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 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. Some people's 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

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. Arguably, the cultures of modern Latin America also constitute a civilization.

Wiktionary

• civilization
• civilize

External links

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/interactive/civilisations/
• Coalition Against Civilization