Reading in Culture

Prof. Bouziane
Spring 2021
Exploring Civilizations
 Cradle of Civilization

Mesopotamia, the southern part of the modern country of Iraq is

called the "Cradle of Civilization." The world’s first cities, writing
systems, and large-scale government developed there.
 Etymology

• The word “civilization” relates to the Latin word “civitas” or “city.”

This is why the most basic definition of the word “civilization” is
“a society made up of cities.”

• Derived from Latin word “Civilis” meaning “Citizen.”

 Definition
• A civilization is the process by which a society or place reaches
an advanced stage of social development and organization.

• A civilization is a complex human society, usually made up of

different cities, with certain characteristics of cultural and
technological development. In many parts of the world, early
civilizations formed when people began coming together
in urban settlements. However, defining what civilization is, and
what societies fall under that designation, is a
hotly contested argument, even among today’s anthropologists.
 Culture and Civilization
• Culture is the set of values that shapes the behavior of the
society at different levels while civilization is apparent in the
physical development in form of man-made environment.
Culture is the mind of society and civilization is the body.

• Early in the development of the term, anthropologists and

others used “civilization” and “civilized society” to differentiate
between societies they found culturally superior (which they
were often a part of), and those they found culturally inferior
(referred to as “savage” or “barbaric” cultures).
 Criteria of Civilized Societies
• Urban settlements (sedentary and not nomadic).
• The division of labor and tasks (teamwork).
• Class structure (social hierarchy) and government formation.
• Surplus of food.
• Writing, trading, artwork, monuments.
• Scientific and technological development.
 Large population centers
• Allow civilizations to develop,
although people who live
outside these urban centers
are still part of that region’s
civilization. Rural residents of
civilizations may include
farmers, fishers, and traders,
who regularly sell their goods
and services to urban
residents.

• The huge urban center of

Teotihuacan, in modern-day
Mexico, for example, had as
many as 200,000 residents
between 300 and 600 CE.
 Monuments

• All civilizations work to

preserve their legacy by
building large monuments and
structures (2). This is as true
today as it was thousands of
years ago.

• These are architectural

narratives of what life used to
be like in these societies.
 Shared Communication
• Shared communication (3) is
another element that all
civilizations share. Shared
communication may include
spoken language; alphabets;
numeric systems; signs,
ideas, and symbols; and
illustration and representation.
• Written language in particular
allows civilizations to record
their own history and everyday
events—crucial for
understanding ancient culture
s. The world's oldest known
written language is Sumerian,
which developed in
Mesopotamia around 3100
BCE.
 Infrastructure and Administration
• All civilizations rely on
government administration—
bureaucracy. Perhaps no
civilization better exemplifies
this than ancient Rome.

• To rule a territory stretched

from the Mediterranean
basin all the way to parts of
Great Britain in the north and
the Black Sea to the east,
Ancient Rome needed an
effective system of
government administration
and infrastructure (canals,
roads, aqueducts…).
 Division of Labor

This means that different

people perform specialized
tasks. In a complex
civilization, farmers may
cultivate one type
of crop and depend on
other people for other
foods, clothing, shelter, and
information.
 The Fall of Civilizations
• Many civilizations have flourished and then failed or
fallen apart. There are many reasons for this, but many
historians point to three patterns in the fall of
civilizations: internal change, external pressure, and
environmental collapse. The fall of civilizations is never
the result of a single event or pattern.

• Sometimes, civilizations seem to “disappear” entirely.

 Internal Change

• Populations may grow, due to

migration or a period of unusual
health. Populations may shrink, due
to disease, extreme weather, or
other environmental factors.

• Internal changes contributed to the

collapse of the Maya civilization.
Diseases such as dysentery and
lethal hemorrhagic fevers killed and
disabled thousands of Mayans.
 External Pressure
• Foreign invasion or sustained
warfare! Protecting a
civilization’s borders can be
extremely expensive and demand a
strong military at the expense of
developing or maintaining
other aspects of a civilization.
• Egypt had faced
longstanding, intermittent conflict on
its borders, with competing
civilizations such as the Nubians (to
the south), the Assyrians (in the
Middle East), and the Libyans (to
the west).
 Environmental Collapse

• Natural hazards such as drought,

floods, and tsunamis, become natural
disasters as they impact civilizations.

• The collapse of Minoan civilization, a

major influence on Ancient Greece, is
often associated with
a catastrophic eruption of the Thera
volcano on the island of what is now
Santorini.
Some Ancient Civilizations
Mesopotamians 3500 BC–500 BC(Sumerians)
Irrigation, plow, and writing (cuneiform system)
The Indus Valley 3300–1900 BC
Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-Daro
Ancient Egypt 3150 BC–30 BC medecine,
architecture, hiéroglyphes, agriculture, obelisks,
pyramids..
The Maya 2600 BC–900 AD astronomy, calendars,
theology, temples, pyramids
The Chinese 1600 BC–1046 BC papermaking,
printing, silk, gunpowder, compass, ink
Bibliography
• Mann, Charles C. (June 2011). "Göbekli Tepe". National Geographic.
• Tom Standage (2005), A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Walker & Company, 25.
• Grinin, Leonid E (Ed) et al. (2004), "The Early State and its Alternatives and Analogues" (Ichitel)
• Bondarenko, Dmitri et al. (2004), "Alternatives to Social Evolution" in Grinin op cit.
• Bogucki, Peter (1999), "The Origins of Human Society" (Wiley Blackwell)
• DeVore, Irven, and Lee, Richard (1999) "Man the Hunter" (Aldine)
• Sansom, George (1958). A History of Japan: To 1334. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0523-3.
• Southworth, John Van Duyn (1968). The Ancient Fleets: The Story of Naval Warfare Under Oars, 2600 B.C.–1597 A.D.
New York: Twayne.
• Thomas, Hugh (1981). An Unfinished History of the World (rev. ed.). London: Pan. ISBN 978-0-330-26458-7.
• Yap, Yong; Arthur Cotterell (1975). The Early Civilization of China. New York: Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-11595-0.
• Yurdusev, A. Nuri (2003). International Relations and the Philosophy of History. doi:10.1057/9781403938404. ISBN
978-1-349-40304-2.