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This article is about human society. For other uses, see Civilization (disambiguation).
Central New York City. Cities are a hallmark of human civilization.
Central New York City. The City of New York Cities are a hallmark of human civilization. A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status
The ruins of Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas," has become the most recognizable symbol of the Inca civilization.
The ruins of Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas," has become the most recognizable symbol of the Inca civilization. Machu Picchu (Machu Pikchu "Old Peak" 'mɑtʃu 'piktʃu is a Pre-Columbian Inca site located 2400 meters (7875 ft above sea level

A civilization or civilisation is human society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in cities. A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic In Anthropology and Archaeology, a complex society is a social formation that is otherwise described as a formative or developed State (i Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture A city is an Urban area with a large Population and a particular Administrative, Legal, or Historical status

Compared with less complex cultures, members of a civilization are organized into a diverse division of labour and an intricate social hierarchy. Division of labour or specialization is the specialization of cooperative labour in specific circumscribed tasks and roles intended to increase the Productivity Social hierarchy is a multi-tiered pyramid-like social or functional structure having an apex as the centralization of power

The term civilization is often used as a synonym for culture in both popular and academic circles. [1] Every human being participates in a culture, defined as "the arts, customs, habits. . . beliefs, values, behavior and material habits that constitute a people's way of life". [2] Civilizations can be distinguished from other cultures by their high level of social complexity and organization, and by their diverse economic and cultural activities.

The term has been defined and understood in a number of ways different from the standard definition. Sometimes it is used synonymously with the broader term culture. Civilization can also refer to society as a whole. To nineteenth-century English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor, for example, civilization was "the total social heredity of mankind;"[3] in other words, civilization was the totality of human knowledge and culture as represented by the most "advanced" society at a given time. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Sir Edward Burnett Tylor ( October 2 1832 &ndash January 2 1917) was an English Anthropologist. [4] Civilization can be used in a normative sense as well: if complex and urban cultures are assumed to be superior to other "savage" or "barbarian" cultures, then "civilization" is used as a synonym for "superiority of certain groups. Normative has specialized meanings in several academic disciplines "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived " In a similar sense, civilization can mean "refinement of thought, manners, or taste". [5] However, in its most widely used definition, civilization is a descriptive term for a relatively complex agricultural and urban culture.

Contents

Characteristics

26th century BC Sumerian cuneiform script in Sumerian language, listing gifts to the high priestess of Adab on the occasion of her election. One of the earliest examples of human writing.
26th century BC Sumerian cuneiform script in Sumerian language, listing gifts to the high priestess of Adab on the occasion of her election. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Adab (modern Bismaya (or Bismya Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian city between Telloh and Nippur. One of the earliest examples of human writing.

Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society. Vere Gordon Childe (14 April 1892 Sydney, New South Wales –19 October 1957 Mt [6] Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood, settlement patterns, forms of government, social stratification, economic systems, literacy, and other cultural traits. traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write or the ability to use Language to read, write, listen,

All human civilizations have depended on agriculture for subsistence. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture Growing food on farms results in a surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as irrigation and crop rotation. Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops Grain surpluses have been especially important because they can be stored for a long time. Food storage is both a traditional domestic skill and is important industrially A surplus of food permits some people to do things besides produce food for a living: early civilizations included artisans, priests and priestesses, and other people with specialized careers. An artisan, also called a Craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who crafts items that may be functional or strictly decorative including furniture clothing A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites in particular rites of sacrifice to and propitiation of a deity or deities A surplus of food results in a division of labour and a more diverse range of human activity, a defining trait of civilizations.

Civilizations have distinctly different settlement patterns from other societies. The word civilization is sometimes defined as "a word that simply means 'living in cities'". [7] Non-farmers gather in cities to work and to trade.

Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more complex political structure, namely the state. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. State societies are more stratified than other societies; there is a greater difference among the social classes. The ruling class, normally concentrated in the cities, has control over much of the surplus and exercises its will through the actions of a government or bureaucracy. The term ruling class refers to the Social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity usually in large organizations and government Morton Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, have classified human cultures based on political systems and social inequality. Morton Herbert Fried ( March 21, 1923 in Bronx New York - December 17, 1986 in Leonia New Jersey) was a distinguished Professor For a position in the religion-science debate with a similar name see Conflict thesis Conflict theory emphasizes the role that a person's Elman Rogers Service (1915 — 1996 was a cultural anthropologist. Social inequality refers to a lack of Social equality, where individuals in a society do not have equal Social status. This system of classification contains four categories:

Economically, civilizations display more complex patterns of ownership and exchange than less organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate more personal possessions than nomadic people. Some people also acquire landed property, or private ownership of the land. Landed property or landed estates is a Real estate term that usually refers to a property that generates income for the owner without the owner having to Because many people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must trade their goods and services for food in a market system. Trade is the willing exchange of goods, services, or both Trade is also called Commerce. Sao Paulo Stock Exchangejpg|thumb| Virtual market arena where buyer and seller are not present and trade via intemediates and electronical information Early civilizations developed money as a universal medium of exchange for these increasingly complex transactions. Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts.

Ten Indus scripts discovered near the northern gate of Dholavira 5000 years ago
Ten Indus scripts discovered near the northern gate of Dholavira 5000 years ago

Writing, developed first by people in Sumer, is considered a hallmark of civilization and "appears to accompany the rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state. Dholavira, an ancient metropolitan city, and locally known as Kotada Timba Prachin Mahanagar Dholavira, is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar "[8] Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to keep accurate records. Aided by their division of labor and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse cultural traits. These include organized religion, development in the arts, and countless new advances in science and technology. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos The arts is a broad subdivision of Culture, composed of many expressive disciplines. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt

Cultural identity

"Civilization" can also describe the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of items and arts, that make it unique. Civilizations have even more intricate cultures, including literature, professional art, architecture, organized religion, and complex customs associated with the elite. Civilization is such in nature that it seeks to spread, to have more, to expand, and the means by which to do this.

Nevertheless, some tribes or peoples remained uncivilized even to this day (2007). These cultures are called by some "primitive," a term that is regarded by others as pejorative. "Primitive" implies in some way that a culture is "first" (Latin = primus), and as all cultures are contemporaries today's so called primitive cultures are in no way antecedent to those we consider civilized. Many anthropologists use the term "non-literate" to describe these peoples. Protohistory refers to a period between Prehistory and History, during which a Culture or Civilization has not yet developed Writing In the USA and Canada, where people of such cultures were the original inhabitants before being displaced by European settlers, they use the term "First Nations. First Nations is a term of Ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis people " Generally, these people do not have hierarchical governments, organized religion, writing systems or money. The little hierarchy that exists, for example respect for the elderly, is mutual and not instituted by force, rather by a mutual reciprocal and customary agreement. A specialized monopolizing government does not exist, or at least the civilized version of government which most of us are familiar with.

The civilized world has been spread by invasion, conversion and trade, and by introducing agriculture, writing and religion to non-literate tribes. Imperialism has two meanings one describing an action and the other describing an attitude Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religious identity or a change from one religious identity to another Trade is the willing exchange of goods, services, or both Trade is also called Commerce. Some tribes may willingly adapt to civilized behaviour. But civilization is also spread by force: if a tribe does not wish to use agriculture or accept a certain religion it is often forced to do so by the civilized people, and they usually succeed due to their more advanced technology, and higher population densities. Civilization often uses religion to justify its actions, claiming for example that the uncivilized are "primitive," savages, barbarians or the like, which should be subjugated by civilization.

The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization (a classic example being Chinese civilization and its influence on Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and so forth), all of them sharing the fact that they belong to an East Asian civilization, sharing Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism, a "Mandarin" class an educated understanding of Chinese ideograms and much else. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially A Mandarin was a Bureaucrat in Imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives is that person's broadest cultural identity.

Whereas the etiology of civilization is Latin or Roman, defined above as the application of justice by "civil" means, one may also examine and reflect upon Jewish or Hebrew civilization. A Hebrew "civilization" is defined not as an expression or extension of the subjective trappings of culture and society, but rather as a human society and/or culture being an expression of objective moral and ethical moorings as they are known, understood and applied in accordance with the Mosaic Covenant. A "human" civilization, in Hebrew terms for instance, may contrast sharply with conventional notions about "civilization. " A "human" civilization, therein, would be an expression and extension of the two most basic pillars of human "civilization. " These two pillars are, honest standardized weights and measures and a moral and healthy constitution. Everything else, whether technology, science, art, music, etc. , is by this definition considered as commentary. Indeed, to the degree the surface terrain of a human society, i. e. , culture is "civilized," is to the degree the internal terrain (characteristics, personality or substance) of the people and leadership must also have been inoculated by, and inculcated with a moral foundation. The Biblically described Sodom, for instance, while being a society comprised of people with a culture, would by Jewish or Biblical standards of "civility" have been uncivilized. And while the Roman sentiment is largely focused upon how justice must "appear" to be done in a "civil" manner, the Hebrew or Biblical approach to justice, in principle, is never limited to subjective pretenses or appearance, but more importantly, justice must be predicated upon objective principles. Ultimately, there is no true or lasting "civility" for any man in the absence of moral composure.

Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as single units. One example is early twentieth-century philosopher Oswald Spengler,[9] even though he uses the German word "Kultur," "culture," for what we here call a "civilization. Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 Blankenburg am Harz &ndash 8 May 1936 Munich) was a German Historian and Philosopher whose " He said that a civilization's coherence is based around a single primary cultural symbol. Civilizations experience cycles of birth, life, decline and death, often supplanted by a new civilization with a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new cultural symbol.

This "unified culture" concept of civilization also influenced the theories of historian Arnold J. Toynbee in the mid-twentieth century. This page is about the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee for the economic historian Arnold Toynbee see this article. Toynbee explored civilization 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. A Study of History is the 12-volume Magnum opus of British Historian Arnold J " Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of moral or religious decline, rather than economic or environmental causes.

Samuel P. Huntington similarly 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. Samuel Phillips Huntington (born April 18, 1927) is an American political scientist who gained prominence through his " Clash of Civilizations " Besides giving a definition of a civilization, Huntington has also proposed several theories about civilizations, discussed below.

Complex systems

Main article: Cradle of civilization

Another group of theorists, making use of systems theory, look at civilizations as complex 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. The cradle of civilization is any of the possible locations for the emergence of Civilization. Systems theory is an Interdisciplinary field of Science and the study of the nature of Complex systems in Nature, Society, and This article describes complex systems as field of Science. For other meanings see Complex system.

For example, urbanist Jane Jacobs defines cities as the economic engines that work to create large networks of people. Jane Jacobs, OC, OOnt ( May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an The main process that creates these city networks, she says, is "import replacement". Import replacement is the process by which peripheral cities begin 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, creating new economic networks. So Jacobs explores economic development across wide networks instead of treating each society as an isolated cultural sphere.

Systems theorists look at many types of relations between cities, including economic relations, cultural exchanges, and political/diplomatic/military relations. These spheres often occur on different scales. For example, trade networks were, until the nineteenth century, much larger than either cultural spheres or political spheres. Extensive trade routes, including the Silk Road through Central Asia and Indian Ocean sea routes linking the Roman Empire, Persian Empire, India, and China, were well established 2000 years ago, when these civilizations scarcely shared any political, diplomatic, military, or cultural relations. The Silk Road, or Silk Routes, are an extensive interconnected network of Trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East South and Western Asia with the Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east and from southern Russia in the north to northern Pakistan in the south The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The first evidence of such long distance trade is in the ancient world. During the Uruk phase Guillermo Algaze has argued that trade relations connected Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan. [10] Resin found later in the Royal Tombs of Ur it is suggested was traded northwards from Mozambique.

Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single "world system", a process known as globalization. World system approach is a Post-Marxist view of world affairs one of several historical and current applications of Marxism to International relations. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones Different civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically, politically, and even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is debate over when this integration began, and what sort of integration – cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic – is the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. David Wilkinson has proposed that economic and military-diplomatic integration of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations resulted in the creation of what he calls the "Central Civilization" around 1500 BC. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now [11] Central Civilization later expanded to include the entire Middle East and Europe, and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization, integrating the Americas, Australia, China and Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson, civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the Central Civilization, or relatively homogeneous, like the Japanese civilization. What Huntington calls the "clash of civilizations" might be characterized by Wilkinson as a clash of cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others point to the Crusades as the first step in globalization. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents The more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies have expanded and shrunk since ancient times, and that the current globalized economy and culture is a product of recent European colonialism.

Future

See also: Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth

Political scientist Samuel Huntington[12] has argued that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be a clash of civilizations. This is about the future of civilization humans and the earth Samuel Huntington is a human name and may refer to Samuel Huntington (statesman (1731-1796 American jurist statesman and revolutionary leader The Clash of Civilizations is a Theory, proposed by Political scientist Samuel P According to Huntington, conflicts between civilizations will supplant the conflicts between nation-states and ideologies that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries. For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy

Currently, world civilization is in a stage that has created what may be characterized as an industrial society, superseding the agrarian society that preceded it. In Sociology, industrial society refers to a society with a modern societal structure An agrarian society is one that is based on Agriculture as its prime means for support and sustenance Some futurists believe that civilization is undergoing another transformation, and that world society will become a so-called informational society. In Sociology, informational society refers to a post-modern type of society

Some environmental scientists see the world entering a Planetary Phase of Civilization, characterized by a shift away from independent, disconnected nation-states to a world of increased global connectivity with worldwide institutions, environmental challenges, economic systems, and consciousness. The Planetary Phase of Civilization is a concept defined by the Global Scenario Group (GSG an environmental organization that specializes in Scenario analysis [13][14] In an attempt to better understand what a Planetary Phase of Civilization might look like in the current context of declining natural resources and increasing consumption, the Global scenario group used scenario analysis to arrive at three archetypal futures: Barbarization, in which increasing conflicts result in either a fortress world or complete societal breakdown; Conventional Worlds, in which market forces or Policy reform slowly precipitate more sustainable practices; and a Great Transition, in which either the sum of fragmented Eco-Communalism movements add up to a sustainable world or globally coordinated efforts and initiatives result in a new sustainability paradigm. The Global Scenario Group (GSG was a team of environmental scholars headed by Paul Raskin, who used Scenario analysis to analyze future paths for world development Scenario analysis is a process of analyzing possible future events by considering alternative possible outcomes (scenarios Policy reform, in addition to its more general meanings has been used to refer to a future scenario which relies on government action to correct economic market failures and to stimulate Eco-communalism is an environmental philosophy based on ideals of Simple living, local economies and self-sufficiency (often associated with the ideologies of Socialism [15]

The Kardashev scale classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement, specifically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement The Kardashev scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist. (see also: Civilizations and the Future, Space civilization)

The fall of civilizations

Main article: Societal collapse

There have been many explanations put forward for the collapse of civilization. The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement Spacefaring societies or nations are those capable of building and launching vehicles into space Societal collapse is the large scale breakdown or long term Decline of the Culture, civil institutions or other major characteristics of a Society or a

Edward Gibbon's massive work "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" began an interest in the Fall of Civilizations, that had begun with the historical divisions of Petrarch [2] between the Classical period of Ancient Greece and Rome, the succeeding Medieval Ages, and the Renaissance. Edward Gibbon ( April 27, 1737 January 16, 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (known popularly as The History) was written by English Historian Francesco Petrarca ( July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374) known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere For Gibbon:-

"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long. "[Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed. , vol. 4, ed. by J. B. Bury (London, 1909), pp. 173-174. ] Gibbon suggested the final act of the collapse of Rome was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS The Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire.

Theodor Mommsen in his "History of Rome", suggested Rome collapsed with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and he also tended towards a biological analogy of "genesis," "growth," "senescence," "collapse" and "decay. Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen ( 30 November 1817 &ndash 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, The History of the city of Rome spans 2800 years of the existence of a city that grew from a small Italian village in the 9th century BC into the center The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285 the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern "

Oswald Spengler, in his "Decline of the West" rejected Petrarch's chronological division, and suggested that there had been only eight "mature civilizations. Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 Blankenburg am Harz &ndash 8 May 1936 Munich) was a German Historian and Philosopher whose The Decline of the West ( The Downfall of the Occident) (Der Untergang des Abendlandes is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler, the first volume Francesco Petrarca ( July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374) known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar " Growing cultures, he argued, tend to develop into imperialistic civilizations which expand and ultimately collapse, with democratic forms of government ushering in plutocracy and ultimately imperialism. Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy or power provided by wealth Imperialism has two meanings one describing an action and the other describing an attitude

Arnold J. Toynbee in his "A Study of History" suggested that there had been a much larger number of civilizations, including a small number of arrested civilizations, and that all civilizations tended to go through the cycle identified by Mommsen. This page is about the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee for the economic historian Arnold Toynbee see this article. A Study of History is the 12-volume Magnum opus of British Historian Arnold J The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a cultural elite became a parasitic elite, leading to the rise of internal and external proletariats. The proletariat (from Latin la ''proles'' "offspring" is a term used to identify a lower Social class; a member of such a class is proletarian

Joseph Tainter in "The Collapse of Complex Societies" suggested that there were diminishing returns to complexity, due to which, as states achieved a maximum permissible complexity, they would decline when further increases actually produced a negative return. Joseph A Tainter ( December 8 1949) is a US anthropologist and Historian. Societal collapse is the large scale breakdown or long term Decline of the Culture, civil institutions or other major characteristics of a Society or a In Economics, diminishing returns is also called diminishing marginal returns or the law of diminishing returns. In general usage complexity often tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement Tainter suggested that Rome achieved this figure in the 2nd Century AD.

Jared Diamond in his recent book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" suggests five major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures. TemplateInfobox writer --> Jared Mason Diamond (b 10 September, 1937) is an American Evolutionary biologist Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is a 2005 book by Jared M

Peter Turchin in his Historical Dynamics and Andrey Korotayev et al. Deforestation is the conversion of Forested areas to non-forest land for use such as Arable land, Pasture, urban use logged area or wasteland Erosion is the carrying away or displacement of solids ( Sediment, Soil, rock and other particles usually by the agents of currents such as wind Climate change is any long-term significant change in the “average weather” that a given region experiences International trade is exchange of Capital, Goods, and Services across International borders or Territories. Peter Turchin is a specialist in Population dynamics and Mathematical modeling of historical dynamics ("cliodynamics" Andrey Korotayev (born in 1961 is an anthropologist, economic Historian, and sociologist. in their Introduction to Social Macrodynamics, Secular Cycles, and Millennial Trends suggest a number of mathematical models describing collapse of agrarian civilizations. For example, the basic logic of Turchin's "fiscal-demographic" model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a sociodemographic cycle we observe relatively high levels of per capita production and consumption, which leads not only to relatively high population growth rates, but also to relatively high rates of surplus production. Social cycle theories are one of the earliest Social theories in Sociology. Population growth is the change in Population over time and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals in a population using "per unit time" for As a result, during this phase the population can afford to pay taxes without great problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the population growth is accompanied by the growth of state revenues. During the intermediate phase, the increasing overpopulation leads to the decrease of per capita production and consumption levels, it becomes more and more difficult to collect taxes, and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state expenditures grow due to the growth of the population controlled by the state. Overpopulation refers to a condition where an Organism 's numbers exceed the Carrying capacity of its Habitat. As a result, during this phase the state starts experiencing considerable fiscal problems. During the final pre-collapse phases the overpopulation leads to further decrease of per capita production, the surplus production further decreases, state revenues shrink, but the state needs more and more resources to control the growing (though with lower and lower rates) population. Eventually this leads to famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse (Peter Turchin. Historical Dynamics. Princeton University Press, 2003:121–127).

Peter Heather argues in his book The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians[16] that this civilization did not end for moral or economic reasons, but because centuries of contact with barbarians across the frontier generated its own nemesis by making them a much more sophisticated and dangerous adversary. Peter Heather is an historian of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The fact that Rome needed to generate ever greater revenues to equip and re-equip armies that were for the first time repeatedly defeated in the field, led to the dismemberment of the Empire. Although this argument is specific to Rome, it can also be applied to the Asiatic Empire of the Egyptians, to the Han and Tang dynasties of China, to the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate, and others. The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by

Bryan Ward-Perkins, in his book The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization[17] shows the real horrors associated with the collapse of a civilization for the people who suffer its effects, unlike many revisionist historians who downplay this. Bryan Ward-Perkins is an archaeologist and historian of the later Roman Empire and early Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the transitional period between those The collapse of complex society meant that even basic plumbing disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar Dark Age collapses are seen with the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean, the collapse of the Maya, on Easter Island and elsewhere. The Dark Ages (ca 1150 BC–800 BC refers to Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean civilization in the 11th century The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition from the The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican Civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the Pre-Columbian Americas

Arthur Demarest argues in Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization[18], using a holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from archaeology, paleoecology, and epigraphy, that no one explanation is sufficient but that a series of erratic, complex events, including loss of soil fertility, drought and rising levels of internal and external violence led to the disintegration of the courts of Mayan kingdoms which began a spiral of decline and decay. Arthur Demarest is an anthropologist and archaeologist, known for his studies of the Maya civilization. Paleoecology uses data from Fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the Ecosystems of the past He argues that the collapse of the Maya has lessons for civilization today.

Jeffrey A. McNeely has recently suggested that "A review of historical evidence shows that past civilizations have tended to over-exploit their forests, and that such abuse of important resources has been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society. "[19]

Thomas Homer-Dixon in "The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization", considers that the fall in the energy return on investments; the energy expended to energy yield ratio, is central to limiting the survival of civilizations. Thomas Homer-Dixon (born 1956 in Victoria British Columbia) holds the George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict In Physics, Energy economics and ecological energetics, EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested ERoEI, EROI (Energy Return On The degree of social complexity is associated strongly, he suggests, with the amount of disposable energy environmental, economic and technological systems allow. When this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new energy sources or they will collapse.

Criticism

Civilization has been criticized from a variety of viewpoints and for a variety of reasons. Some critics have objected to all aspects of civilization; others have argued that civilization brings a mixture of good and bad effects.

Many environmentalists criticize civilizations for their exploitation of the environment. Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and Social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment. Through intensive agriculture and urban growth, civilizations tend to destroy natural settings and habitats. This is sometimes referred to as "dominator culture". Proponents of this view believe that traditional societies live in greater harmony with nature than civilizations; people work with nature rather than try to subdue it. The sustainable living movement is a push from some members of civilization to regain that harmony with nature. Sustainable living refers to a specific Lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources

Primitivism is a modern philosophy totally opposed to civilization. Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of Civilization. Primitivists accuse civilizations of restricting human potential, oppressing the weak, and damaging the environment. They wish to return to a more primitive way of life which they consider to be in the best interests of both nature and human beings. Leading proponents are John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen, whereas a critic is Roger Sandall. John Zerzan (born 1943) is an American anarchist and primitivist Philosopher and author Derrick Jensen (born December 19, 1960) is an American author and Environmental activist Roger Sandall is an essayist and commentator on Cultural relativism and is best known as the author of The Culture Cult.

However, not all critics of past and present civilization believe that a primitive way of life is better. Some have argued that many negative aspects of current 'civilized' nations can be overcome. Karl Marx, for instance, argued that the beginning of civilization was the beginning of oppression and exploitation, but also believed that these things would eventually be overcome and communism would be established throughout the world. Oppression is the act of using power to empower and/or privilege a group at the expense of disempowering marginalizing silencing and subordinating another group The term " exploitation " may carry two distinct meanings The act of utilizing something for any purpose Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based He envisioned communism not as a return to any sort of idyllic past, but as a new stage of civilization. Conflict theory in the social sciences also views the present form of civilization as being based on the domination of some people by others, but does not judge the issue morally. For a position in the religion-science debate with a similar name see Conflict thesis Conflict theory emphasizes the role that a person's

Given the current problems with the sustainability of industrial civilization, some, like Derrick Jensen, who posits civilization to be inherently unsustainable, argue that we need to develop a social form of "post-civilization" as different from civilization as the latter was with pre-civilized peoples. Derrick Jensen (born December 19, 1960) is an American author and Environmental activist

Ancient civilizations

Old World

The Fertile Crescent.
The Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a Crescent -shaped region in the Middle East, originally incorporating the Levant and Ancient Mesopotamia, and often

Ancient Lothal as envisaged by the Archaeological Survey of India. The Indus Valley Civilization (Mature period 2600&ndash1900 BCE abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus River basin Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainland Ancient Greece during the Bronze Age. Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era The history of Korea stretches from Lower Paleolithic times to the present Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. The Pre-history of the Southern Levant explains the various cultural changes that occurred as revealed by archaeological evidence prior to recorded traditions in the area of the The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire (existed c 750 - 1076) was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, Western Mali The Mali Empire or Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa was a Medieval West African civilization of the Mandinka from c The Songhai Empire, also known as the Songhay Empire was a pre-colonial African state of west Africa. Phoenicia ( Phoenician: Phoenician nunsvg|12px|נ]]Phoenician nun The Archaeological Survey of India is an Indian government agency in the Department of Culture that is responsible for archaeological studies and the preservation of

The "Saffron-gatherers": fresco found at Akrotiri on the island of Santorini. See also Akrotiri (disambiguation. Akrotiri is the name of an excavation site of an Bronze Age settlement on the Greek island of

New World

Caral of the Norte Chico, the oldest known civilization in the Western Hemisphere.
Caral of the Norte Chico, the oldest known civilization in the Western Hemisphere. This article is about the archaeological site For the civilization it belonged to see Norte Chico civilization Caral is a large settlement

Legendary and mythical prehistoric civilizations

Since the era of Plato there has been the suggestion at different times that there have been a number of additional ancient civilizations that disappeared as a result of major catastrophes, including Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu. The Norte Chico civilization (also Caral or Caral-Supe civilization) was a complex Pre-Columbian society that included as many as 30 major population centers This article is about the archaeological site For the civilization it belonged to see Norte Chico civilization Caral is a large settlement Puerto Supe oficially known as Supe Puerto (to distinguish it from the neighboring district of Supe Pueblo, a separate municipality is as small harbor town located in The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the Tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in what are roughly the modern-day states Toltec-style Vessel 1jpg|thumb|250px|right|A rather expressive orange-ware clay vessel in the Toltec style Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican Civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the Pre-Columbian Americas The Inca Empire (or Inka Empire) was the largest empire in Pre-Columbian America. The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous Pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Atlantis (in Greek,, "island of Atlas " is the name of a Legendary Island, first mentioned in Plato 's dialogues Lemuria (lɨˈmjʊəriə is the name of a hypothetical " lost land " variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans Mu, as the name of a sunken Pacific Ocean Continent, was first used by James Churchward in his 1926 book "The Lost Continent of Mu Motherland This is comparable to the legend of Prester John in the middle ages. The legends of Prester John (also Presbyter John) popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries told of a Christian Patriarch

No physical evidence for any of these civilizations exists, although in the case of Atlantis it has been suggested (amongst many other theories) that the legend arose out of a real event. This being the destruction of the Minoan civilization on Crete by a giant tsunami resulting from the Thera eruption. The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. Crete ( Greek: Κρήτη transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the A tsunami ((tsuːˈnɑːmi is a series of waves created when The Minoan eruption of Thera, also referred to as the Thera eruption or Santorini eruption was a major catastrophic volcanic eruption ( VEI

Subsequent Developments

Karl Jaspers, the German historical philosopher, proposed that the ancient civilizations were affected greatly by an Axial Age in the period between 600 BCE-400 BCE during which a series of male sages, prophets, religious reformers and philosophers, from China, India, Iran, Israel and Greece, changed the direction of civilizations forever[20]. Karl Theodor Jaspers ( February 23, 1883 – February 26, 1969) was a German Psychiatrist and Philosopher who German Philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the term the axial age ( Achsenzeit in the German language original to describe the period Julian Jaynes proposed that this was associated with the "collapse of the bicameral mind", during which subconscious ideas were recognized as simply subjective, rather than being voices of spirits. Julian Jaynes ( February 27 1920 &ndash November 21 1997) was an American Psychologist, best known for his book The Origin In Psychology, bicameralism is a controversial hypothesis which argues that the human Brain once assumed a state known as a bicameral mind in which William H. McNeill proposed that this period of history was one in which culture contact between previously separate civilizations saw the "closure of the oecumene", and led to accelerated social change from China to the Mediterranean, associated with the spread of coinage, larger empires and new religions. William Hardy McNeill (born October 31, 1917) is a noted world historian. Ecumene (also spelled œcumene or oikoumene) a term originally used in the Greco-Roman world to refer to the inhabited earth (or at least the known This view has recently been championed by Christopher Chase-Dunn and other world systems theorists. World system approach is a Post-Marxist view of world affairs one of several historical and current applications of Marxism to International relations.

Civilizations affected by these developments include

Since the voyages of discovery by European explorers of the 15th and 16th century, another development has occurred whereby which European forms of government, industry, commerce and culture have spread from Western Europe, to the Americas, South Africa, Australia, and through colonial empires, to the rest of the planet. Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Phoenicia ( Phoenician: Phoenician nunsvg|12px|נ]]Phoenician nun The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial The Second Temple (בית המקדש romanized 'Beit HaMikdash' meaning 'Holy House' was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 516 BCE and 70 CE Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire ( haχɒmaneʃijɒn (558–330 BC was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between Armenia (Հայաստան transliterated: Hayastan,) officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն Hayastani A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices The Maurya Empire ( 322 – 185 BCE) ruled by the Mauryan dynasty was a geographically extensive and powerful political and military This article is about the history of South Asia prior to the Partition of British India in 1947 The Gupta Empire ( Hindi: गुप्त राजवंश was ruled by members of the Gupta dynasty from around 320 to 550 C Geography Northern India lies mainly on continental India and a very small part of it lies on the Indian peninsula South India is the area encompassing India 's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union Traditionally the recorded History of Sri Lanka boasts of 25 chronicled centuries Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era The history of Korea stretches from Lower Paleolithic times to the present The history of Vietnam begins around 2700 years ago Successive dynasties based in China ruled Vietnam directly for most of the period from 111 BC until 938 The written history of Japan begins with brief references in the 1st century AD Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts Funan (Old Khmer Bnam, Modern Khmer Phnom, Khmer script នគរភ្នំ (i Chenla ( Khmer: ចេនឡា known as Zhenla ( 真[[wikt 腊|腊]] in Chinese and Chân Lạp in Vietnamese, was an Angkor is a name conventionally applied to the region of Cambodia serving as the seat of the Khmer empire that flourished from approximately the 9th century to Archaeological evidence indicates that parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited from around 1000-2000 BCE by a Neolithic culture that may have migrated from South Eastern Srivijaya or Sriwijaya was an ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra, Southeast Asia which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago. Singhasari was a kingdom located in east Java between 1222 and 1292 Majapahit was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500. The History of Burma, now officially Myanmar, is long and complicated The history of Thailand begins with the migration of the Thais from their ancestral home in southern China into mainland southeast Asia around the 10th century Earliest known history and the founding of Lan Xang The earliest Lao legal document (and the earliest sociological evidence about the existence of the Lao people is known as "the Definitions of Tibet See also Definitions of Tibet Name In English The English word Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern central and western Eurasia who speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family Western Christianity is a term used to cover the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the Churches of the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran Church This article is about the city See also Byzantine Empire. Byzantium ( Greek: Βυζάντιον Latin: la BYZANTIVM The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world Early history Pre-Slavic inhabitants See also Steppe nomads, Scythians, Bosporan Kingdom, Khazaria In prehistoric times Today it would appear that we are all parts of a planetary industrializing world civilization, divided between many nations and languages.

Etymology

The word Civilization comes from the Latin word civilis, the adjective form of civis, meaning a "citizen" or "townsman" governed by the law of his city. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the

In the 6th century, the Roman Emperor Justinian oversaw the consolidation of Roman civil law. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ( Greek: Φλάβιος Πέτρος Σαββάτιος Ιουστινιανός; known in English as Justinian I or Civil law or Romano-Germanic law or Continental law is the predominant system of law in the world. The resulting collection is called the Corpus Juris Civilis. The Corpus Juris Civilis ("Body of Civil Law" is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in Jurisprudence, issued from 529 In the 11th century, professors at the University of Bologna, Western Europe's first university, rediscovered Corpus Juris Civilis, and its influence began to be felt across Western Europe. Bologna (boloɲa from Latin Bononia, Bulåggna in Bolognese dialect is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects In 1388, the word civil appeared in English meaning "of or related to citizens". [21] In 1704, civilization began to mean "a law which makes a criminal process into a civil case. " Civilization was not used in its modern sense to mean "the opposite of barbarism" — as contrasted to civility, meaning politeness or civil virtue — until the 18th century. "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived

According to Emile Benveniste (1954[22]), the first occurrence in English of civilization in its modern sense may be found in Adam Ferguson's An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Edinburgh, 1767 - p. Émile Benveniste (1902 Aleppo (Syria – 1976 was a French structural linguist, an apprentice of A Adam Ferguson, also known as Ferguson of Raith (20 June 1723 ( O 2):

“ Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood, but the species itself from rudeness to civilization. ”

Before Benveniste's inquiries, the New English Dictionary quoted James Boswell's conversation with Samuel Johnson concerning the inclusion of Civilization in Johnson's dictionary:

“ On Monday, March 23 (1772), I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English James Boswell 9th Laird of Auchinleck ( October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer diarist and Author born in Edinburgh Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September . . He would not admit civilization, but only civility. With great deference to him I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense opposed to barbarity than civility, as it is better to have a distinct word for each sense, than one word with two senses, which civility is, in his way of using it. ”

Benveniste demonstrated that previous occurrences could be found, which explained the quick adoption of Johnson's definition. In 1775 the dictionary of Ast defined civilization as "the state of being civilized; the act of civilizing"[22], and the term was frequently used by Adam Smith in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)[22]. Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the Magnum opus of the Scottish economist Adam Smith. Beside Smith and Ferguson, John Millar also used it in 1771 in his Observations concerning the distinction of ranks in society[22].

As the first occurrence of civilization in French was found by Benveniste in the Marquis de Mirabeau's L'Ami des hommes ou traité de la population (written in 1756 but published in 1757), Benveniste's query was to know if the English word derived from the French, or if both evolved independently — a question which needed more researches. Honoré Gabriel Riqueti Comte de Mirabeau ( March 9, 1749 &ndash April 2, 1791) was a French writer popular orator and statesman According to him, the word civilization may in fact have been used by Ferguson as soon as 1759[22].

Furthermore, Benveniste notes that, contrasted to civility, a static term, civilization conveys a sense of dynamism. He thus writes that. . .

“ It was not only a historical view of society; it was also an optimist and resolutely non theological interpretation of its evolution which asserted itself, sometimes at the insu of those who proclaimed it, and even if some of them, and first of all Mirabeau, still counted religion as the first factor of 'civilization. [23][22] ”

Another source of the word may relate to chivalry: a set of rules of engagement, originally for knights in warfare, but later expanded to cover conduct of knighthood or nobility. The English 'chivalry' comes from the French 'chevalier': a horseman. England and France would therefore have given rise to the terms at similar times.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Civilization" (1974), Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th ed. The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc Vol. II, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. , 956.
  2. ^ "Culture", Wiktionary, [1]. Wiktionary (a Portmanteau of Wiki and Dictionary) is a multilingual, Web -based project to create a Free Retrieved 25 August 2007.
  3. ^ "Civilization and Cultural Evolution" (1974), Encyclopaedia Britannica 15th ed. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc Vol. 4, 657.
  4. ^ "Civilization and Cultural Evolution," Britannica Vol. 4, 657.
  5. ^ "Civilization" (2004), Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition, Merriam-Webster, Inc. Webster's Dictionary is the name given to a common type of English language dictionary in the United States. , 226.
  6. ^ Gordon Childe, V. , What Happened in History (Penguin, 1942) and Man Makes Himself (Harmondsworth, 1951)
  7. ^ Tom Standage (2005), A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Company, 25. Tom Standage is a Journalist and Author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for
  8. ^ Pauketat, 169.
  9. ^ Spengler, Oswald, Decline of the West: Perspectives of World History (1919)
  10. ^ Algaze, Guillermo, The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization" (Second Edition, 2004) (ISBN 978-0-226-01382-4)
  11. ^ Wilkinson, David, The Power Configuration Sequence of the Central World System, 1500-700 BC (2001)
  12. ^ Huntington, Samuel P. , The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, (Simon & Schuster, 1996)
  13. ^ Orion > Thoughts on America
  14. ^ Kosmos Journal Paths to Planetary Civilization
  15. ^ http://www.gtinitiative.org/documents/Great_Transitions.pdf
  16. ^ ISBN 0195159543
  17. ^ ISBN 0192807285
  18. ^ ISBN 0521533902
  19. ^ McNeely, Jeffrey A. (1994) "Lessons of the past: Forests and Biodiversity" (Vol 3, No 1 1994. Biodiversity and Conservation)
  20. ^ Tarnas, Richard (1993) "The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View" (Ballatine Books)
  21. ^ "Civil", Merriam-Webster, 226.
  22. ^ a b c d e f Émile Benveniste, "Civilization. Émile Benveniste (1902 Aleppo (Syria – 1976 was a French structural linguist, an apprentice of A Contribution à l'histoire du mot" (Civilization. Contribution to the history of the word), 1954, published in Problèmes de linguistique générale, Editions Gallimard, 1966, pp. Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French Publishers of books 336-345 (translated by Mary Elizabeth Meek as Problems in general linguistics, 2 vols. , 1971)
  23. ^ Benveniste (French): Ce n'était pas seulement une vue historique de la société; c'était aussi une interprétation optimiste et résolument non théologique de son évolution qui s'affirmait, parfois à l'insu de ceux qui la proclamaient, et même si certains, et d'abord Mirabeau, comptaient encore la religion comme le premier facteur de la "civilization".

Bibliography

External links

Dictionary

civilization

-noun

  1. An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical development.
  2. (uncountable) Human society, particularly civil society.
  3. The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.
  4. The state or quality of being civilized.
  5. (obsolete) The act of rendering a criminal process civil.

-proper noun

  1. Collectively, those people of the world considered to have a high standard of behavior and / or a high level of development. Commonly subjectively used by people of one society to exclusively refer to their society, or their elite sub-group, or a few associated societies, implying all others, in time or geography or status, as something less than civilised, as savages or barbarians. cf refinement, elitism, civilised society, the Civilised World
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