Bantu Vs Indo European

Indo-European VS. Bantu

The migrations of both the Indo European and the Bantu peoples had lasting impacts on culture, language and society in the areas to which they migrates. They were of course different but they had many similarities as well. Both were linguistic groups who migrated in search of new lands and to escape conflict and environmental changes.
The Indo European peoples originated in Ukraine/Southern Russia and migrated to all Europe, Mesopotamia, Western China, and India. They had the use of Iron, horses, and chariots. These assets allowed them to expand at a high rate. The Indo European lasted from about 4000 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E. There are approximately 440 live languages today (including Sanskrit, German, and Celtic)
that stem from the Indo-European language over 300 of which are Indo Iranian. The Indo Europeans were not as aggressive as they are often portrayed, while they were definitely more aggressive than their Bantu contemporaries, they usually to be peace full with the people they came across. They usually intermarried and spread their ideas, skills, beliefs, and language. The Indo-European also adapted cueiform to their language. The Bantu did not have a written language instead, their history was passed down from generation to generation through storytellers, called griots.
Unfortunately stories are not as accurate as written language so we are not as well informed about the Bantu as we are about the Indo European. Despite this there is still much we have discovered about the Bantu people. The Bantu whose name means people or peoples, originated in Nigeria and traveled to Congo, Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa. Similar to the Indo European the Bantu people spread their language, ideas and culture by setting up societies as they went and and inter-marrying with the societies they came across. The Bantu people did not have the use of technologies such as horses and chariots but they traveled by canoe which, although not usually and fast as traveling by horse, was still faster than traveling by foot. The Bantu independently invented iron which they then spread throughout the areas that they migrated to. Possibly the most important effect of the Bantu migrations was that they brought agriculture to much of Africa, they farmed with hoes, growing yams, sorghum, millet, and oil
palms.
Now that that we have discussed the differences between the Bantu and the Indo European, let's expand upon the the similarities between the two contemporary societies.
As we have seen the Indo European and the Bantu migrations have many differences but now we will see the many similarities between the two societies. Both of the two societies spread their language in virtually the same way leading to the languages of each family have very similar words and grammatical structure, this makes it far simpler for speakers of one language to learn another language in the same family. This is important because it helps the people who live in the same area to be able to understand each other with much less effort than if they spoke languages from entirely different linguistic families. This is useful for many obvious reasons including trade, business and foreign affairs.
Another important constant between the two societies and their migrations is the fact that neither society waged war on many of the other societies they came across. I think that this is extremely important because if the societies had fought with the people they found the societies they fought would have been much less open to learning their language and assimilating to the culture and methods of the “newcomers”. Should this have occurred we would not have the interesting and convenient similarities between so many different
societies.
The final major similarity between the Indo European and the Bantu is that both of the societies had advanced technologies, the Indo Europeans had iron, the horse, and the chariot, The Bantu had iron. The fact that both of these societies spread their technology is extremely beneficial because while everyone would eventually have gotten things like iron wether they discovered it for themselves or it was brought to them, they probably would have gotten it much latter.
There are many other similarities such as the manner in which each society procured food however those are of lesser importance. The Indo Europeans and the Bantu people were extremely influential in both the same and different ways. The migrations of both societies help to shape the world into the place it is now, they both brought new technologies and ideas such as monotheism. Overall these two contemporary societies influenced the areas the migrated to very positively.