Six Characteristics Of Civilization Essay

| * guilds were developed * it promoted trade among different societies * labor increased with growth of cities

Have you ever wondered where some of the things we use every day come from? Well, everything around us from the roads, the calendars, to the columns on the White House are ancient inventions that we use everyday. Ancient civilizations from the Eastern Hemisphere have invented these items. Some of the inventions that they made change our daily lives. Three inventions that impact our lives today are architecture, the calendar, and the roads invented by Romans.

The Neolithic Revolution was the major change in human life caused by the beginnings of farming. This revolution changed people’s lives in several ways. It changed the way people lived because before the Neolithic Revolution they relied on hunting and gathering food. It also changed the way they settled, because of this revolution they were able to live in villages for a long time, unlike before; they had to relocate often because their food source would become scarce.  The way civilizations lived changed because of the Neolithic Revolution. A civilization is a form of culture that consists of cities, advanced technology, specialized workers, complex institutions, and record keeping. The early river valley civilizations; which developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, and China, had more similarities than differences. The river valley civilizations were similar when it came to their writing systems, inventions, and geography. However, they were also different when it came to writing systems and inventions.

First of all, one characteristic of a civilization is its writing system. Stated from document 3 “Civilizations develop writing systems” “Writing

Before the Common Era when civilizations were first being developed several elements factored into a group being considered a civilization. Everything from establishing a government to currency were markers of civilization. But of these indicators the written language, religion and the class system had the greatest effect on civilizations. These three markers shaped the private and public lives of ancient civilizations.

Their environment had different resources. Each group specialized in making particular products or developing certain skills, based on their resources. The conditions were perfect for an economy to develop. In an economy, goods, services and often money are organized into a system to manage those resources.

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.

Early civilization shared similar common features, because all of these societies were under the same pressures. Their whole purpose was survival as it is to this day. Each societies main focus was to become established, stay in one place provide food, shelter and protection for their families. Early civilizations materialize along rivers, because rivers supplied a continuous and dependable supply of water for farming and human consumption. Agriculture today has had an enormous benefit on today’s society, there are now more farmers growing organic fruits and vegetables because the realize the great health benefits organic foods have on human consumption, providing less risk of pesticides and or chemicals on their food.

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.

How could rational thought and technological development have affected the world’s development in the modern age and the development to where we are today?

There are many things that can make a society and civilization, but all of this things need to be present for a society to be a civilization. An civilization needs a social structure, surplus of food, religion, government, writing, culture, and technology. If all of these are present then a society becomes a civilization, and then as that civilization progresses it can become an advanced civilization. As a civilization grows it becomes a lot harder to manage, so the people needed things like a government, social structure, writing, food, and currency. With these developments small societies can become bigger and progress into a civilization. With the development of social structure people could prioritize on individual task and decrees workload further improving it. But with social structure you first need a government to develop it and then a currency to support the workers.

All the way from the start of civilization through to the Early Christianity there has been a pantheon of; destruction, recognition, wars, cultural diffusion, religious breakthroughs, laws that have been established, kings and queens crowned and dethroned. The Mesopotamian Civilization it was the land between two rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers that civilization first began.

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.

Some traits between civilizations were different. Ways that they were different were their religions, cultures, inventive doings and more. I think that it is necessary for civilizations to have different traits because we wouldn't have some the things that they made and discovered. The diversity of ancient civilizations were necessary.

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,