I keep coming up with the idea that most civilizations seem to follow the same almost evolutionary path as they grow in culture and religion.
In religion it seems to go sprit/land worship> ancestor> deity in almost every society i have studied. And it seems that and it seems like the higher the cultural and technological progression is the higher up on the teir of what they worship is.
Also it seems like most society's do a similar thing in how they are structured (except for the Mongols of course, and the north american native tribes) they start off as random clans who will band together making larger and larger communities untill they form a small country. Then it seems that a rising leader is crowned king and they stay like that untill becoming a democracy after which they can switch back and forth.
Im just saying it seems like there is some kind of natural predetermined path that all cultures follow (kind of like in Civ if you can forgive me comparing history to a video game). And the only thing that gets them off of that path is not having need materials to continue on and gain new technology that lets them go from hunter gather to agrarian to mercantile to industrial.
The reason i say the last part is the only cultures who i can think of that didn't follow the path are islanders who lack the needed materials, sub sahara africa, and the monguals and north american indians who lacked horses.
Not really, if there was a progression then societies couldn't skip steps. Like going from a band to a chiefdom without becoming a tribe first. Some groups were still hunter gatherers with permanent villages, had something like a king and they didn't bother with agriculture, like the people of the Pacific Northwest who fished. Also societies can go back and forth between different social structures. Like state to tribe and back again.
I'd also hesitate saying that religion across the board is like that. The beliefs and practices of each can vary so radically they can be difficult to understand.
Now as for technology, it doesn't go in a straight line like you think. Things are forgotten or lost and then rediscovered. Sometimes they're discovered multiple times in various parts of the world in differing times. For example, the Chinese were one of the few civilizations to use clockwork machinery, however it fell into disuse and was forgotten. Technology is also far more fluid than what you're thinking. Sometimes people can get it through seeing someone else use it, they come up with it and others catch on, or a group finds out something is easier.
Keep in mind that while a society may seem less advanced to you, it has just as much history as any other that has existed and it has not been the same since time began.