Five Characteristics Of A Civilization

Stearns, Peter N. et al. World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP Edition. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., Longman, 2003.

The rise and fall of different civilizations and empires is caused by various social, political, and cultural factors that affect its societies. One of the most important concepts seen in empires are the creation of its culture and its relation to the beliefs of its society. Religion plays an enormous role in understanding the purpose behind the actions of the people in a civilization. Religion and culture are dependent of each other as it reflects the ideas and values that society has agreed upon. As a new urban civilization during 2500 B.C, The Indus Valley Civilization created a sociopolitical system that

Civilization is the stage of human social development. Civilizations have improved over the years. The ancient River Valley Civilizations have created a foundation for future human developments. The ancient River Valley Civilization all made key contributions for future societies. The Civilization from Mesopotamia and China had a massive influence for future civilizations.

In Greece, the geography affected early settlements in positive ways. An example is Mount Olympus, since it was so high up and covered by clouds, Greeks believed Gods lived there. Document 2 states, ”According to the ancient Greeks, their gods controlled every part of daily life--the weather, crops, money, love, and business, phases of the moon, earthquakes, and even whether a loaf of bread burned in the oven.” This proves that ancient Greeks not being able to see the top of the mountain, made them believe the gods were up there, and it gave them an explanation to everything. Another one is, how hot and dry climates were great for growing olive trees. In document 4 it states, ”Olive oil was as good as money to the ancient Greeks, since they could trade it for other land not available

Geography had a tremendous impact on early civilizations, the topography of the different regions played a key role in their development and formation. This statement by Fernand Braudel “ Geography is the stage in which humanity’s endless dramas are played out” (Getz et al., Exchanges, 26) is a very moving and telling description. The terrain, whether it is natural or man made is not the end all, be all. It does however affect the stage a great deal. Mountainous areas act as blockades, which keep the societies independent, plains open up the area, and rivers enable everything to move around freely. 2

Geography plays a big part in the history of Africa because it has made the continent the cradle of human kind wherein the discovery of human kind and the origin of many civilizations and cultures happens here.

Civilization. The word “civilization” comes from the Latin term for “city.” The first civilizations were the river-valley civilizations, so-called because they all developed alongside major rivers to secure an adequate water supply for agricultural production. 2 of the greatest river-valley civilizations were Mesopotamia and Egypt. All though they both supported having a patriarchal leader or king, Egypt had a strong, centralized government, whereas Mesopotamia was decentralized, and built based on small city-states operating independently.

The geography of the region shaped the lives of the people in the Ancient World by allowing permanent settlements to flourish, by allowing technology to adapt, and by isolating them from other cultures. The geography of a civilization can range from mountains, deserts, oceans, and forests. This can allow for many advancements and setbacks.

In 1950, V Gordon Childe drew up a list of traits of to what he considered to be the common characteristics of early civilizations. According to Fagan & Scarre, a recent archaeologist Charles Redman divided Childe’s list into primary and secondary characteristics. The primary characteristics included cities and states, together with full-time specialization of labor, concentration of surplus, and a class-structured society. For the secondary, the characteristics included symptoms or by-products of these major economic and organizational changes: monumental public works, long-distance trade, standardized monumental artworks, writing, and the sciences (arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy)(Scarre and Fagan 2003). One of the most common characteristics involve was a large, dense population living in a city. This essay well state and describe two early cities in Mesopotamia and explore the layouts and characteristics of these two cities. Also, whether each city is unique or share common characteristics with each other. The two cities are Maskan-shapir and Ur.

Geography can alter many facets of history. It can determine the prosperity of the people in the civilization and the development of culture. Rivers and Mountains are two examples of geographic features that effect prosperity and culture. Many early civilizations developed near rivers.

A civilization refers to “a particular and distinctive type of human society” (Strayer, pg. 90). Civilizations aren’t always different from one another nor are they the exact same. Each civilization has some form of a unique characteristic that differentiates itself from the rest. For example, the Ancient Egyptians and the Hindus from Ancient India. They both have a permanent arrangement of societal roles, yet they aren’t constructed or operated in the same manner. These two locations are the main topics of this discussion/comparison.

Civilization is the period in which humans develop and organize their community in an advanced form in different aspects. As time was fleeting the ancient Greek civilization was starting to shape and adopt many alterations which started to center a more stable community. Just as the Greeks there were other civilizations developing some similar to the Greeks attributes and some differing them in different aspects.

According to National Geographic a civilization is a “society with highly developed culture and technology.”Every civilization has distinct characteristics in a common. For example, they have organized Central Government /Complex Institution, Job Specialization,Cities, Art and Architecture Technology , and Writing / Recording Keeping. Historians do not agree on how many characteristics are essential to success of a civilization. After analyzing all the characteristics, I believe that Organized Central Government / Complex Institution,Job Specialization,and Art and Architecture / Technology.

Civilization to me is what makes up our lives. As humans we are part of different civilizations, but these civilizations are made up of specific cultures and societies. The actual book definition of a civilization would be, “networks of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures and are defined by the economic, military, diplomatic, social and cultural interactions among them.” Over the course of the past couple weeks, I have had the chance to listen in on a podcast actually provided by Stanford University. This podcast is being made while a professor is teaching a class covering the geography of world cultures. I believe that geography has a lot to do with civilization, not only because location in this world plays a role in our lives,

A civilization is a place defined by its culture, its characteristics, and its social structure.There are many important characteristics of a civilization, but if it had to come down to 3 of them I would say social class, writing, and government are most important.Even though technology is an important characteristic to civilization I believe that social class, writing, and government are most important.