They never had contact ? Like when ? People travelling most of the globe way before British figured out basic stuff.
Ancient sumeria, Egypt, Assyrians and Indians had concepts like crowns. Also if a civilization did something cool, others usually copied it under 200 years.
Not a historian, so grain of salt.
Like the Aztecs? I believe the Spanish went there first and that was in 1519. But again I don’t have good knowledge of history so I’m probably wrong here.
5 seconds of Googling shows that the Aztec and Inca both had ceremonial headdress/crown for the ultimate ruler. 5 seconds of Googling about the Maya and the Seneca did not turn up anything.
Thorstein Veblen (19th century sociologist) would probably explain the crown/headdress prevalence around the world as a form of conspicuous consumption (he coined the term). The ruler wears a ridiculous and impractical headdress that “wasted” hours and hours of labor to show his dominance, wealth, prestige and ability to waste (and coerce). I’m not a sociologist but I have read his Theory of the Leisure Class and it fits very cleanly in his theory.
Now why a crown and not a breastplate, eg? No idea. Maybe it’s simply the most conspicuous and ridiculous thing one can wear that serves absolutely no practical purpose (whereas a breast plate could be useful in war)
