Civilization is a society or culture that has complex social, political, and economic institutions. Historically, civilizations have taken a wide range of forms, but they usually share several characteristics, including high levels of social complexity, the establishment of urban centers or cities, and the use of written language. The term civilization, like the term culture, encompasses all of the art, social customs, government institutions, technology, beliefs, and traditions shared by a single population or community. But while every society has a culture, not all societies are part of a civilization. The word civilization comes from a Latin word that means citizen or city.
Development.
For most of prehistoric time, people lived in small groups and moved from place to place in search of food. They hunted and fished and gathered wild plants. They maintained a simple social organization based on close family ties. Between about 13,000 and 10,000 years ago, some bands of hunters and gatherers in the Middle East began to adopt more settled ways of life. They developed more formal social institutions based on larger groups of people. These more complex societies emerged in regions where animal and plant life provided for reliable seasonal food supplies. The technology and social organization developed by these groups enabled the development of the first farming societies.
By 9000 B.C., communities in the Middle East had begun to cultivate cereal crops and other plants. Soon, they were also raising domesticated sheep and goats, and later cattle. Communities in Mesoamerica (what is now Mexico and Central America) and in Southeast Asia began to grow crops as early as 8000 B.C.
The emergence of agriculture was a major step in the development of civilization. Farmers settled in permanent villages and produced enough food to support other members of the society, such as craftworkers and priests. Communities began to exchange grain, pottery, and other goods. By about 3500 B.C., communities in the Middle East had learned to smelt copper and make bronze tools and weapons. Gradually, some agricultural villages grew into larger settlements, and their rulers increased in power. These settlements became centers of economic and political power. They eventually developed into cities, forming the world’s first civilizations.
The first civilizations developed independently in different parts of the world. The earliest known civilization emerged around 3500 B.C. in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, in what is now southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. Shortly thereafter, civilizations developed in the Nile Valley, in Egypt; the Indus Valley, in Pakistan and northwestern India; the Huang He Valley, in China; and in the Andes Mountains of Peru. These ancient civilizations emerged in widely different natural environments. Their populations developed different systems of writing and forms of government and achieved varying innovations in science and technology.
Rise and fall.
Throughout history, civilizations have risen and collapsed. Scholars once believed that societies evolved from simple forms to increasingly complex ones, with civilization representing the most complex and advanced stage of development. Later scholars saw societies as evolving from bands to tribes, then to chiefdoms and finally civilized nations. Today, most scholars recognize that societies develop in ways that vary widely in form and complexity.
Philosophers, historians, and archaeologists have all suggested reasons for the rise and fall of civilizations. Georg W. F. Hegel, a German philosopher of the early 1800’s, considered civilization as something that was passed from one society to another. Hegel thought that civilization develops through three stages: (1) rule by a single person; (2) rule by one class of society; and (3) rule by all the people. Hegel believed the process eventually results in freedom for all people. The German philosopher Oswald Spengler thought that civilizations, like living things, are born, mature, and then die. In The Decline of the West (1918-1922), Spengler wrote that Western civilization is dying and will be replaced by Asian civilization.
The British historian Arnold Toynbee introduced an influential theory in his A Study of History (1934-1961). Toynbee believed that civilizations arise only where the environment challenges people and the people are ready to respond to the challenge. For example, a hot, dry climate makes land unsuitable for farming, presenting a challenge to the people who live there. If the people are ready, they may respond to this challenge by building irrigation systems to improve agricultural productivity. Otherwise, they will continue with barely enough to keep them alive. Toynbee suggested that civilizations collapse when people lose their ability to respond to such challenges creatively.
Most archaeologists think that civilizations rise and fall because of a combination of factors. These factors may include political and social structure, the people’s ability to modify their environment, and changes that occur in the population. Today, scientists think that many early civilizations suffered economic and political collapse due to such pressures as warfare and the misuse of land and other natural resources.
