Civilization
For alternative meanings see: Civilization (disambiguation).
The term
civilization (or
civilisation) - from the Latin
civis meaning 'citizen' or 'townsman' - has been used in various ways at different times.
A stage of technical or political development
Sometimes examples are given of the earliest civilizations, such as \nChina, ancient Egypt, Indus Valley Civilization and Sumer.\nThe features of these groups that are seen as distinguishing them from earlier settlements such as neolithic Jericho and Catalhuyuk:\n* urban settlements where people followed specialized occupations\n* some kind of organization on an area larger than a single settlement\n* extensive trade\n* the use of writing, developed to keep track of it all
A standard of behaviour
Encompassing concepts such as chivalry, barbarian. The concept of civilisation has at time formed part of the justification by which some groups have exerted control over others, e.g., during European colonization of the Americas or British India. Hence, Mahatma Gandhi's famous response to the question "What do you think of Western civilization?" – his reply: "I think it would be a good idea." In regard to behaviour, civilized can be said to mean all the customs and sanctions necessary to prevent people becoming violent, except as a last resort. Therefore the possession of deterrents to violence in the form of a standing army does not necessarily disqualify a people from claiming to be civilised.
A cultural phenomenon
One school of thought says that civilization is a cultural identity which represents the broadest level of identification in which an individual intensely identifies, broader than family, tribe, hometown, nation, or region. Civilizations are usually tied to religion or some other belief system.
The thesis that civilizations represent relatively homogeneous cultural spheres was central to the thinking of Oswald Spengler, who defined the coherence of a civilization as its organization around a single primary cultural symbol. Civilizations experienced cycles of birth, life, decline and death, often supplanted by a new civilization with a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new symbol. This cultural concept of civilization influenced the historical theories of Arnold J. Toynbee. Toynbee explored civilizational processes in his multi-volume A Study of History, which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline of 21 civilizations and five "arrested civilizations". Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of moral or religious decline, rather than economic or environmental causes. This cultural definition of civilizations is also central to the political theories of Samuel P. Huntington who defines a civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species." He argues that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be the interaction and conflict between civilizations, supplanting the conflicts between nation states and ideologies that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries.
The concept of empire overlaps with that of "civilisation", so the empirical description of the 500-year old Western empire by Noam Chomsky and the more theoretical analysis by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt constitute other contemporary analyses of civilizations.
Civilizations as systems
Another group of theorists, inspired by systems theory, look at civilizations as systems or networks of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures, and are defined by the economic, political, military, diplomatic, and cultural interactions between them. An influential thinker in this school is urbanist Jane Jacobs, who, in her books The Economy of Cities and Cities and the Wealth of Nations, defined cities as the economic engines of human economies, and identified the process of "import replacement" as central to the development of city networks. Import replacement involves peripheral cities developing the capability to replace goods and services that were formerly imported from more advanced cities. Successful import replacement creates economic growth in these peripheral cities, and allows these cities to then export their goods to less developed cities in their own hinterlands, starting the process anew. Jacobs' work explores economic and technological exchanges across networks of cities rather than the development of distinct cultural spheres.
Systems theorists look at various spheres of relations between cities, including economic relations, cultural exchanges, and political/diplomatic/military relations; these spheres often occur of different scales. The total sphere of trade relations are called an oikumene; city and economic historians have observed that trade spheres were, until the nineteenth century, much larger than either cultural spheres or political/diplomatic/military spheres. For example, extensive trade routes, including the silk road through Central Asia and Indian Ocean sea routes linking the Roman Empire India, and China, were well established 2000 years ago, when these civilizations did not have political, diplomatic, or military, or cultural ties. "World systems" theorists argue that economic and political/diplomatic/military integration of the world's civilizations has already happened, and Huntington's 21st-century "clash of civilizations" is actually the clash of cultural spheres within a single, integrated economic-political-military civilization. Some theorists argue that this integration has happened over the last few hundred years, as Western Civilization expanded through the processes of colonialism and imperialism to dominate the globe; others argue that this process of civilizational integration started much earlier.
David Wilkinson's theory of a Central civilization posits that multiple civilizations, defined primarily as political-diplomatic-military networks of cities, emerged in different places around the world at different times, and formed autonomous civilizations; some of these historical civilizations include the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Indic, Aegean, Chinese, Japanese, Mesoamerican, and Andean civilizations. Some historic civilizations, like Japan, are culturally homogeneous, while others were culturally heterogeneous but integrated in the economic-political-military sphere. By 1500 BCE, the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations merged into a "Central civilization", which expanded to include Europe, northern and eastern Africa, and Central Asia by about 1500 CE. Central civilization is culturally heterogeneous, but integrated politically, militarily, and economically; thus, according to Wilkinson, many civilizations identified by historians, including Byzantine, Western, Islamic, Hellenic-Roman, etc. were not separate civilizations, but were coherent cultural spheres within Central civilization. European expansion after 1500 brought the Americas, subsaharan Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Oceania into Central civilization, with China and Japan integrated in the 19th century.
Oppressive aspects of Civilization
Some postmodernists refuse the term as undesirable. It is argued that there are not 'advanced' and 'primitive' societies; many so-called 'primitive' societies are sustainable and better adapted to the social and environmental life conditions and resource base of their locale. The division of societies into 'civilized' and 'uncivilized' is arbitrary, has been the justification for colonialism, imperialism, genocide, and coercive acculturation.
Many feminist and ecologist critiques of civilization emphasize the violence and exploitation of people and the environment that has accompanied the historical development of civilization, sometimes referred to as dominator culture, and suggest that the partnership societies that preceded so-called civilized societies may be a more just and sustainable pattern of human development.
Civilizations in human history
\nCivilizations can be defined in several ways, and the number of distinct civilizations, their duration and extent, are the subject of some debate. Historians may emphasize cultural distinctiveness, or may distinguish civilizations by degree of economic, political, and diplomatic integration.The list below includes a number of civilizations commonly identified by historians. Many cultures evolve through the fusion of elements from other cultures, so discerning sharp divisions between civilizations on the basis of culture is difficult indeed, and subject to varying interpretations. Civilizations may be lumped or split.
Most of the civilizations identified below meet the criteria of posessing cities, specialized occupations, political entities larger than a single settlement, extensive trade networks, and writing, but not all of the civilizations listed below include all of these criteria. A number of cultures that possess certain of these characteristics are not included here.
Most of these civilizations are now gone; some disappeared, their people returning to a pre-urban way of life; others were conquered by or merged into other civilizations. How many distinct civilizations exist at present is a subject of some debate.
- Mespotamian civilization: begins with Sumerian city-states c. 3500 BCE, which developed cuneiform writing. Elements of the civilization were transmitted to neighboring and conquering states and peoples, including Akkad, Elam, Mitanni, Assyria, Babylonia. After sixth century BCE Mesopotamian civilization dominated by Hellenic-Roman and Iranian civilizations.\n** Levantine/West Semitic civilization: includes the urbanized Northwest Semitic cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, including Ugarit, Syria, Phoenicia, Canaan, Kingdom of Israel. Developed alphabetic (strictly speaking, abjad) writing, and, in Israel, monotheism.\n** Hittite civilization: The Hittites were an urbanized nation of eastern Anatolia from third millenium BCE to c. 600 BCE. their culture fused Mesopotamian (i.e. cuneiform writing), Indo-European, and autochthonous (Hattian?) cultural elements.\n** Iranian civilization: developed on the plateau of Iran after 1000 BCE. Includes Median, Achaemenid, Parthian, Bactrian, Sogdian, and Sassanian states and empires. Culture combined Mesopotamian and Indo-European elements. Iranian religions were distinct, and included Magism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeanism, Mithraism. Iran dominated much of western and central Asia from c. 600 BCE to Islamic conquest after 636 CE.\n*Egyptian civilization: developed in the Nile valley c. 3000 BCE. Includes Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, as well as neighboring Nubia. After fourth century BCE dominated by Hellenic-Roman civilization.\n* Indic civilization: The Indus Valley Civilization emerged after 2600 BCE, also called the Harappan civilization. Harappan script has not yet been deciphered. After 1500 BCE Vedic civilization emerged in the valleys of the Indus and Ganges, initially as republics and kingdoms, and ultimately the Maurya and Gupta empires and modern Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The degree of continuity between Harappan and Vedic civilization is subject to considerable debate, and they may be distinct civilizations.\n* Aegean civilization: emerged c. 2000 BCE around the Aegean sea and on its islands, and includes the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures. Minoan writing has not been deciphered. Mycenaean culture took hold after the collapse of Minoan culture, and went into decline after 1100 BCE. The degree to which Aegean civilization is autochthonous, having emerged from the culture of Old Europe, or is derived from Afroasiatic cultures of Egypt and the Levant is subject to debate.\n* Chinese (Sinic) civilization: emerged in the second millenium BCE in northern China, later spread to the rest of China, Korea, and Japan. Indigenous religions, Confucianism and Taoism, later supplemented by Buddhism, introduced from India.\n* Hellenic-Roman civilization: emerged around the Aegean after the Greek dark ages, 1000 CE. Greek settlement around the Mediterranean and Black seas, and Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire in the fourth century, spread Hellenic civilization around the Mediterranean, where it was absorbed by non-Greek peoples, including the Romans. The Roman Empire was Christianized after the fourth century CE, and collapsed around the western Mediterranean during the sixth century.\n* Southeast Asian civilization: includes the urban cultures that emerged in Southeast Asia and Indonesia during the first millenium CE, including Mon, Khmer Champa, Thailand, Burma on the mainland, and Srivijaya and Majapahit in Indonesia. Southeast Asian civilization absorbed cultural influences from India, including Hinduism and Buddhism, and from China, and later from Islam.\n* Mesoamerican civilization: emerged with the first Olmec cities in the lowlands along the Gulf of Mexico in the first millenium BCE. Later developed in two centers, the Valley of Mexico, home to Teotihuacan, the Toltecs, and Aztecs, and the Maya civilization of Guatemala and the Yucatan. Destroyed by Spanish conquest.\n* Andean civilization: developed in the first millenium CE in the central Andes and the central Pacific coast of South America, including the urbanized cultures of Chimu, Tiwanaku, Chavin, Ica-Nazca, and Inca. Destroyed by Spanish conquest.\n* Japanese civilization: initially developed as a fusion of indigenous (i.e. Shinto) and Chinese cultural elements, transmitted via Korea.\n* Byzantine civilization: the Greek-speaking portion of the Roman Empire continued after its collapse in the west, fusing Hellenic and Christian elements, and its culture was adopted by neighboring peoples. Historians who characterize Byzantium as distinct from Western civilization usually focus on the institution of Caesaropapism, which fused religious and state authority. Byzantine culture spread to eastern Slavs, including Russia.\n* Western civilization: evolved from the Christianized Latin-speaking portion of the Roman Empire, which grew to include most of western and central Europe during the Middle Ages. Generally understood to include Roman Catholic and Protestant nations of Europe, and the areas they settled.\n* Islamic civilization: emerged from the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century CE, and later spread to include most of western and Central Asia, northern Africa, and Indonesia.\n* Chibchan civilization: developed in the Cauca and Magdalena river valleys of the northern Andes, in modern Colombia. Destroyed by the Spanish conquest.\n* Mississippian civilization: included Cahokia and other cities of the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Cities were abandoned by c. 1400 CE.\n* Zimbabwe: civilization of southwestern Africa, whose major center was Great Zimbabwe.
Wiktionary
\n*civilization\n*civilize
External links
\n*http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/interactive/civilisations/\n* HREF="http://www.coalitionagainstcivilization.org/" class="external">Coalition Against Civilization
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