Essential Information & explanations, latest texts & monographs on
Civilization.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
The CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER by Samuel P. Huntington
Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena by JULIA REED
The Earth Chronicles Expeditions: Journeys to the Mythical Past by Zecharia Sitchin
Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies by Ian Buruma
Civilization and Its Enemies : The Next Stage of History by Lee Harris
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen
Who Are We : The Challenges to America's National Identity by Samuel P. Huntington
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill
Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism by Sean Hannity
How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
Ripples of Battle : How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think by VICTOR HANSON
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price
Wheelock's Latin, 6e by Frederic M. Wheelock
Viking Ships At Sunrise (Magic Tree House 15, paper) by Mary Pope Osborne
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.
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")
1 A stage of technical or political development
2 A standard of behaviour
3 A cultural phenomenon
4 A tool of oppression
5 25 major civilizations in Human History
6 Wiktionary
7 External links
A stage of technical or political development
Sometimes examples are given of the earliest civilizations, such as
China, ancient Egypt, Indus Valley Civilization and Sumer.
The features of these groups that are seen as distinguising them from earlier settlements such as neolithic Jericho and Catalhuyuk:
- urban settlements where people followed specialized occupations
- some kind or organization of an area larger than a single settlement
- extensive trade
- 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 concept of civilization is central to the historical theories of Arnold J. Toynbee who described history as the process of the rise and decline of civilizations, of which he identified 26. It is also central to the political beliefs of Samuel P. Huntington who argues that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be the interaction and conflict between civilizations.
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 Negri and Hardt constitute other contemporary analyses of civilizations.
A tool of oppression
Some postmodernists refuse the term as undesirable:
From a naive European Christian ethnocentric viewpoint human history is the history of "progress" leading to development of the achievement of "civilization" represented by European Christian culture. This attitude was associated with European colonialism and with the relation of Europeans and Americans with indigenous peoples such as the Native Americans. Some peoples thought holds that there are and have been many advanced civilizations in human history and that no one culture is inherently superior.
25 major civilizations in Human History
Civilization
Main Empire
Sumerian
Sumerian Empire
Egyptian
Middle Empire
Indus Valley
Harappa
Minoan
Minoan Empire
Hittite
Hittite Empire
Chinese
Qin Empire
Hindu Indian
Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire
Austronesian
Champa
Babylonian
Babylonian Empire
Mesomerican
Olmec, Toltec, Aztec
Greek and Roman
Roman Empire
Mayan
Maya civilization
Levantine
Syria, Phoenicia, Canaan, Kingdom of Israel
Southeast Asian
Khmer Empire
Islamic
Arabian Empire
Mississippian
Cahokia and other cities
Japanese
Tokugawa Shogunate
Mongol
Mongol Empire
Western
British Empire, French Empire and Spanish Empire
Russian
Russian Empire
Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe
Andean
Inca Empire
Communist
Soviet Union
Source (with some changes): Guinness Book of Historical Records
This classification is certainly subject to debate in various details. The Maya, for example, while achieving a high degree of civilization, were never an Empire which imposed their power over other peoples of Mesoamerica, whereas Teotihuacan and the Aztecs fit that criterion.
Wiktionary
External links
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