Civilization

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Civilization

• what defines civilization ?
• whose definition counts ?
• and what does civilization mean, anyway?

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Whose Definition?

• 18th Century European
• primitive vs. civilized
• white vs. everyone else
• beginnings of the concept of race
• race does not exist

3
General characteristics

• urbanization people living in cities
• surplus agriculture more than you can eat now
• metal technology not rocks
• writing words in a row

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A modern definition

• Urban cities
• Surplus agriculture stored food
• Political/military systemgovernments and armies
• Social stratification differences in status
• Economic specializationl different jobs
• Religion religious figures parasitic on the
  community, because they do god(s) work
• Communications oral or written records
• Higher Culture art, literature, etc.

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Earliest Civilizations

• in the Near (Middle) East
• three primary centers of origin and diffusion
• Mesopotamia, Egypt, India

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Origins and Spread of Agriculture
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Primary Phase Civilizations

• ca. 3000-2500 B.C. to about 1800-1500 B.C.
• either disappeared or changed by 1500 B.C.
• enjoyed contact with one another

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Mesopotamia

• centrally located Tigris-Euphrates River valley
• oldest
• chief beneficiary of interaction between the three

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Mesopotamia The Land between the Rivers

• Between the Rivers
• Tigris and Euphrates
• Contemporary Iraq, and a bit of Iran
• Cultural continuum of fertile crescent

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Other Centers

• Egypt around the Nile River
• Indus civilization around the Indus River
• China

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Common Characteristics ??

• water
• water
• water
• water
• water

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Other Characteristics

• opportunity to adapt the environment
• suitable for domesticated plants and animals
• relatively stable (a bit hot) climate

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Other Characteristics, cont.

• adjustments in the environment create surplus
  grain
• surplus food allows the expansion of trade and
  commerce
• deserts of the riverine cultures are short on
  resources

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Primary Phase Cultures

• have common characteristics
• these define a primary phase culture
• they are consistent, worldwide

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No. 1 Agriculture

• cereal crops, especially barley
• bread and beer
• herd animals cattle, sheep, goats
• meat, milk, cheese
• leather and natural wool for clothing

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No. 2 Planned economies

• require organized, mass labor (corvee)
• contruction and repair of canals and irrigation
  ditches
• community labor, by central authority
• control of production and storage of grain
• dispersion of foodstuffs among the population
• Redistributive economy

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No. 3 Theocracies

• mobilized and directed by a ruling class of
  priests, who control the society by blessings
  and by threats
• Sound familiar?
• the god(s) talks to us...not you! If you dont
  do what we tell you to do, and if you dont give
  us all your stuff, horrible things will happen to
  you!!
• theocracy a god-ruled state

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Theocracies, cont

• priests function as an organized central
  government, parasitic on the people
• as earthly representatives of the god
• any modern examples?
• the king is regarded as a god or as a gods agent
• an earthly representative of the god
• any modern examples?

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Theocracies, cont

• palace and temple (Church and State) are
  combined
• power is derived from an unchallengable, higher
  reality...unquestionable authority
• If you question it, you are evil
• the gods will must be done for the community to
  survive
• priestly class holds unlimited power

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No. 4 Social Classes

• priestly class is part of the beginning of social
  differentitation
• that is, class stucture
• class structure based on specialization of labor
• generated class differences

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Class structure

• priests (We talk to god, you dont.)
• aristocrats/warriors (We have weapons, you
  dont.)
• common people (I guess we work...?)
• slaves (Were screwed!!!)

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No. 5 Industury

• pottery, textiles, beer (!), woodworking, and so
  forth
• production of luxuries (Things You Dont Really
  Need)
• development and improvement of metal technology
• at this stage BRONZE

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No. 6 Architecture

• monumental architecture
• pyramids, ziggurats, big cities
• hugh temples and associated structures
• to fill the needs of a god-oriented state
• under the control of the priestly class

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No. 7 Writing

• perhaps the most important invention EVER
• record keeping, literature
• land tenure
• religious documents
• political and religious propaganda
• any examples you are familiar with ???

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No. 8 Organization of Knowledge

• learning becomes cumulative, not
  start-from-scratch
• perpetuates the level of achivement
• scribes and schools
• medicine, astronomy, calendars, mathematics,
  divination

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The Information Age

• This is the beginning of the Information Age
• Whoever controls the information can make whoever
  produces and controls you
• worship like they want, tell you which gods are
  real and which arent, and make you suffer or die
  if you object
• work like they want, and tell you what system is
  best, and then make you pay them your money and
  thank them for the privilege
• And make you go where they want, kill who they
  want for the stuff those people have, and tell
  you Its all for you! I am nothing but your
  servant!! And Gods servant, too, of course!!
• They decide what are traditional family values,
  values which support them and keep them in power.
• Sound familiar?

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Books to read

• Robert J. Wenke. Patterns in Prehistory
  Humankinds First Three Million Years
• Charles Keith Maisels. The Emergence of
  Civilization From Hunting and Gathering to
  Agriculture, Cities, and the State in the Near
  East
• The Cambridge Ancient History Prolegomena and
  Prehistory