What is Civilization? (follow)

What is civilization?

Civilization requires that the society has developed a central institution responsible for the organization of daily life support, for example the maintenance of a water supply or a transportation system. This requires an advanced administration, which is not found before the development of cities. A civilization is therefore always sustained by an urban society, although the majority of its people may (and often do) live in an agricultural society structure in the countryside.

Descriptions of different civilizations often concentrate on their cultural, spiritual and artistic achievements. This is because the organization of a road network or a water supply is not usually regarded as exciting, and in any case, there are not all that many different ways to organize a road network. Cultural and artistic expression, on the other hand, can take many forms and vary widely in its appearance and therefore invites itself as a descriptor of differences between civilizations. But having developed great artistic skill does not necessarily produce a civilization. People were artists long before the first civilizations developed.

The situation can be clarified if we distinguish between civilization and culture. The classic definition of culture goes back to 1871, when the English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor wrote in his work Primitive Culture that culture "is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Culture is behaviour; it includes language, rituals, social customs and many other elements of expression. We speak of Neolithic culture when we look at artistic expressions of stone-age humans. Culture was a major consideration in the formation of today's nation states, and we can refer to "the French way of life" as the French culture.

The existence of prehistoric art demonstrates that human societies developed culture before they developed civilization. The point where a culture evolved into civilization is difficult to determine, and the boundaries between the two concepts are indeed blurred.

If culture is behaviour, civilization is structure. One approach at defining civilization lists a few conditions that have to be met before a society is considered a civilization. Civilization is characterized by

1. the existence of cities;
2. advanced division of labour based on specialized occupational groups;
3. social classes, including a ruling class that is exempt from work for basic subsistence;
4. an administration that can collect "social surplus" (taxes or tribute);
5. public buildings not designed as dwellings but for communal purposes; and
6. record keeping in written form.

Not all civilizations satisfy all of these criteria, but to be considered a civilization they have to satisfy the majority of them.

Thus defined civilizations are large structures that can contain many cultures. The boundaries between different civilizations are sometimes not well defined, particularly when one civilization evolved from another. It is therefore not possible to state with certitude a definite number for all civilizations of the world, but the number is small, much smaller than the number of languages, nations or art styles. There are a few thousand languages and hundreds of cultures but only about a dozen civilizations.