What does it mean to be a civilization?CLASS SET



What does it mean to be a civilization?CLASS SETTarget: 3.2.1: can evaluate the perspectives of different authors on the same subject and create a synthesis of those perspectives.Goal:There are 2 documents below. Both seek to answer the same question “what characteristics do all civilizations share?” Your task is to record the key details from each and to then compare them, making your own final list of key characteristics.Instructions:Read the first document:What is his overall point?Record each characteristic he identifies.Read the second document:What is his overall point?Record each characteristic he identifies.Answer these questions:Which characteristics do the author’s disagree on? Which ones do you find in only one list?Why do you suppose that there is not an agreement between these two?Are there any that they both list but that you would disagree with? Why?What are the characteristics all civilizations share? Compose your own list.Document 1The rise of complexity within a society is one of the great puzzles that archaeologists and historians have attempted to address many times. The fact that complexity happened is undeniable. Humans, who first organized and fed themselves as loosely associated bands of hunters and gatherers eventually developed into a society that has full-time jobs, political borders and detente, currency markets and hand-held computers, world banks and international space stations.It is clear that our human ancestors lived a far simpler life. Somehow, in some cases, in some places, at some times, simple societies for one reason or another morphed into more and more complex societies, and some become civilizations. The reasons which have been proposed for this growth in complexity range from a simple model of population pressure--too many mouths to feed, what do we do now?--to the greed for power from a few individuals, even to the impacts of climate change--a prolonged drought, a flood and tsunami, a depletion of a particular food resource.But those are quite controversial, and I suspect that most archaeologists would agree that the complexity process was gradual, over hundreds or thousands of years, and that each decision made in a society about the way forward occurred in its own peculiar, and likely mostly unplanned, way.Nevertheless, the characteristics of burgeoning complexity in a prehistoric society are pretty much agreed upon, what I think of as falling roughly into three groups: Food, Technology and Politics.Food and Economicsa reduction in the amount of mobility, and people instead settle down in one place for longer periods, called increasing sedentismthe need to produce a stable and reliable source of food for people, whether by growing crops, called agriculture; or raising animals for milking, plowing or meat, called pastoralismthe ability to quarry and process tin, copper, bronze, gold, silver, iron and other metals into usable objects, knowns as metallurgythe creation of tasks that require people who can dedicate part or all of their time to complete, such as textile or pottery production, jewelry production and referred to as craft specializationenough people to act as a work force, be craft specialists and require the stable food source, referred to as high population densityArchitecture and Technologythe presence of large, non-domestic buildings constructed to be shared by the community, such as churches and shrines and plazas and collectively known as monumental architecturea way to communicate information long distances within and outside of the group, known as a writing systemthe presence of a group level religion, controlled by religious specialists such as shamans or priestsa way to known when the seasons will change, by means of a calendar or astronomical observationroads and transportation networks that allow communities to be connectedPolitics and People Controlthe rise of trade or exchange networks, in which communities share goods with one another, leading tothe presence of luxury and exotic goods, such as baltic amber), jewelry made from precious metals, obsidian, spondylus shell, and a wide variety of other objectsthe creation of classes with different levels of power within the society, called social stratification and rankingcentralized rule, to organize all those various thingsan armed military force, to protect the community and/or the leaders from the communityNot all of these characteristics necessarily have to be present for a particular cultural group to be considered a civilization, but all of them are considered evidence of relatively complex societies.Document 2 THE SEVEN CRITERIA FOR ANCIENT CIVILIZATION1. URBAN CENTERS, Cities or large dense settlementsAll civilizations arose from settled agricultural communities. These communities produced food surpluses to sustain growing populations. As clusters of small agricultural settlements expanded within the limits of a given ecological niche, urban centers typically emerged.2. PROFESSIONS or the separation of population into specialized occupational groupsDue to the availability of surplus agricultural resources, all civilizations developed labor elements that specialized in activities other than food production. Craft, artisan, metallurgy, forestry, mercantile, finance, and other non-agricultural professions emerged by exchanging the results of their labor (metal wares, pottery, timber, stone) for food produced by farming populations.?3. ELITES or a social hierarchy that was exempt from subsistence laborAll civilizations generated stratified population elements at the top of which stood elites. These usually included some combination of warrior elites, priestly castes, noble aristocracies, and/or royal dynasties. Elite elements dominated “inferior” social orders and drew upon their surpluses to sustain themselves, thus freeing themselves from participation in every day subsistence labor. These elites invariably justified their elevated status by furnishing military protection, religious direction, political representation, legal authority, infrastructure, and civic order to those below.?4. PUBLIC WEALTH or the ability to extract and store surpluses in the form of taxes and tributeIn addition to rents and dues obtained by elites to sustain themselves, ruling hierarchies also imposed various forms of taxes in the interest of the state. These resources would be used to finance activities to benefit the common good, such as offerings to the gods or the construction of urban defenses. Poll taxes, property taxes, income taxes, import and export duties, manumission and sales taxes were all devised by early civilizations. The human lament of "death and taxes" has been a constant since the beginning of recorded history. Tribute was slightly different in that tribute was a tax imposed on subject states by an dominant state. This indicates the existence of an empire or extraterritorial state, a political formation recorded in Sumer already by 2700 BC. From the perspective of a dominant imperial hierarchy, tribute enabled it to sustain itself, to obtain prestige goods from distant populations, and to deploy its forces against outside threats, thus furnishing security to subject states. From the vantage point of the subject states, however, tribute amounted to a form of extortion imposed on an already overburdened native population. Tribute payments inevitably provoked impoverishment, resentment, and rebellion…?5. CANONICAL EXPRESSIONS OF AESTHETIC ACHIEVEMENT (fine arts and monumental architecture)Civilizations encouraged the development of formal schools of art and design. These enabled the inhabitants to generate more finely articulated expressions of aesthetic achievement than those possible in less complex societies. In architectural development, sometimes the sheer size and scale of monuments surpassed anything that could have been produced by a smaller population. But there is more – training, skill, and the application of sophisticated methods of science (mathematics, geometry, etc.), technique, and design enable architects to construct structures that are straighter, more angular, or rounder than anything that exists in nature. Artists reproduced the human form in ways that were precise yet emotive. The visual effect of these perfect forms (encompassing aspects of symmetry, and congruence of lines) have been shown to stimulate the human mind in significant ways, triggering cognitive responses -- a sense of awe, inspiration, emotion, and well being. Well-designed emblems of aesthetic achievement have the capacity to express the significance of human existence unattainable otherwise, to represent it symbolically, and to instill in the viewer a belief that life has meaning. Not by coincidence most high art during antiquity was rooted in religion…?6. CREATURE COMFORTS or the development of permanent forms of domestic shelterOne of the principal requirements of any urban civilization is to generate habitats, or safe, secure means of shelter to its inhabitants. Most civilizations developed primitive systems of urban infrastructure to improve the general quality of life. These might include insulated houses with terracotta roofs to withstand the elements. Houses might contain indoor plumbing, means of heating and cooking, furnishings such as tables, chairs and beds, and bathing and toilet facilities. Large scale, well organized water systems were essential to direct and to distribute fresh, clean water across urban landscapes. Sewerage systems were equally necessary to draw away waste materials and to diminish the risk of contagion or disease. Streets and roads were necessary to import bulk quantities of agricultural goods from surrounding hinterlands, just as massive storage facilities and market places were essential for the distribution of surplus commodities throughout the population. All of these result in artificial landscapes or built environments constructed through human labor…?7. LITERACY or a System of WritingAll great civilizations developed a system of writing, preserving for us at least some partial record of their historical experience. Writing enabled them to record their accomplishments and cultural achievements, and usually some manifestation of an articulated world-view, whether philosophical or religious. Even when restricted to a limited elite, literacy helped to sustain the recursive process of stored cultural memory. It not only enabled societies to hand down knowledge from one generation to the next, but it also facilitated the assimilation of that knowledge by newly arrived outsiders, or the exportation of the same to neighboring societies (something referred to as cultural diffusion), thus enabling outsiders to adapt to their new situation and gradually to merge with the native population… ................
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