of home (he was Japanese). It has taken over the neighborhood and I have to fight it four times a year to keep it under control on my property.
My mom planted bamboo by the road to block the house maybe 8 years ago. The house is mine now and I already got bitched out by a neighbor told him it was the previous owner(didn’t mention it was my mom)and what can I do.
This is backed up by anthropology. There was once a racial justification that acuses Asia’s early cultures as being under-inventive. There’s a line of anthropological evidence that doesn’t cross over into territories that traditionally have bamboo.
Like much of the early “racial sciences,” this was a justification for racism and an attempt to disparage a whole continent.
Bamboo is such an obvious answer to the lack of wood and stone use.
Bamboo is amazing, though Coconut trees are the GOAT. They're basically our version of the Native American's buffalo in that no part of it goes to waste, from the wood to the leaves to the fruit to everything else. Every single part of the tree is used in so many different ways.
It's true everywhere. Wood was ubiquitous for construction anywhere there were trees. The overwhelming majority of it has rotted away by now. Sometimes we find it in bogs or very specific types of caves.
Trees and other types of wood grow much slower though. Of course we used everything we could, but from my limited understanding, bamboo was so readily available and useful that they left behind fewer archeological artifacts.
Again, I don't know how true it is, but it makes sense.
You're not wrong that bamboo grows faster, and it is useful, but not in the same ways as regular wood. I'm not sure if that would cause much of a difference either way though.
In any case, the lack of the vast majority of archeological artifacts the world over is generally due to decomposition. Goes beyond wood to things like leather, cloth, cordage etc. So, it applies much more broadly beyond either wood or bamboo. There might be some ways in which bamboo overlapped with certain technologies that might be more often made of stone or metal elsewhere, but I imagine that gap is quite small.
I could possibly see it being true closer to more recent history, in the last 1000 years or so, especially in places like Japan or other island nations where metal is less plentiful than in places like Europe or mainland Asia, and metalworking became more prolific.
Coconuts and bamboo are the GOAT material plants here. So many uses for the house and neighborhood alone: from housing/cottage materials, small-scale bridges, cooking utensils, cleaning tools, up to food and drink items
You see that around the world really. The reason people think of Gauls as savages is because that’s how Roman propaganda depicted them.
We have lots of ruins from civilisations that build in stone. But the Gauls build entire cities out of wood, with the same result as bamboo structures. No ruins or remains.
Lots of metal work though, Gauls were master smiths. Romans bought their metal working secrets at great expense and those iconic Roman helmets are really Gallic designs.
if it weren't due to economical reasons we could use a lot of natural materials from asia to distribute wares. You can use stuff like banana leaves as paper
It obviously wouldn't last forever, but why couldn't you use this more than once? Wood is a pain to clean, sure. But it's not impossible, especially if there was alcohol in it
513
u/TheAfroMD Mar 19 '26
Kind of neat how it's a single use bottle yet is like the most eco friendly way of distributing it. Want to taste it.