A connected tangent type thought, and I have no idea where it goes; but how come Romans were so clever, but current tribes around the world, sort of, aren't? Ho

A connected tangent type thought, and I have no idea where it goes; but how come Romans were so clever, but current tribes around the world, sort of, aren't? How does that work? Is it a resource thing? Environment thing? Seems a bit odd to me that even now we have societies who are actually behind a society 2000 years old. It depends on what you mean by clever. If you mean proficiency at building tools and mechanical technology, then I suspect the reason is because the Romans had a culture conducive to developing certain types of technology. How much technology is derived from the need for military conquest? How much is military conquest dependent on the type of religion you have? How much of the capacity to develop technology is dependent on having a privileged class that has enough free time to think about things unrelated to food and reproduction? These are political and social conditions and they depend on the political and social conditions of surrounding tribes. The people that still live in a tribal society today have found a cultural and resource equilibrium with their environment. They are fortunate enough to have avoided or overcome all external and internal pressure to change. They don't need to develop technology because their environment and way of life don't require it.