View source for Civilization

{{Short description|Stratified complex society}}
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[[File:Egypt.Giza.Sphinx.02.jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[Ancient Egypt]] is an example of one of the first civilizations, building [[pyramid]]s starting in the 3rd millennium BCE.<ref name="ucl">{{cite web |url=http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/chronology/index.html|title=Chronology|year=2000|website=Digital Egypt for Universities |publisher=University College London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316015559/http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/chronology/index.html |archive-date=16 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

A '''civilization''' (also spelled '''civilisation''' in [[British English]]) is any [[complex society]] characterized by the development of [[state (polity)|the state]], [[social stratification]], [[urban area|urbanization]], and [[symbol]]ic systems of [[communication]] beyond [[natural language|signed or spoken language]]s (namely, [[writing system]]s).<ref name="Haviland 2013">{{cite book|last=Haviland |first=William|title=Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge |publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2013|page=250|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DfEWAAAAQBAJ&q=%22civilization+refers+to+societies%22 |display-authors=etal|isbn=978-1-285-67530-5 |access-date=20 June 2015|archive-date=13 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713215613/https://books.google.com/books?id=DfEWAAAAQBAJ&q=%22civilization+refers+to+societies%22 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Fernández-Armesto 2001">{{cite book|last=Fernández-Armesto|first=Felipe|title=Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3MNzi698aXwC|isbn=978-0-7432-1650-0|access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=1 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401104653/https://books.google.com/books?id=3MNzi698aXwC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Boyden 2004">{{cite book|last=Boyden|first=Stephen Vickers|title=The Biology of Civilisation|year=2004|pages=7–8|publisher=UNSW Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TX78DfVbM7kC&q=%22the+essential+precondition%22|isbn=978-0-86840-766-1|access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=30 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230072508/https://books.google.com/books?id=TX78DfVbM7kC&q=%22the+essential+precondition%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Solms-Laubach 2007">{{cite book|first=Franz|last=Solms-Laubach|title=Nietzsche and Early German and Austrian Sociology |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=2007|pages=115, 117, 212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxTITNduFc4C|isbn=978-3-11-018109-8|access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=30 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230074441/https://books.google.com/books?id=TxTITNduFc4C&dq |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AbdelRahim">{{Cite book|title=Children's literature, domestication and social foundation: Narratives of civilization and wilderness|last=AbdelRahim |first=Layla|year=2015|isbn=978-0-415-66110-2|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|page=8|oclc=897810261}}</ref>[[File:standard of Ur - Peace Panel - Sumer.jpg|thumb|The ancient [[Sumer]]ians of [[Mesopotamia]] were the oldest civilization in the world, beginning about 4000 BCE, here depicted around 2500 BCE, showing the different social roles in the Sumerian society of [[Ur]].]]Civilizations are organized around densely populated settlements, divided into more or less rigid [[Hierarchy|hierarchical]] [[social class]]es of [[division of labour]], often with a ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which engage in [[intensive agriculture]], [[mining]], small-scale manufacture and [[trade]]. Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |title=The Sources of Social Power |last=Mann |first=Michael |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |volume=1 |pages=34–41 |author-link=Michael Mann (sociologist)}}
</ref> Civilizations are characterized by elaborate [[agriculture]], [[architecture]], [[infrastructure]], [[Innovation|technological advancement]], [[currency]], [[taxation]], [[regulation]], and specialization of labour.<ref name="Solms-Laubach 2007"/><ref name="AbdelRahim" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Ian |title=The Measure of Civilization: How Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691155685/the-measure-of-civilization |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-15568-5 |access-date=29 May 2023 |archive-date=29 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529174320/https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691155685/the-measure-of-civilization |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Shang dynasty inscribed scapula.jpg|thumb|[[Chinese civilization|China]] is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, originating in the 21st century BCE and continuing to the present day.]]
Historically, a civilization has often been understood as a larger and "more advanced" [[culture]], in implied contrast to smaller, supposedly less advanced cultures,<ref name="Adams 1966">{{cite book |author=Adams, Robert McCormick|title=The Evolution of Urban Society |year=1966 |page=13 |publisher=Transaction Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JrZOwKU0TlsC&q=%22civilizations+are+associated%22|isbn=978-0-202-36594-7|access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=30 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230073713/https://books.google.com/books?id=JrZOwKU0TlsC&q=%22civilizations+are+associated%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Wright 2004">{{cite book|first=Ronald|last=Wright|title=A Short History anthropological. |year=2004 |publisher=House of Anansi Press |isbn=978-0-88784-706-6}}</ref><ref name="Llobera 2003">{{cite book|first=Josep |last=Llobera |title=An Invitation to Anthropology|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2003|pages=136–137 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_-LDyWxODjAC&q=%22best-known+definition%22 |isbn=978-1-57181-597-2 |access-date=20 June 2015|archive-date=30 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230074407/https://books.google.com/books?id=_-LDyWxODjAC&q=%22best-known+definition%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite book|last=Bolesti|first=Maria|title=Barbarism and Its Discontents|year=2013|publisher=Stanford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpZZKabXvWAC|isbn=978-0-8047-8537-2|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-date=21 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121220741/https://books.google.com/books?id=cpZZKabXvWAC|url-status=live}}</ref> even societies  within civilizations themselves and within their histories. Generally civilization contrasts with non-centralized tribal societies, including the cultures of [[nomadic pastoralist]]s, [[Neolithic]] societies, or [[hunter-gatherer]]s.

The word ''civilization'' relates to the Latin {{lang|la|[[civitas]]}} or '[[city]]'. As the [[National Geographic Society]] has explained it: "This is why the most basic definition of the word ''civilization'' is 'a [[society]] made up of cities.'"<ref>{{cite web |title=Civilizations |date=20 May 2022 |access-date=29 May 2023 |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/civilizations/ |website=National Geographic Education |publisher=[[National Geographic Society]] |language=en |archive-date=29 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529174213/https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/civilizations/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
The earliest emergence of civilizations is generally connected with the final stages of the [[Neolithic Revolution]] in [[West Asia]], culminating in the relatively rapid process of [[urban revolution]] and [[state formation]], a political development associated with the appearance of a governing elite.

== History of the concept ==
The English word ''civilization'' comes from the French {{lang|fr|civilisé}} ('civilized'), from {{langx|la|civilis}} ('civil'), related to {{lang|la|civis}} ('citizen') and {{lang|la|civitas}} ('city').<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3041K2Zv76AC&pg=PT73 |title=The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences |last=Sullivan |first=Larry E. |year=2009 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-4129-5143-2 |page=73 |language=en |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=30 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230003359/https://books.google.com/books?id=3041K2Zv76AC&pg=PT73 |url-status=live }}</ref> The fundamental treatise is [[Norbert Elias]]'s ''[[The Civilizing Process]]'' (1939), which traces social [[mores]] from [[Court (royal)|medieval courtly society]] to the [[early modern period]].{{efn|It remains the most influential sociological study of the topic, spawning its own body of secondary literature. Notably, [[Hans Peter Duerr]] attacked it in a major work (3,500 pages in five volumes, published 1988–2002). Elias, at the time a nonagenarian, was still able to respond to the criticism the year before his death. In 2002, Duerr was himself criticized by Michael Hinz's {{lang|de|Der Zivilisationsprozeß: Mythos oder Realität}} (2002), saying that his criticism amounted to hateful defamation of Elias, through excessive standards of [[political correctness]].<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Der Spiegel]] |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-25327104.html |issue=40 |volume=2002 |date=30 September 2002 |title=Denker: Entlarvende Briefe |language=de |access-date=16 October 2014 |archive-date=28 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228225831/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-25327104.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>}} In ''The Philosophy of Civilization'' (1923), [[Albert Schweitzer]] outlines two opinions: one purely [[materialism|material]] and the other material and [[ethic]]al. He said that the world crisis was from humanity losing the ethical idea of civilization, "the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of view in so far as the progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of all progress".<ref name=":8">Albert Schweitzer. ''The Philosophy of Civilization'', translated by C. T. Campion (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987), p. 91.</ref>[[file:Grün - The End of Dinner.jpg|thumb|''The End of Dinner'' by [[Jules-Alexandre Grün]] (1913). The emergence of [[table manners]] and other forms of [[etiquette]] and [[self-restraint]] are presented as a characteristic of ''civilized'' society by [[Norbert Elias]] in his book ''[[The Civilizing Process]]'' (1939).]]

Related words like "civility" developed in the mid-16th century. The abstract noun "civilization", meaning "civilized condition", came in the 1760s, again from French. The first known use in French is in 1757, by [[Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau]], and the first use in English is attributed to [[Adam Ferguson]], who in his 1767 ''[[Essay on the History of Civil Society]]'' wrote, <!-- Keep original spelling please. -->"Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood but the species itself from rudeness to civilisation".<ref name=Benveniste>Cited after [[Émile Benveniste]], {{lang|fr|Civilisation. Contribution à l'histoire du mot}} [''Civilisation. Contribution to the history of the word''], 1954, published in {{lang|fr|Problèmes de linguistique générale}}, [[Éditions Gallimard]], 1966, pp. 336–345 (translated by Mary Elizabeth Meek as ''Problems in general linguistics'', 2 vols., 1971).</ref> The word was therefore opposed to barbarism or rudeness, in the active pursuit of [[Progress (history)|progress]] characteristic of the [[Age of Enlightenment]].

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, during the [[French Revolution]], "civilization" was used in the [[Grammatical number|singular]], never in the plural, and meant the progress of humanity as a whole. This is still the case in French.<ref name=velkley/> The use of "civilizations" as a countable noun was in occasional use in the 19th century,{{efn|For example, in the title ''A narrative of the loss of the Winterton East Indiaman wrecked on the coast of Madagascar in 1792; and of the sufferings connected with that event. To which is subjoined a short account of the natives of Madagascar, with suggestions as to their civilizations'' by J. Hatchard, L.B. Seeley and T. Hamilton, London, 1820.}} but has become much more common in the later 20th century, sometimes just meaning culture (itself in origin an uncountable noun, made countable in the context of [[ethnography]]).<ref name=":10">"Civilization" (1974), ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' 15th ed. Vol. II, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Inc., 956. Retrieved 25 August 2007.</ref> Only in this generalized sense does it become possible to speak of a "medieval civilization", which in Elias's sense would have been an oxymoron. Using the terms "civilization" and "culture" as equivalents is controversial and generally rejected, so that, for example, some types of culture are not normally described as civilizations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lottick |first1=Kenneth V. |title=Some Distinctions between Culture and Civilization as Displayed in Sociological Literature |journal=Social Forces |year=1950 |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=240–250 |doi=10.2307/2572007 |jstor=2572007 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2572007 |issn=0037-7732 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024040544/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2572007 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Already in the 18th century, civilization was not always seen as an improvement. One historically important distinction between culture and civilization is from the writings of [[Rousseau]], particularly his work about education, ''[[Emile: or, On Education|Emile]]''. Here, civilization, being more rational and socially driven, is not fully in accord with [[human nature]], and "human wholeness is achievable only through the recovery of or approximation to an original discursive or pre-rational natural unity" (see [[noble savage]]). From this, a new approach was developed, especially in Germany, first by [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] and later by philosophers such as [[Kierkegaard]] and [[Nietzsche]]. This sees cultures as natural organisms, not defined by "conscious, rational, deliberative acts", but a kind of pre-rational "folk spirit". Civilization, in contrast, though more rational and more successful in material progress, is unnatural and leads to "vices of social life" such as guile, hypocrisy, envy and avarice.<ref name=velkley>{{cite book|title=Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question |last=Velkley |first=Richard|year=2002|chapter=The Tension in the Beautiful: On Culture and Civilization in Rousseau and German Philosophy|pages=11–30|publisher=The University of Chicago Press}}</ref> In [[World War II]], [[Leo Strauss]], having fled Germany, argued in New York that this opinion of civilization was behind [[Nazism]] and German [[militarism]] and [[nihilism]].<ref name=":11">"[https://archive.org/details/LeoStraussGermanNihilismIntegral1941 On German Nihilism]" (1999, originally a 1941 lecture), ''Interpretation'' 26, no. 3 edited by David Janssens and Daniel Tanguay.</ref>

== Characteristics ==
[[File:AthensAcropolisDawnAdj06028.jpg|thumb|right|578x578px|The [[Acropolis of Athens]]: [[Greece]] is traditionally seen as the cradle of a distinct European or [[Western culture|"Western" civilization]].<ref name=":2">{{cite encyclopaedia |encyclopaedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |title=Athens |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/40773/Athens |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106054445/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/40773/Athens |archive-date=6 January 2009 |access-date=31 December 2008 |quote=Ancient Greek Athenai, historic city and capital of Greece. Many of classical civilization's intellectual and artistic ideas originated there, and the city is generally considered to be the birthplace of Western civilization}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Brown |first=Thomas J. |year=1975 |title=The Athenian furies: Observations on the major factors effecting politics in modern Greece, 1973–1974 |url=http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/handle/178425 |publisher=Ball State University |quote=Greece is a picturesque country on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula straddling the always-blue Agean, Ionian and Adriatic Seas. Considered by many to be the cradle of Western Civilization and the birthplace of democracy, her ancient past has long been the source and inspiration of Western thought. |access-date=14 August 2022 |archive-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522072827/https://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/handle/178425 |url-status=live }}{{better source needed|date=September 2023}}</ref>]]

Social scientists such as [[V. Gordon Childe]] have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Childe |first1=Gordon |author1-link=V. Gordon Childe |title=What Happened In History |date=1950 |orig-date=1923 |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.100247/page/n5/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Childe |first1=V. Gordon [Vere Gordon]|author1-link=V. Gordon Childe |title=Man makes himself |date=1951 |publisher=New American Library |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/manmakeshimself00chil |orig-date=1936 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of [[livelihood]], [[Human settlement|settlement]] patterns, [[forms of government]], [[social stratification]], economic systems, [[literacy]] and other cultural traits. [[Andrew Nikiforuk]] argues that "civilizations relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities" and considers [[slavery]] to be a common feature of pre-modern civilizations.<ref name="Nikiforuk">{{cite book |last1=Nikiforuk |first1=Andrew |title=The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the new servitude |date=2012 |publisher=Greystone Books; David Suzuki Foundation |location=Vancouver, BC, Canada |isbn=978-1-55365-978-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/energyofslavesoi0000niki |url-access=registration}}</ref>

All civilizations have depended on [[agriculture]] for subsistence, with the possible exception of some early civilizations in Peru which may have depended upon maritime resources.<ref name=":14">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.hallofmaat.com/ancientamerican/the-maritime-foundations-of-andean-civilization-an-evolving-hypothesis/ |title=The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: An Evolving Hypothesis |last=Moseley |first=Michael |magazine=In the Hall of Ma'at |date=24 January 2005 |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405081206/https://www.hallofmaat.com/ancientamerican/the-maritime-foundations-of-andean-civilization-an-evolving-hypothesis/}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{cite book |last=Moseley |first=Michael |title=The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization | title-link=Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization |year=1975 |publisher=Cummings |location=Menlo Park |isbn=978-0-8465-4800-3}}</ref> Most developed and permanent civilizations depended on cereal agriculture. The traditional "surplus model" postulates that cereal farming results in accumulated storage and a surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as artificial [[fertilization]], [[irrigation]] and [[crop rotation]]. It is possible but more difficult to accumulate horticultural production, and so civilizations based on horticultural gardening have been very rare.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hadjikoumis |editor1-first=Angelos |editor2-last=Robinson |editor2-first=Erick |editor3-last=Viner-Daniels |editor3-first=Sarah |title=The dynamics of neolithisation in Europe: Studies in honour of Andrew Sherratt |date=2011 |publisher=Oxbow Books |location=Oxford Oakville, CT, U.S |isbn=978-1-84217-999-4 |page=1 |edition=1st}}</ref> Grain surpluses have been especially important because [[food storage|grain can be stored]] for a long time.

Research from the ''[[Journal of Political Economy]]'' contradicts the surplus model. It postulates that horticultural gardening was more productive than cereal farming. However, only cereal farming produced civilization because of the [[wikt:appropriability|appropriability]] of yearly harvest. Rural populations that could only grow cereals could be taxed allowing for a taxing elite and urban development. This also had a negative effect on rural population, increasing relative agricultural output per farmer. Farming efficiency created food surplus and sustained the food surplus through decreasing rural population growth in favour of urban growth. Suitability of highly productive roots and tubers was in fact a curse of plenty, which prevented the emergence of states and impeded economic development.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kiggins |first=Sheila |url=https://phys.org/news/2022-04-civilization.html |title=Study sheds new light on the origin of civilization |work=Phys.org |accessdate=25 May 2022 |archive-date=18 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418071200/https://phys.org/news/2022-04-civilization.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="JOPE">{{Cite journal|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/718372#:~:text=The%20conventional%20theory%20about%20the,elites%20and%2C%20eventually%2C%20states.|doi=10.1086/718372|title=The Origin of the State: Land Productivity or Appropriability? |year=2022 |last1=Mayshar |first1=Joram |last2=Moav |first2=Omer |last3=Pascali |first3=Luigi |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=130|issue=4 |pages=1091–1144 |hdl=10230/57736 |s2cid=244818703 |access-date=17 April 2022 |url-status=live |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417220207/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/718372#:~:text=The%20conventional%20theory%20about%20the,elites%20and%2C%20eventually%2C%20states|hdl-access=free |issn=0022-3808|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A surplus of food permits some people to do things besides producing food for a living: early civilizations included [[soldiers]], [[artisan]]s, [[priest]]s and priestesses, and other people with specialized careers. A surplus of food results in a division of labour and a more diverse range of human activity, a defining trait of civilizations. However, in some places hunter-gatherers have had access to food surpluses, such as among some of the indigenous peoples of the [[Pacific Northwest]] and perhaps during the Mesolithic [[Natufian culture]]. It is possible that food surpluses and relatively large scale social organization and division of labour predates plant and animal domestication.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text/1 |title=Göbekli Tepe |magazine=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |date=June 2011 |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |access-date=8 July 2011 |archive-date=27 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227040742/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text/1 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Civilizations have distinctly different settlement patterns from other societies. The word ''civilization'' is sometimes defined as "living in cities".<ref name="6 glasses">{{cite book |last1=Standage |first1=Tom |author1-link=Tom Standage |title=A History of the World in 6 Glasses |date=2005 |page=25 |location=New York |publisher=Walker & Company |isbn=978-0-8027-1447-3 |oclc=57009997}}
* See also: {{cite episode |date=7 June 2005 |last=Brighton |first=Jack (producer)|title=A History of the World in 6 Glasses |type=Radio interview – audio|series=Focus 580|url=https://archive.org/details/a-history-of-the-world-in-6-glasses.iF3xPI.popuparchive.org |language=en |network= Illinois Public Media |station=[[WILL (AM)|WILL-AM 580]] |via=Internet Archive}} (With guest: Tom Standage, technology editor at ''The Economist''). [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-16-w66930pg67 American Archive of Public Broadcasting record]</ref> Non-farmers tend to gather in cities to work and to trade.

Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more complex political structure, namely the [[State (polity)|state]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Grinin |first=Leonid |title=The Early State, Its Alternatives and Analogues |date=2004 |location=Volgograd |publisher=Uchitel Publishing House |chapter=The Early State and Its Analogues: A Comparative Analysis |editor1=Leonid Grinin |editor2=Robert Carneiro |editor3=Dmitri Bondarenko |editor4=Nikolay Kradin |editor5=Andrey Korotayev |pages=88–133 |url=https://www.amazon.com.au/Early-State-Its-Alternatives-Analogues-ebook/dp/B075FGDS6Z |language=en |isbn=978-5-7057-0547-4 |oclc=56596768 |access-date=22 September 2023 |archive-date=26 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026223451/https://www.amazon.com.au/Early-State-Its-Alternatives-Analogues-ebook/dp/B075FGDS6Z |url-status=live }}</ref> State societies are more stratified<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bondarenko |first1=Dmitri |last2=Grinin |first2=Leonid |first3=Andrey V. |last3=Korotayev |title=The Early State, Its Alternatives and Analogues |date=2004 |location=Volgograd |publisher=Uchitel Publishing House |chapter=Alternatives of Social Evolution |editor1=Leonid Grinin |editor2=Robert Carneiro |editor3=Dmitri Bondarenko |editor4= Nikolay Kradin |editor5=Andrey Korotayev |pages=3–27 |language=en |isbn=978-5-7057-0547-4 |oclc=56596768}}</ref> than other societies; there is a greater difference among the social classes. The [[ruling class]], normally concentrated in the cities, has control over much of the surplus and exercises its will through the actions of a government or [[bureaucracy]]. [[Morton Fried]], a [[conflict theory|conflict theorist]] and [[Elman Service]], an integration theorist, have classified human cultures based on political systems and [[social inequality]]. This system of classification contains four categories.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bogucki |first1=Peter |title=The Origins of Human Society |date=1999 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |location=Malden, Mass. (U.S.) |isbn=978-1-55786-349-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/originsofhumanso0000bogu_g4c9}}</ref>

* ''[[Hunter-gatherer]] bands'', which are generally [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Lee |editor-first1=Richard Borshay |editor-last2= DeVore |editor-first2= Irven|title=Man the Hunter: The First Intensive Survey of a Single, Crucial Stage of Human Development ― Man's Once Universal Hunting Way of Life |date=1968 |publisher=Aldine |isbn=978-0-202-33032-7 |edition=1st |others=With the assistance of Jill Nash-Mitchell |url=https://archive.org/details/ManTheHunter/page/n3/mode/2up}}</ref>
* ''[[Horticulture|Horticultural]]–[[Pastoralism|pastoralist]] societies'' in which there are generally two inherited social classes: chief and commoner.
* ''Highly stratified structures'', or [[chiefdom]]s, with several inherited social classes: king, noble, freemen, serf and slave.
* ''Civilizations'', with complex [[social hierarchy|social hierarchies]] and organized, institutional [[forms of government]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Beck |first=Roger B. |author2=Linda Black |author3=Larry S. Krieger |author4=Phillip C. Naylor |author5=Dahia Ibo Shabaka |title=World History: Patterns of Interaction |url=https://archive.org/details/mcdougallittellw00beck |url-access=registration |publisher=McDougal Littell |year=1999 |location=Evanston, Ill. |isbn=978-0-395-87274-1}}</ref>

Economically, civilizations display more complex patterns of ownership and exchange than less organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate more [[Ownership|personal possessions]] than nomadic people. Some people also acquire [[landed property]], or private ownership of the land. Because a percentage of people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must [[trade]] their goods and services for food in a [[Market (economics)|market]] system, or receive food through the levy of [[tribute]], redistributive [[taxation]], [[tariffs]] or [[tithe]]s from the food producing segment of the population. Early human cultures functioned through a [[gift economy]] supplemented by limited [[barter]] systems. By the early [[Iron Age]], contemporary civilizations developed [[money]] as a medium of exchange for increasingly complex transactions. In a village, the potter makes a pot for the brewer and the brewer compensates the potter by giving him a certain amount of beer. In a city, the potter may need a new roof, the roofer may need new shoes, the cobbler may need new horseshoes, the blacksmith may need a new coat and the tanner may need a new pot. These people may not be personally acquainted with one another and their needs may not occur all at the same time. A monetary system is a way of organizing these obligations to ensure that they are fulfilled. From the days of the earliest monetarized civilizations, monopolistic controls of monetary systems have benefited the social and political elites.

The transition from simpler to more complex economies does not necessarily mean an improvement in the living standards of the populace. For example, although the Middle Ages is often portrayed as an era of decline from the Roman Empire, studies have shown that the average stature of males in the Middle Ages (c. 500 to 1500 CE) was greater than it was for males during the preceding Roman Empire and the succeeding [[Early Modern Period]] (c. 1500 to 1800 CE).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Steckel |first1=Richard H. |title=New Light on the 'Dark Ages' |journal=Social Science History |date=4 January 2016 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=211–229 |doi=10.1017/S0145553200013134 |s2cid=143128051}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koepke |first1=Nikola |last2=Baten |first2=Joerg |title=The biological standard of living in Europe during the last two millennia |journal=European Review of Economic History |date=1 April 2005 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=61–95 |doi=10.1017/S1361491604001388 |jstor=41378413 |hdl=10419/47594 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> Also, the [[Plains Indians]] of North America in the 19th century were taller than their "civilized" American and European counterparts. The average stature of a population is a good measurement of the adequacy of its access to necessities, especially food, and its freedom from disease.<ref name="Leutwyler">{{cite magazine |last1=Leutwyler |first1=Kristen |date=30 May 2001|title=American Plains Indians had Health and Height |magazine=Scientific American |access-date=20 April 2021 |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-plains-indians-h/ |archive-date=20 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420155130/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-plains-indians-h/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Writing]], developed first by people in [[Sumer]], is considered a hallmark of civilization and "appears to accompany the rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians|last=Pauketat|first=Timothy R.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-521-52066-9|page=169}}</ref> Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to keep accurate records. Like money, the writing was necessitated by the size of the population of a city and the complexity of its commerce among people who are not all personally acquainted with each other. However, writing is not always necessary for civilization, as shown by the [[Inca]] civilization of the Andes, which did not use writing at all but except for a complex recording system consisting of knotted strings of different lengths and colours: the "[[Quipu]]s", and still functioned as a civilized society.

[[File:Aristotle Altemps Inv8575.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Aristotle]], the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] philosopher and scientist]]

Aided by their division of labour and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse cultural traits. These include organized [[religion]], development in the arts, and countless new advances in science and technology.

Assessments of what level of civilization a polity has reached are based on comparisons of the relative importance of agricultural as opposed to trading or manufacturing capacities, the territorial extensions of its power, the complexity of its [[division of labour]], and the [[carrying capacity]] of its [[urban centre]]s. Secondary elements include a developed transportation system, writing, standardized measurement, currency, contractual and [[tort]]-based legal systems, art, architecture, mathematics, scientific understanding, [[metallurgy]], political structures, and organized religion.

===As a contrast with other societies===
The idea of civilization implies a progression or development from a previous "uncivilized" state. Traditionally, cultures that defined themselves as "civilized" often did so in contrast to other societies or human groupings viewed as less civilized, calling the latter [[barbarians]], [[wikt:savages|savages]], and [[primitive culture|primitives]]. Indeed, the modern Western idea of civilization developed as a contrast to the [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] cultures European settlers encountered during the European colonization of the Americas and Australia.<ref name="Smithers">{{cite journal |last1=Smithers |first1=Gregory D. |title=The 'Pursuits of the Civilized Man': Race and the Meaning of Civilization in the United States and Australia, 1790s–1850s |journal=Journal of World History |year=2009 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=245–272 |doi=10.1353/jwh.0.0047|s2cid=143956999 }}</ref> The term "primitive," though once used in [[anthropology]], has now been largely condemned by anthropologists because of its derogatory connotations and because it implies that the cultures it refers to are relics of a past time that do not change or progress.<ref>{{cite web |title=ASA Statement on the use of 'primitive' as a descriptor of contemporary human groups |url=http://www.theasa.org/news.shtml#asa |publisher=Association of Social Anthropologists|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114155909/http://www.theasa.org/news.shtml#asa |archive-date=14 November 2011 }}</ref>

Because of this, societies regarding themselves as "civilized" have sometimes sought to dominate and assimilate "uncivilized" cultures into a "civilized" way of living.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bowden |first1=Brett |title=Oxford Handbook Topics in Politics |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford Academic |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/41327/chapter/352326100 |chapter=Civilization and its Consequences |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935307.013.30 |isbn=978-0-19-993530-7 |access-date=29 July 2023 |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729013409/https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/41327/chapter/352326100 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 19th century, the idea of European culture as "civilized" and superior to "uncivilized" non-European cultures was fully developed, and civilization became a core part of European identity.<ref name="Heraclides">{{cite book |last1=Heraclides |first1=Alexis |last2=Dialla |first2=Ada |title=Humanitarian Intervention in the Long Nineteenth Century: Setting the Precedent |date=2015 |publisher=Manchester University Press |pages=31–56 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1mf71b8.7 |chapter=3 Eurocentrism, ‘civilization’ and the ‘barbarians’ |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1mf71b8.7 |jstor=j.ctt1mf71b8.7 |access-date=29 July 2023 |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729013403/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1mf71b8.7 |url-status=live }}</ref> The idea of civilization can also be used as a justification for dominating another culture and dispossessing a people of their land. For example, in [[Australia]], British settlers justified the displacement of Indigenous Australians by observing that the land appeared uncultivated and wild, which to them reflected that the inhabitants were not civilized enough to "improve" it.<ref name="Smithers"/> The behaviours and modes of subsistence that characterize civilization have been spread by [[colonization]], [[imperialism|invasion]], [[religious conversion]], the extension of [[bureaucracy|bureaucratic control]] and [[trade]], and by the introduction of new technologies to cultures that did not previously have them. Though aspects of culture associated with civilization can be freely adopted through contact between cultures, since early modern times Eurocentric ideals of "civilization" have been widely imposed upon cultures through coercion and dominance. These ideals complemented a [[Scientific racism|philosophy]] that assumed there were innate differences between "civilized" and "uncivilized" peoples.<ref name="Heraclides"/>

== Cultural identity ==
{{further|Cultural area|culture}}
"Civilization" can also refer to the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique. Civilizations tend to develop intricate cultures, including a [[state (polity)|state]]-based [[decision-making]] apparatus, a [[literature]], professional [[art]], [[architecture]], organized [[religion]] and complex customs of [[education]], [[coercion]] and control associated with maintaining the elite.

The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization, a classic example being [[Chinese culture|Chinese]] civilization and its influence on nearby civilizations such [[Chinese influence on Korean culture|as Korea]], [[Chinese influence on Japanese culture|Japan and]] Vietnam<ref>{{multiref2|1={{Cite book |last=Seth |first=Michael J. |oclc=1104409379 |title=A concise history of Korea: From antiquity to the present |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-5381-2897-8 |edition=Third |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham, Maryland, U.S. |page=67}}|2={{cite book |last1=Stearns |first1=Peter N. |title=World civilizations: the global experience |date=2004 |publisher=Pearson Longman |location=New York |isbn=978-0-321-18281-4 |edition=4th |url-access=subscription |chapter=Chapter 13 - The Spread of Chinese Civilization: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam |url=https://course-notes.org/world_history/outlines/world_civilizations_the_global_experience_4th_edition_outlines/chapter_13_the |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024040551/https://course-notes.org/world_history/outlines/world_civilizations_the_global_experience_4th_edition_outlines/chapter_13_the |url-status=live }} }}</ref> Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives is that person's broadest cultural identity.<ref name="clash"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Key Components of Civilization |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/key-components-civilization/ |website=National Geographic Education |publisher=National Geographic Society |language=en |date=17 August 2023 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719170759/https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/key-components-civilization/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Blue Shield Fact Finding Mission Libyen.jpg|right|thumb|A [[Blue Shield International]] mission in Libya during the war in 2011 to protect the cultural assets there.]]

It is precisely the protection of this cultural identity that is becoming increasingly important nationally and internationally. According to international law, the [[United Nations]] and [[UNESCO]] try to set up and enforce relevant rules. The aim is to preserve the [[cultural heritage]] of humanity and also the cultural identity, especially in the case of war and armed conflict. According to [[Karl von Habsburg]], President of [[Blue Shield International]], the destruction of cultural assets is also part of psychological warfare. The target of the attack is often the opponent's cultural identity, which is why symbolic cultural assets become a main target. It is also intended to destroy the particularly sensitive cultural memory (museums, archives, monuments, etc.), the grown cultural diversity, and the economic basis (such as tourism) of a state, region or community.<ref>{{cite periodical |last1=Wegener |first1=Corine |last2=Otter |first2=Marjan |title=Cultural Property at War: Protecting Heritage during Armed Conflict |magazine=The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter |url=https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/23_1/feature.html |issue=1 |date=Spring 2008 |volume=23 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=11 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011212832/https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/23_1/feature.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Stiffman |first1=Eden |title=Cultural Preservation in Disasters, War Zones Presents Big Challenges |url=https://www.philanthropy.com/article/cultural-preservation-in-disasters-war-zones-presents-big-challenges/ |work=Chronicle of Philanthropy |date=11 May 2015 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024040555/https://www.philanthropy.com/article/cultural-preservation-in-disasters-war-zones-presents-big-challenges/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Hans |last=Haider |title= Interview mit Karl Habsburg: 'Missbrauch von Kulturgütern ist strafbar' |trans-title=Interview with Karl Habsburg: 'Misuse of cultural assets is a punishable offence' |language=de |newspaper=[[Wiener Zeitung]] |date=29 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Karl von Habsburg auf Mission im Libanon |trans-title=Protecting Cultural Property: Karl von Habsburg on a mission in Lebanon|date=28 April 2019 |access-date=18 December 2020 |url=https://www.krone.at/1911689 |newspaper=Krone Zeitung |language=de |archive-date=26 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526200932/https://www.krone.at/1911689|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-and-blue-shield-signed-memorandum-understanding |title=The ICRC and the Blue Shield signed a Memorandum of Understanding, 26 February 2020. |date=26 February 2020 |access-date=18 December 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322065528/https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-and-blue-shield-signed-memorandum-understanding |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| author=Friedrich Schipper |title=Bildersturm: Die globalen Normen zum Schutz von Kulturgut greifen nicht |language=de |trans-title=The global norms for the protection of cultural property do not apply| newspaper=[[Der Standard]] |date=6 March 2015}}</ref>

Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as discrete units. Early twentieth-century philosopher [[Oswald Spengler]],<ref name="decline two">{{cite book |last1=Spengler |first1=Oswald |title=The Decline Of The West |date=1928 |publisher=George Allen Unwin |location=London |volume= II: ''Perspectives of World History'' |translator-last=Atkinson |translator-first=Charles Francis |edition=Revised |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.284252/page/n481/mode/2up}}</ref> uses the German word ''Kultur'', "culture", for what many call a "civilization". Spengler believed a civilization's coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol. Cultures experience cycles of birth, life, decline, and death, often supplanted by a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new cultural symbol. Spengler states civilization is the beginning of the decline of a culture as "the most external and artificial states of which a species of developed humanity is capable".<ref name="decline two" />

This "unified culture" concept of civilization also influenced the theories of historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] in the mid-twentieth century. Toynbee explored civilization processes in his multi-volume ''[[A Study of History]]'', which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline of 21 civilizations and five "arrested civilizations". Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of the failure of a "creative minority", through moral or religious decline, to meet some important challenge, rather than mere economic or environmental causes.

[[Samuel P. Huntington]] defines civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species".<ref name="clash">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LO4xG-bH1CQC&pg=PA43 |title=The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order |last=Huntington |first=Samuel P. |date=1997 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-6124-8 |page=43 |language=en |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=30 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230121309/https://books.google.com/books?id=LO4xG-bH1CQC&pg=PA43 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Complex systems ==
[[File:Medes_and_Persians_at_eastern_stairs_of_the_Apadana,_Persepolis.JPG|thumb|Depiction of united [[Medes]] and [[Persians]] at the [[Apadana]], [[Persepolis]].|451x451px]]

Another group of theorists, making use of [[systems theory]], looks at a civilization as a [[complex system]], i.e., a framework by which a group of objects can be analysed that work in concert to produce some result. Civilizations can be seen as networks of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures and are defined by the economic, political, military, diplomatic, social and cultural interactions among them. Any organization is a complex [[social system]] and a civilization is a large organization. Systems theory helps guard against superficial and misleading analogies in the study and description of civilizations.

Systems theorists look at many types of relations between cities, including economic relations, cultural exchanges and political/diplomatic/military relations. These spheres often occur on different scales. For example, trade networks were, until the nineteenth century, much larger than either cultural spheres or political spheres. Extensive trade routes, including the [[Silk Road]] through [[Central Asia]] and [[Indian Ocean]] sea routes linking the [[Roman Empire]], [[History of Iran|Persian Empire]], India and [[China]], were well established 2000 years ago when these civilizations scarcely shared any political, diplomatic, military, or cultural relations. The first evidence of such long-distance trade is in the [[Ancient history|ancient world]]. During the [[Uruk period]], Guillermo Algaze has argued that trade relations connected Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan.<ref>Algaze, Guillermo, ''The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization'' (Second Edition, 2004) ({{ISBN|978-0-226-01382-4}})</ref> Resin found later in the [[Royal Cemetery at Ur]] is suggested was traded northwards from Mozambique.

Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single "[[world-system theory|world system]]", a process known as [[globalization]]. Different civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically, politically, and even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is debate over when this integration began, and what sort of integration – cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic – is the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. [[David Wilkinson (political scientist)|David Wilkinson]] has proposed that economic and military-diplomatic integration of the [[Mesopotamia]]n and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] civilizations resulted in the creation of what he calls the "Central Civilization" around 1500 BCE.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/CCR/article/view/12262/12162|title=Central Civilization|last1=Wilkinson|first1=David|author-link1=David Wilkinson (political scientist)|journal=Comparative Civilizations Review|volume=17|date=Fall 1987|pages=31–59|access-date=28 August 2014|archive-date=3 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903151553/https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/CCR/article/view/12262/12162|url-status=live}}</ref> Central Civilization later expanded to include the entire Middle East and Europe, and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization, integrating the Americas, Australia, China and Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson, civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the Central Civilization, or homogeneous, like the Japanese civilization. What Huntington calls the "clash of civilizations" might be characterized by Wilkinson as a clash of cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others point to the [[Crusading movement]] as the first step in globalization. The more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies have expanded and shrunk since [[Ancient history|ancient times]], and that the current globalized economy and culture is a product of recent [[European colonialism]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}

== History ==
{{See also|Human history}}

The notion of human history as a succession of "civilizations" is an entirely modern one. In the European [[Age of Discovery]], emerging [[Modernity]] was put into stark contrast with the [[Neolithic]] and [[Mesolithic]] stage of the cultures of many of the peoples they encountered.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carneiro |first=Robert L. |date=1970-08-21 |title=A Theory of the Origin of the State |url=http://72.52.202.216/~fenderse/Carneiro.htm |journal=Science |language=en |volume=169 |issue=3947 |pages=733–738 |doi=10.1126/science.169.3947.733 |pmid=17820299 |bibcode=1970Sci...169..733C |s2cid=11536431 |issn=0036-8075 |access-date=5 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530140606/http://72.52.202.216/~fenderse/Carneiro.htm |archive-date=30 May 2014 |quote=Explicit theories of the origin of the state are relatively modern [...] the age of exploration, by making Europeans aware that many peoples throughout the world lived, not in states, but in independent villages or tribes, made the state seem less natural, and thus more in need of explanation. |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Obsolete source|reason="Neolithic" is not generally used for Australian or North and South American peoples|date=December 2022}} Nonetheless, developments in the Neolithic stage, such as agriculture and sedentary settlement, were critical to the development of modern conceptions of civilization.<ref name="Eagly99">{{cite journal |author1=Eagly, Alice H. |author2=Wood, Wendy |date=June 1999 |title=The Origins of Sex Differences in Human Behavior: Evolved Dispositions Versus Social Roles |url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fiske/facets/eagly&wood.htm |url-status=dead |journal=American Psychologist |volume=54 |issue=6 |pages=408–423 |doi=10.1037/0003-066x.54.6.408 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817071347/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fiske/facets/eagly&wood.htm |archive-date=17 August 2000|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: Overview: From Neolithic to Bronze Age, 8000–800 BC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/overview_british_prehistory_01.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512115703/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/overview_british_prehistory_01.shtml |archive-date=12 May 2021 |access-date=21 July 2017}}</ref>

===Urban Revolution===
{{Main|Neolithic|Bronze Age|Cradle of civilization|River valley civilization}}

The [[Natufian culture]] in the [[Levantine corridor]] provides the earliest case of a Neolithic Revolution, with the planting of cereal crops attested from {{circa}} 11,000 BCE.<ref>Moore, Andrew M. T.; Hillman, Gordon C.; Legge, Anthony J. (2000). ''Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra''.(Oxford University Press).</ref><ref>Hillman, Gordon; Hedges, Robert; Moore, Andrew; Colledge, Susan; Pettitt, Paul (27 July 2016). "New evidence of Lateglacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates". ''Holocene''. 11 (4): 383–393.</ref> The earliest neolithic technology and lifestyle were established first in Western Asia (for example at [[Göbekli Tepe]], from about 9,130 BCE), later in the [[Yellow River]] and [[Yangtze]] basins in China (for example the [[Peiligang culture|Peiligang]] and [[Pengtoushan]] cultures), and from these cores spread across Eurasia. [[Mesopotamia]] is the site of the earliest civilizations developing from 7,400 years ago. This area has been evaluated by Beverley Milton-Edwards as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the wheel, the building of the earliest cities and the development of written cursive script".<ref name="historyandpolicy">Compare: {{cite web|url= http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html|title=Iraq, past, present and future: a thoroughly-modern mandate?|last= Milton-Edwards|first= Beverley|date= May 2003|work= History & Policy|access-date= 9 December 2010|location= United Kingdom | quote = The fertile land between the Tigris and the Euphrates has inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops and the development of cursive script. |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101208112958/http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html|archive-date=8 December 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar pre-civilized "neolithic revolutions" also began independently from 7,000 BCE in northwestern [[South America]] (the [[Caral-Supe civilization]])<ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Haas |first1= Jonathan |last2= Creamer |first2= Winifred |last3= Ruiz |first3= Alvaro |date= December 2004 |title= Dating the Late Archaic occupation of the Norte Chico region in Peru |journal= Nature |language=En |volume=432 |issue=7020 |pages=1020–1023 |doi=10.1038/nature03146 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid= 15616561|bibcode= 2004Natur.432.1020H |s2cid= 4426545 }}</ref> and in [[Mesoamerica]].<ref>Kennett, Douglas J.; Winterhalder, Bruce (2006). ''Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture''. University of California Press. pp. 121–. {{ISBN| 978-0-520-24647-8}}. Retrieved 27 December 2010.</ref> The [[Black Sea]] area served as a cradle of European civilization. The site of [[Solnitsata]] – a prehistoric fortified ([[Defensive wall|walled]]) stone settlement (prehistoric [[proto-city]]) (5500–4200 BCE) – is believed by some archaeologists to be the oldest known town in present-day Europe.<ref name=Maugh>{{cite news |title= Bulgarians find oldest European town, a salt production center |first= Thomas H. |last= Maugh II |url= https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2012-nov-01-la-sci-sn-oldest-european-town-20121101-story.html |newspaper= [[Los Angeles Times]] |date= 1 November 2012 |access-date= 1 November 2012 |archive-date= 4 May 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190504234136/https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2012-nov-01-la-sci-sn-oldest-european-town-20121101-story.html |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{citation |editor-last1=Norman |editor-first1=Jeremy M. |title=The Earliest Prehistoric Town in Europe Circa 4700 to 4200 BCE |url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/ |work=Jeremy Norman's History of Information: Exploring the History of Information and Media through Timelines |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=2 July 2012 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120702232530/http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?category=Survival+of+Information#entry_3305 |url-status=dead }}. . Previously at: ''Jeremy Norman's 'From Cave Paintings to the Internet': Chronological and Thematic Studies on the History of Information and Media''. . (Archived record from 2 July 2012)</ref><ref name=Squires>{{cite news |title= Archaeologists find Europe's most prehistoric town |first= Nick |last= Squires |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/9646541/Bulgaria-archaeologists-find-Europes-most-prehistoric-town-Provadia-Solnitsata.html |newspaper= [[The Daily Telegraph]] |date= 31 October 2012 |access-date= 1 November 2012 |quote= Archaeologists in Bulgaria believe they have discovered Europe's oldest prehistoric town, a settlement that was founded nearly 5,000 years before the birth of Christ [...] The "town", known as Provadia-Solnitsata, was small by modern standards and would have had around 350 inhabitants. |archive-date= 1 November 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121101020609/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/9646541/Bulgaria-archaeologists-find-Europes-most-prehistoric-town-Provadia-Solnitsata.html |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://naim.bg/contentFiles/ARH_2012_1_res1.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130123192648/http://naim.bg/contentFiles/ARH_2012_1_res1.pdf |archive-date= 2013-01-23 |url-status= live |title= Salt, early complex society, urbanization: Provadia-Solnitsata (5500–4200 BC) (Abstract) |first= Vassil |last= Nikolov |publisher= [[Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]] |access-date= 1 November 2012 | quote = According to the criteria, accepted for the period, the prehistoric settlement of Provadia-Solnitsata could be defined as a prehistoric city that existed in the middle and the second half of the 5th millennium BC.}}</ref><!--
The first gold artifacts in the world appear from the 4th millennium BC, such as those found in a burial site from 4569 to 4340 BCE and one of the most important archaeological sites in world prehistory – the [[Varna Necropolis]] near Lake Varna in [[Bulgaria]], thought to be the earliest "well-dated" find of gold artifacts.<ref name="La Niece">{{cite book |last=La Niece |first=Susan (senior metallurgist in the British Museum Department of Conservation and Scientific Research) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAfITjcHiZ0C |title=Gold |page=10 |publisher=Harvard University Press |access-date=10 April 2012 |isbn=978-0-674-03590-4 |date= 2009}}</ref>
-->

The [[8.2 kiloyear event|8.2 Kiloyear Arid Event]] and the [[5.9 kiloyear event|5.9 Kiloyear]] Inter-pluvial saw the drying out of semiarid regions and a major spread of [[desert]]s.<ref>De Meo, James (2nd Edition), "Saharasia"</ref> This [[climate change]] shifted the cost-benefit ratio of endemic violence between communities, which saw the abandonment of unwalled village communities and the appearance of walled cities, seen by some as a characteristic of early civilizations.<ref>{{cite book
 |last1        = Frye
 |first1       = David
 |date         = 27 August 2019
 |orig-date    = 2018
 |chapter      = Midwife to Civilization: Wall Builders at the Dawn of History: The Ancient Near East, 2500–500 BC
 |title        = Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
 |url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=FiemDwAAQBAJ
 |edition      = reprint
 |location     = New York
 |publisher    = Simon and Schuster
 |isbn         = 978-1-5011-7271-7
 |access-date  = 15 April 2023
 |archive-date = 6 May 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20230506015946/https://books.google.com/books?id=FiemDwAAQBAJ
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref>

[[File:Lascar Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun in the background (4566574277).jpg|thumb|The ruins of [[Mesoamerica]]n city [[Teotihuacan]]]]

This "[[urban revolution]]"—a term introduced by Childe in the 1930s—from the 4th millennium BCE,<ref>{{cite book
 |last1        = Portugali
 |first1       = Juval
 |date         = 6 December 2012
 |orig-date    = 2000
 |chapter      = Self-Organization and Urban Revolutions: From the Urban Revolution to La Revolution Urbaine
 |title        = Self-Organization and the City
 |url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=8ln9CAAAQBAJ
 |edition      = reprint
 |location     = Berlin
 |publisher    = Springer Science & Business Media
 |page         = 306
 |isbn         = 978-3-662-04099-7
 |access-date  = 15 April 2023
 |quote        = The urban revolution of 5500 years ago is at the very same time ''the rise of civilization''. [...] there is general consensus among scientists about the overall picture of Childe's revolution as portrayed above [...].
 |archive-date = 15 April 2023
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20230415045244/https://books.google.com/books?id=8ln9CAAAQBAJ
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> marked the beginning of the accumulation of transferable [[economic surplus]]es, which helped economies and cities develop. Urban revolutions were associated with the state [[monopoly of violence]], the appearance of a [[warrior]], or soldier, class and [[endemic warfare]] (a state of continual or frequent warfare), the rapid development of [[social hierarchy|hierarchies]], and the use of [[human sacrifice]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Childe |first1=V. Gordon |title=The Urban Revolution |journal=The Town Planning Review |year=1950 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=3–17 |doi=10.3828/tpr.21.1.k853061t614q42qh |s2cid=39517784 |issn=0041-0020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
 |first1=Joseph
 |last1=Watts
 |first2=Oliver
 |last2=Sheehan
 |first3=Quentin D.
 |last3=Atkinson
 |first4=Joseph
 |last4=Bulbulia
 |first5=Russell D.
 |last5=Gray
 |title=Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies
 |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Natur.532..228W/abstract
 |journal=Nature
 |volume=532
 |issue=7598
 |pages=228–231
 |date=4 April 2016
 |access-date=15 April 2023
 |doi=10.1038/nature17159
 |pmid=27042932
 |bibcode=2016Natur.532..228W
 |s2cid=4450246
 |quote=We find strong support for models in which human sacrifice stabilizes social stratification once stratification has arisen, and promotes a shift to strictly inherited class systems.
 |archive-date=15 April 2023
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415143549/https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Natur.532..228W/abstract
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

The civilized urban revolution in turn was dependent upon the development of [[sedentism]], the [[domestication]] of grains, plants and animals, the permanence of [[human settlement|settlement]]s and development of [[Lifestyle (sociology)|lifestyle]]s that facilitated [[economies of scale]] and accumulation of surplus production by particular social sectors. The transition from ''complex cultures'' to ''civilizations'', while still disputed, seems to be associated with the development of state structures, in which power was further monopolized by an elite [[ruling class]]<ref>Carniero, R.L. (ed.) (1967). ''The Evolution of Society: Selections from Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology'', (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), pp. 32–47, 63–96, 153–165.</ref> who practiced human sacrifice.<ref name="nature.com">{{cite journal |first1=Joseph |last1=Watts |first2=Oliver |last2=Sheehan |first3=Quentin D. |last3=Atkinson |first4=Joseph |last4=Bulbulia |first5=Russell D. |last5=Gray |title=Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies |journal=Nature |volume=532 |issue=7598 |pages=228–231 |date=4 April 2016 |doi=10.1038/nature17159 |pmid=27042932 |bibcode=2016Natur.532..228W |s2cid=4450246}}</ref>

Towards the end of the Neolithic period, various elitist [[Chalcolithic]] civilizations began to rise in various [[Cradle of civilization|"cradles"]] from around 3600 BCE beginning with [[Mesopotamia]], expanding into large-scale [[Realm|kingdom]]s and [[empire]]s in the course of the Bronze Age ([[Akkadian Empire]], [[Indus Valley Civilization]], [[Old Kingdom of Egypt]], [[Neo-Sumerian Empire]], [[Middle Assyrian Empire]], [[Babylonian Empire]], [[Hittite Empire]], and to some degree the territorial expansions of the [[Elamites]], [[Hurrians]], [[Amorites]] and [[Ebla]]).

Outside the Old World, development took place independently in the [[Pre-Columbian Americas]]. Urbanization in the [[Caral-Supe civilization]] in what is now coastal Peru began about 3500 BCE.<ref>Mann, Charles C. (2006) [2005]. ''1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus''. Vintage Books. pp. 199–212. {{ISBN|1-4000-3205-9}}.</ref> In North America, the [[Olmec]] civilization emerged about 1200 BCE; the oldest known [[Mayan civilization|Mayan]] city, located in what is now Guatemala, dates to about 750 BCE.<ref>Olmedo Vera, Bertina (1997). A. Arellano Hernández; et al. (eds.). ''The Mayas of the Classic Period''. Mexico City, Mexico: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA). p. 26 {{ISBN|978-970-18-3005-5}}.</ref> and [[Teotihuacan]] (near the modern [[Mexico City]]) was one of the largest cities in the world in 350 CE, with a population of about 125,000.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1= Sanders |first1= William T.|last2= Webster|first2= David|year= 1988|title= The Mesoamerican Urban Tradition|journal= American Anthropologist|volume=90|issue=3|pages=521–546|issn=0002-7294|jstor=678222|doi=10.1525/aa.1988.90.3.02a00010}}
</ref>

=== Axial Age ===
{{Main|Axial Age}}

{{further|Iron Age|Stoicism|Judaism|Zoroastrianism|Hinduism|Spread of Buddhism|Confucianism|Taoism}}

The [[Bronze Age collapse]] was followed by the Iron Age around 1200 BCE, during which a number of new civilizations emerged, culminating in a period from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE which [[Karl Jaspers]] termed the [[Axial Age]], presented as a critical transitional phase leading to [[classical civilization]].<ref>Tarnas, Richard (1993). ''The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View'' (Ballantine Books)</ref>

=== Modernity ===
{{Main|Modernity}}

{{Further|Middle Ages|Early modern period|Great Divergence|Age of Discovery}}
{{See also|Culture|Major religious groups|World language|Clash of Civilizations}}

A major technological and cultural transition to [[modernity]] began approximately 1500 CE in [[Western Europe]], and from this beginning new approaches to [[science]] and law spread rapidly around the world, incorporating earlier cultures into the technological and [[industrial society]] of the present.<ref name="nature.com"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Civilization|last=Ferguson|first=Niall|author-link=Niall Ferguson|year=2011}}</ref>

== Fall of civilizations ==
{{Main|Societal collapse}}

Civilizations are traditionally understood as ending in one of two ways; either through incorporation into another expanding civilization (e.g. as Ancient Egypt was incorporated into Hellenistic Greek, and subsequently Roman civilizations), or by collapsing and reverting to a simpler form of living, as happens in so-called Dark Ages.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Toynbee |first1=Arnold |title=A Study Of History |date=1946 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.241704/page/n3/mode/2up |author-link=Arnold J. Toynbee}}</ref>

There have been many explanations put forward for the collapse of civilization. Some focus on historical examples, and others on general theory.

* [[Ibn Khaldun]]'s ''[[Muqaddimah]]'' influenced theories of the analysis, growth, and decline of the Islamic civilization.<ref>Massimo Campanini (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=5DoasQxzvNQC&pg=PA75 ''Studies on Ibn Khaldûn''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828221632/https://books.google.com/books?id=5DoasQxzvNQC&pg=PA75 |date=28 August 2019 }}, Polimetrica s.a.s., p. 75</ref> He suggested repeated invasions from nomadic peoples limited development and led to social collapse.[[File:Invasions of the Roman Empire 1.png|thumb|[[Migration Period|Barbarian invasions]] played an important role in the fall of the [[Roman Empire]].|704x704px]]
* [[Edward Gibbon]]'s work ''[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' is a well-known and detailed analysis of the fall of Roman civilization. Gibbon suggested the final act of the collapse of Rome was the fall of [[Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Turks]] in 1453 CE. For Gibbon, "The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long".<ref>Gibbon, ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', 2nd ed., vol. 4, ed. by J. B. Bury (London, 1909), pp.&nbsp;173–174. Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis. Part VI. General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.</ref>
* [[Theodor Mommsen]] in his ''[[History of Rome (Mommsen)|History of Rome]]'' suggested Rome collapsed with the collapse of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in 476 CE and he also tended towards a biological analogy of "genesis", "growth", "senescence", "collapse" and "decay".
* [[Oswald Spengler]], in his ''[[Decline of the West]]'' rejected [[Petrarch]]'s chronological division, and suggested that there had been only eight "mature civilizations". Growing cultures, he argued, tend to develop into imperialistic civilizations, which expand and ultimately collapse, with democratic forms of government ushering in [[plutocracy]] and ultimately [[imperialism]].
* [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] in his ''[[A Study of History]]'' suggested that there had been a much larger number of civilizations, including a small number of arrested civilizations, and that all civilizations tended to go through the cycle identified by Mommsen. The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a cultural [[elite]] became a [[parasitic]] elite, leading to the rise of internal and external [[proletariat]]s.
* [[Joseph Tainter]] in ''[[Societal collapse|The Collapse of Complex Societies]]'' suggested that there were [[diminishing returns]] to [[complexity]], due to which, as states achieved a maximum permissible complexity, they would decline when further increases actually produced a negative return. Tainter suggested that Rome achieved this figure in the 2nd century CE.
* [[Jared Diamond]] in his 2005 book ''[[Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]'' suggests five major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures: environmental damage, such as [[deforestation]] and [[soil erosion]]; [[Climate variability and change|climate change]]; dependence upon [[international trade|long-distance trade]] for needed resources; increasing levels of internal and external violence, such as war or invasion; and societal responses to internal and environmental problems.
* [[Peter Turchin]] in his [https://web.archive.org/web/20060830212141/http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/faculty/turchin/HistDyn.htm ''Historical Dynamics''] and [[Andrey Korotayev]] ''et al.'' in their [https://www.academia.edu/22215616/Introduction_to_Social_Macrodynamics_Secular_Cycles_and_Millennial_Trends ''Introduction to Social Macrodynamics, Secular Cycles, and Millennial Trends''] suggest a number of mathematical models describing collapse of agrarian civilizations. For example, the basic logic of Turchin's "fiscal-demographic" model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a sociodemographic [[Social cycle theory|cycle]] we observe relatively high levels of per capita production and consumption, which leads not only to relatively high [[population growth]] rates, but also to relatively high rates of surplus production. As a result, during this phase the population can afford to pay taxes without great problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the population growth is accompanied by the growth of state revenues. During the intermediate phase, the increasing [[population growth]] leads to the decrease of per capita production and consumption levels, it becomes more and more difficult to collect taxes, and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state expenditures grow due to the growth of the population controlled by the state. As a result, during this phase the state starts experiencing considerable fiscal problems. During the final pre-collapse phases the overpopulation leads to further decrease of per capita production, the surplus production further decreases, state revenues shrink, but the state needs more and more resources to control the growing (though with lower and lower rates) population. Eventually this leads to famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse.<ref>Peter Turchin. ''Historical Dynamics''. [[Princeton University Press]], 2003:121–127</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/22215616 |title=Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2006 |access-date=6 January 2020 |archive-date=18 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918112553/http://www.academia.edu/22215616/Introduction_to_Social_Macrodynamics_Secular_Cycles_and_Millennial_Trends |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Peter Heather]] argues in his book ''[[Decline of the Roman Empire#Peter Heather|The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians]]''<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter J. Heather|title=The Fall Of The Roman Empire: A New History Of Rome And The Barbarians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wCOJfTB7HtgC|access-date=22 June 2012|date= 2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515954-7|archive-date=19 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619073911/http://books.google.com/books?id=wCOJfTB7HtgC|url-status=live}}</ref> that this civilization did not end for moral or economic reasons, but because centuries of contact with barbarians across the frontier generated its own nemesis by making them a more sophisticated and dangerous adversary. The fact that Rome needed to generate ever greater revenues to equip and re-equip armies that were for the first time repeatedly defeated in the field, led to the dismemberment of the Empire. Although this argument is specific to Rome, it can also be applied to the Asiatic Empire of the Egyptians, to the [[Han dynasty|Han]] and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] dynasties of China, to the Muslim [[Abbasid Caliphate]] and others.
* [[Bryan Ward-Perkins]], in his book ''The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization'',<ref>{{cite book|author=Bryan Ward-Perkins|title=The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/fallofromeendofc00ward|url-access=registration|access-date=22 June 2012|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280728-1}}</ref> argues from mostly archaeological evidence that the collapse of Roman civilization in western Europe had deleterious impacts on the living standards of the population, unlike some historians who downplay this. The collapse of complex society meant that even basic plumbing for the elite disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar impacts have been postulated for the [[Greek dark ages|Dark Age]] after the Late [[Bronze Age collapse]] in the Eastern Mediterranean, the collapse of the [[Maya civilization|Maya]], on [[Easter Island]] and elsewhere.
* [[Arthur Demarest]] argues in ''[[Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization]]'',<ref>{{Cite book |isbn=978-0-521-53390-4 |title=Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization |last1=Demarest |first1=Arthur |date=9 December 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> using a holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from archaeology, [[paleoecology]], and epigraphy, that no one explanation is sufficient but that a series of erratic, complex events, including loss of soil fertility, drought and rising levels of internal and external violence led to the disintegration of the courts of Mayan kingdoms, which began a spiral of decline and decay. He argues that the collapse of the Maya has lessons for civilization today.
* Jeffrey A. McNeely has recently suggested that "a review of historical evidence shows that past civilizations have tended to [[over-exploit]] their forests, and that such abuse of important resources has been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society".<ref>McNeely, Jeffrey A. (1994) "Lessons of the past: Forests and Biodiversity" (Vol 3, No 1 1994. ''Biodiversity and Conservation'')</ref>
* [[Thomas Homer-Dixon]] considers the fall in the [[EROEI|energy return on investments]]. The energy expended to energy yield ratio is central to limiting the survival of civilizations. The degree of social complexity is associated strongly, he suggests, with the amount of disposable energy environmental, economic and technological systems allow. When this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new energy sources or collapse.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.theupsideofdown.com/ |title=''The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization'' |access-date=17 April 2015 |archive-date=12 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012070649/http://www.theupsideofdown.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Feliks Koneczny]] in his work "On the Plurality of Civilizations" calls his study the science on civilizations. He asserts that civilizations fall not because they must or there exist some cyclical or a "biological" life span and that there stil exist two ancient civilizations&nbsp;– Brahmin-Hindu and Chinese&nbsp;– which are not ready to fall any time soon. Koneczny claimed that civilizations cannot be mixed into hybrids, an inferior civilization when given equal rights within a highly developed civilization will overcome it. One of Koneczny's claims in his study on civilizations is that "a person cannot be civilized in two or more ways" without falling into what he calls an "abcivilized state" (as in abnormal). He also stated that when two or more civilizations exist next to one another and as long as they are vital, they will be in an existential combat imposing its own "method of organizing social life" upon the other.<ref>Koneczny, Feliks (1962) ''On the Plurality of Civilizations'', Posthumous English translation by Polonica Publications, London {{ASIN|B0000CLABJ}}. Originally published in Polish, ''O Wielości Cywilizacyj'', Gebethner & Wolff, Kraków 1935.</ref> Absorbing alien "method of organizing social life" that is civilization and giving it equal rights yields a process of decay and decomposition.

== Future ==
{{See also|Global catastrophic risk}}
[[File:Clash of Civilizations mapn2.png|thumb|A world map of major civilizations according to the political hypothesis ''[[Clash of Civilizations]]'' by [[Samuel P. Huntington]].|889x889px]]

According to political scientist [[Samuel P. Huntington]], the 21st century will be characterized by a [[clash of civilizations]],<ref name="clash"/> which he believes will replace the conflicts between [[nation-state]]s and ideologies that were prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, this viewpoint has been strongly challenged by others such as [[Edward Said]], Muhammed Asadi and [[Amartya Sen]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.selvesandothers.org/article15618.html |title=A Critique of Huntington's ''Clash of Civilizations'' |last=Asadi |first=Muhammed |date=22 January 2007 |website=Selves and Others |access-date=23 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426042806/http://www.selvesandothers.org/article15618.html |archive-date=26 April 2009 }}</ref> [[Ronald Inglehart]] and [[Pippa Norris]] have argued that the "true clash of civilizations" between the [[Muslim world]] and the West is caused by the Muslim rejection of the West's more liberal sexual values, rather than a difference in political ideology, although they note that this lack of tolerance is likely to lead to an eventual rejection of (true) democracy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003/0304clash.htm|title=The True Clash of Civilizations|last=Inglehart|first=Ronald|author2=Pippa Norris|date=March–April 2003|website=Global Policy Forum|access-date=23 January 2009|archive-date=20 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120003015/http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003/0304clash.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''Identity and Violence'' Sen questions if people should be divided along the lines of a supposed "civilization", defined by religion and culture only. He argues that this ignores the many others identities that make up people and leads to a focus on differences.

Cultural historian [[Morris Berman]] argues in ''Dark Ages America: the End of Empire'' that in the corporate consumerist United States, the very factors that once propelled it to greatness―extreme individualism, territorial and economic expansion, and the pursuit of material wealth―have pushed the United States across a critical threshold where collapse is inevitable. Politically associated with over-reach, and as a result of the environmental exhaustion and polarization of wealth between rich and poor, he concludes the current system is fast arriving at a situation where continuation of the existing system saddled with huge deficits and a hollowed-out economy is physically, socially, economically and politically impossible.<ref>Berman, Morris (2007), ''Dark Ages America: the End of Empire'' (W.W. Norton)</ref> Although developed in much more depth, Berman's thesis is similar in some ways to that of Urban Planner, [[Jane Jacobs]] who argues that the five pillars of United States culture are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism and the growing gulf between rich and poor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jacobs |first1=Jane |author1-link=Jane Jacobs |title=Dark Age Ahead |date=2005 |publisher=Vintage; Random House |isbn=978-1-4000-7670-3 |edition=Illustrated}}</ref>

[[Cultural critic]] and author [[Derrick Jensen (activist)|Derrick Jensen]] argues that modern civilization is directed towards the domination of the environment and humanity itself in an intrinsically harmful, unsustainable, and self-destructive fashion.<ref>Jensen, Derrick (2006), ''Endgame: The Problem of Civilization'', Vol 1 & Vol 2 (Seven Stories Press)</ref> Defending his definition both linguistically and historically, he defines civilization as "a culture... that both leads to and emerges from the growth of cities", with "cities" defined as "people living more or less permanently in one place in densities high enough to require the routine importation of food and other necessities of life".<ref>Jensen, Derrick (2006), ''Endgame: The Problem of Civilization'', Vol 1 (Seven Stories Press), p. 17</ref> This need for civilizations to import ever more resources, he argues, stems from their over-exploitation and diminution of their own local resources. Therefore, civilizations inherently adopt imperialist and expansionist policies and, to maintain these, highly militarized, hierarchically structured, and coercion-based cultures and lifestyles.

The [[Kardashev scale]] classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement, specifically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. The scale is only hypothetical, but it puts energy consumption in a cosmic perspective. The Kardashev scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist.

==Non-human civilizations==
The current scientific consensus is that human beings are the only animal species with the cognitive ability to create civilizations that has emerged on Earth. A recent thought experiment, the [[silurian hypothesis]], however, considers whether it would "be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record" given the paucity of geological information about eras before the [[quaternary]].<ref>Schmidt, Gavin A.; Frank, Adam (10 April 2018). "The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?". {{arXiv|1804.03748}} [astro-ph.EP].</ref>

Astronomers speculate about the existence of communicating intelligent civilizations within and beyond the Milky Way galaxy, usually using variants of the [[Drake equation]].<ref name="APJ-20200615">{{cite journal |last1=Westby |first1=Tom |last2=Conselice |first2=Christopher J. |title=The Astrobiological Copernican Weak and Strong Limits for Intelligent Life |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |date=15 June 2020 |volume=896 |issue=1 |page=58 |doi=10.3847/1538-4357/ab8225 |arxiv=2004.03968 |bibcode=2020ApJ...896...58W |s2cid=215415788 |doi-access=free }}</ref> They conduct [[Search for extraterrestrial intelligence|searches for such intelligences]] – such as for technological traces, called "[[technosignature]]s".<ref name="10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.02.029">{{cite journal |title=Concepts for future missions to search for technosignatures |journal=Acta Astronautica |date=1 May 2021 |volume=182 |pages=446–453 |doi=10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.02.029 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009457652100103X |access-date=17 April 2021 |arxiv=2103.01536 |language=en |issn=0094-5765 |last1=Socas-Navarro |first1=Hector |last2=Haqq-Misra |first2=Jacob |last3=Wright |first3=Jason T. |last4=Kopparapu |first4=Ravi |last5=Benford |first5=James |last6=Davis |first6=Ross |author7=TechnoClimes 2020 workshop participants |bibcode=2021AcAau.182..446S |s2cid=232092198 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417112403/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009457652100103X |url-status=live }}</ref> The proposed proto-scientific field "[[xenoarchaeology]]" is concerned with the study of artifact remains of non-human civilizations to reconstruct and interpret past lives of alien societies if such get discovered and confirmed scientifically.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGee |first1=Ben W. |title=A call for proactive xenoarchaeological guidelines – Scientific, policy and socio-political considerations |journal=Space Policy |date=1 November 2010 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=209–213 |doi=10.1016/j.spacepol.2010.08.003 |bibcode=2010SpPol..26..209M |language=en |issn=0265-9646}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGee |first1=B. W. |title=Archaeology and Planetary Science: Entering a New Era of Interdisciplinary Research |journal=AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts |date=1 December 2007 |volume=2007 |pages=41A–0203 |bibcode=2007AGUFM.P41A0203M |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.P41A0203M/abstract |access-date=11 November 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111012142/https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.P41A0203M/abstract |url-status=live }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Civilizations}}
{{Columns-list|colwidth=19em|
* [[Anarcho-primitivism]]
* [[Built environment]]
* [[Christendom]]
* [[Civil engineering]]
* [[Civilization state]]
* [[Civilizing mission]]
* [[Colony]]
* [[Cultural development]]
* [[Ecological civilization]]
* [[Evolution of languages]]
* [[Globalization]]
* [[Human universal]]
* [[Lifestyle]] 
* [[Origin of language]]
* [[Outline of culture]]
* [[Outline of society]]
* [[Personal identity]]
* [[Population growth]]
* [[Progress]]
* [[Role of Christianity in civilization]]
* [[Social integration]]
* [[Sustainability]]
* [[Technological advancement]]
* [[Urban evolution]]
* [[Waterways]]
* [[World community]]
* [[World history]]
* [[Written history]]
}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last= Ankerl |first= Guy |title= Global communication without universal civilization |orig-year= 2000 |series= INU societal research |volume= 1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western |publisher= INU Press |location= Geneva |isbn= 978-2-88155-004-1 |year= 2000 }}
* {{cite book | last = Brinton | first = Crane | author-link = Crane Brinton | year = 1984 | title = A History of Civilization: Prehistory to 1715 | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofciviliz02brin | edition = 6th | publisher = [[Prentice Hall]] | location = Englewood Cliffs, N.J. | isbn = 978-0-13-389866-8|display-authors=etal}}
* {{cite book | last = Casson | first = Lionel | year = 1994 | title = Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times | publisher = British Museum Press | location = London | isbn = 978-0-7141-1735-5}}
* {{cite book | last = Chisholm | first = Jane |author2=Anne Millard | year = 1991 | title = Early Civilization | others = illus. Ian Jackson | publisher = Usborne | location = London | isbn = 978-1-58086-022-2}}
* {{cite book | last = Collcutt | first = Martin | author2 = Marius Jansen | author3 = Isao Kumakura | year = 1988 | title = Cultural Atlas of Japan | publisher = Facts on File | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-8160-1927-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/culturalatlasofj00mart | author2-link = Marius Jansen }}
* {{cite book | last = Drews | first = Robert |author-link = Robert Drews | year = 1993 | title = The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C | publisher = Princeton University Press | location = Princeton | isbn = 978-0-691-04811-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Edey | first = Maitland A. | year = 1974 | title = The Sea Traders | publisher = [[Time-Life Books]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-7054-0060-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/seatraders00edey }}
* {{cite Q|Q106369892}}<!-- The influence of commerce on civilization -->
* {{cite book | last = Fairservis | first = Walter A. Jr. | year = 1975 | title = The Threshold of Civilization: An Experiment in Prehistory | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-684-12775-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/thresholdofcivil00fair }}
* {{cite book | last = Fernández-Armesto | first = Felipe | author-link = Felipe Fernández-Armesto | year = 2000 | title = Civilizations | publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] | location = London | isbn = 978-0-333-90171-7}}
* {{cite book | last = Ferrill | first = Arther | year = 1985 | title = The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great | publisher = [[Thames and Hudson]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-500-25093-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Fitzgerald | first = C.P. | year = 1969 | title = The Horizon History of China | publisher = American Heritage | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-8281-0005-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/horizonhistoryof00fitz }}
* {{cite book | last = Fuller | first = J.F.C. | author-link = J.F.C. Fuller | year = 1954–1957 | title = A Military History of the Western World | url = https://archive.org/details/militaryhistoryo01full | url-access = registration | others = 3 vols. | publisher = [[Funk & Wagnalls]] | location = New York}}
*# ''From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Lepanto''. {{ISBN|0-306-80304-6}} (1987 reprint).
*# ''From the Defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo''. {{ISBN|0-306-80305-4}} (1987 reprint).
*# ''From the American Civil War to the End of World War II''. {{ISBN|0-306-80306-2}} (1987 reprint).
* {{cite book | last = Gowlett | first = John | year = 1984 | title = Ascent to Civilization | publisher = Collins | location = London | isbn = 978-0-00-217090-1}}
* {{cite book | last = Hawkes | first = Jacquetta | author-link = Jacquetta Hawkes | year = 1968 | title = Dawn of the Gods | publisher = [[Chatto & Windus]] | location = London | isbn = 978-0-7011-1332-2}}
* {{cite book | last = Hawkes | first = Jacquetta | author2 = David Trump | orig-year = 1976 | year = 1993 | title = The Atlas of Early Man | publisher = [[Dorling Kindersley]] | location = London | isbn = 978-0-312-09746-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/atlasofearlyman0000hawk }}
* {{cite book | last = Hicks | first = Jim | year = 1974 | title = The Empire Builders | url = https://archive.org/details/empirebuilders00hick | url-access = registration | publisher = Time-Life Books | location = New York}}
* {{cite book | last = Hicks | first = Jim | year = 1975 | title = The Persians | publisher = Time-Life Books | location = New York}}
* {{cite book | last = Johnson | first = Paul | author-link = Paul Johnson (writer) | year = 1987 | title = A History of the Jews | publisher = [[Weidenfeld and Nicolson]] | location = London | isbn = 978-0-297-79091-4}}
* {{cite book | last = Jensen | first = Derrick | author-link = Derrick Jensen (activist) | year = 2006 | title = Endgame | publisher = [[Seven Stories Press]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-1-58322-730-5| title-link = Endgame (Derrick Jensen books) }}
* {{cite book | last = Keppie | first = Lawrence | year = 1984 | title = The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire | publisher = Barnes & Noble | location = Totowa, N.J. | isbn = 978-0-389-20447-3}}
* [[Andrey Korotayev|Korotayev, Andrey]], ''World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective''. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 2004. {{ISBN|0-7734-6310-0}}
* [[Nikolay Kradin|Kradin, Nikolay]]. Archaeological Criteria of Civilization. ''[[Social Evolution & History]]'', Vol. 5, No 1 (2006): 89–108. {{ISSN|1681-4363}}.
* {{cite book | last = Lansing | first = Elizabeth | year = 1971 | title = The Sumerians: Inventors and Builders | publisher = McGraw-Hill | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-07-036357-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/sumeriansinvento00lans }}
* {{cite book | last = Lee | first = Ki-Baik | year = 1984 | title = A New History of Korea | others = trans. Edward W. Wagner, with Edward J. Shultz | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | location = Cambridge | isbn = 978-0-674-61575-5 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/newhistoryofkore0000leek }}
* {{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Ian |title=The Measure of Civilization: how Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-15568-5}}
* {{cite book | last = Nahm | first = Andrew C. | year = 1983 | title = A Panorama of 5000 Years: Korean History | publisher = Hollym International | location = Elizabeth, N.J. | isbn = 978-0-930878-23-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Oliphant | first = Margaret | year = 1992 | title = The Atlas of the Ancient World: Charting the Great Civilizations of the Past | publisher = Ebury | location = London | isbn = 978-0-09-177040-2}}
* {{cite book | last = Rogerson | first = John | year = 1985 | title = Atlas of the Bible | publisher = [[Infobase Publishing]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-8160-1206-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/warmovies00garl }}
* {{cite book | last = Sandall | first = Roger | author-link = Roger Sandall | year = 2001 | title = The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays | publisher = Westview | location = Boulder, Colo. | isbn = 978-0-8133-3863-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/culturecultdesig00sand_0 }}
* {{cite book | last = Sansom | first = George | year = 1958 | title = A History of Japan: To 1334 | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofjapanto00sans | url-access = registration | publisher = Stanford University Press | location = Stanford | isbn = 978-0-8047-0523-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Southworth | first = John Van Duyn | year = 1968 | title = The Ancient Fleets: The Story of Naval Warfare Under Oars, 2600 B.C.–1597 A.D. | publisher = [[Twayne]] | location = New York}}
* {{cite book | last = Thomas | first = Hugh | author-link = Hugh Thomas (historian) | year = 1981 | title = An Unfinished History of the World | edition = rev. | publisher = Pan | location = London | isbn = 978-0-330-26458-7}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Cotterell | first1 =Yong Yap|first2=Arthur|last2=Cotterell | year = 1975 | title = The Early Civilization of China| publisher = Putnam | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-399-11595-0}}
* {{cite book|doi=10.1057/9781403938404|title=International Relations and the Philosophy of History|year=2003|last1=Yurdusev|first1=A. Nuri|isbn=978-1-349-40304-2}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* [[John Gribbin|Gribbin, John]], [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-humans-alone-in-the-milky-way/ "Alone in the Milky Way: Why We Are Probably the Only Intelligent Life in the Galaxy"], ''[[Scientific American]]'', vol. 319, no. 3 (September 2018), pp.&nbsp;94–99. "Is life likely to exist elsewhere in the [Milky Way] galaxy? Almost certainly yes, given the speed with which it appeared on Earth. Is another technological civilization likely to exist today? Almost certainly no, given the chain of circumstances that led to our existence. These considerations suggest that we are unique not just on our planet but in the whole Milky Way. And if our planet is so special, it becomes all the more important to preserve this unique world for ourselves, our descendants and the many creatures that call Earth home." (p.&nbsp;99.)

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wiktionary}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/tools/civilisations/ BBC on civilization]
* [https://historyten.com/ancient-civilization/oldest-civilizations-of-all-time/ Top 10 oldest civilizations]

{{Culture}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Civilizations| ]]
[[Category:Society]]
[[Category:Anthropological categories of peoples]]
[[Category:Cultural anthropology]]
[[Category:Cultural geography]]
[[Category:Cultural history]]
[[Category:Linear theories]]