Inventions

[Mr. Dictator]

Inspired by an...um..."interesting" thread by Red Stranger, i have to ask.

Why do people say that nations invent things?

They never say (insert name here).

They always say, "The British invented X" or something like that.

I can understand if it was an ancient discovery, like the wheel or swords, but some people still say Americans invented the telephone.

ohwell, just a meaningless rant i guess.

 

[warpus]

Bleh.. nationalism.

I'd much rather everything was attributed by gender. That way I could tease girls about men inventing the wheel.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

Nationalism.

or ethnic pride.

It's all meant to instill pride into one of their own members. Many examples that cite to their culture inventing something is full of it (nationalism or ethnic pride, that is).

 

[azzaman333]

I invented giving credit to countries for inventions made by their people.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

I'd much rather everything was attributed by gender. That way I could tease girls about men inventing the wheel.

haha, funny.

But the end result would produce some pretty disturbing statistics.

 

[Homie]

Well, nationalism and, sometimes we don't know the name of the inventor, but we know his nationality, e.g. I know that both the cheese slicer and the paper clip are Norwegian inventions, but I don't know the name of the inventors.

 

[Tee Kay]

Also sometimes its easier for westerners to say a nation invents things rather than "complicated" foreign names. Eg its easier for westerners to say "The Chinese invented paper" than "Cai Lun invented paper".

Anyway from casual observations Asians tend to mention the actual name of the inventor, while westerners tend to mention only the nationality.

 

[Narz]

Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb.

Thomas Edison friggin' rules! I have a small poster of him in my house.

I have never once thought or heard that "America invented the lightbulb".

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Actually i rarely hear a conutry invented smthing.

As for antiquity, we probably don't know who invented the smthing. So we say the egypteans invented X.
Either this, or the Chineese invented way to many things and we can't pronounce the names of those who invented them.