Comment on "What is the oldest country in the world that still exists?" is a Ship of Theseus problem.

Lucky_777@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  These are actually really interesting examples.

  Take Iran:

  On the one hand the area were it is located has had organized societies occupying it for an insanely long time.
  This would make it one of the oldest countries by this definition.

  On the other hand: when asked the question if the current Iran was the same country as back in the 1970’s, I would certainly say: “No.”
  Occupied area and even some of the people might still be the same, but the cultural, societal and governmental characteristics have changed too radically to still be considered the same.
  So, by this definition, Iran would be one of the youngest countries.

  I think that incertainty is what OP was getting at:
  How much change do we allow to still consider a country the same as at a previous time in history?

  source

  • Lucky_777@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That makes sense and I agree with the changes in Iran would make it one of the youngest. Not sure of cultural changes through the AD time period. 3000 BCE is the stat for Iran “beginning”, that’s a long ass time lol.

    I agree though, and it’s almost an impossible question to answer because every country has gone through cultural changes.

    I would say a better answer would be the Sentinelese people on North Sentinel Island. Untouched culture and isolation from the rest of the modern world for 60k years.

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