What Unoimsen Meant by the Silk Road

Cultures are effectively structures of refusal. Even technologies that have adaptive or utilitarian benefits might still be refused by people who might even benefit from them. For example the athabascans in alaska refuse to use innuit kayaks, despite the fact that they're a lot better suited for the environment on their own boots. And the innuit, for example, don't use snow shoes - at least n the time master mas was writing.