What are civilizations?

Answer 1

Civilization is a group of societies (e.g.: countries, villages, cities) that share the same territory, language, culture, architecture, religion, etc.

For example, the USA is a society. USA, other countries of the American continent (like Canada, Mexico and Brazil) and Europe form the occidental civilization.

Answer 2

A civilization is a society that has a high level of culture and social organization.

Typically, one might say it is when a society can care for those who cannot care for themselves, can appreciate the past, plan for the future, and take care to promote those things that reflect the better nature of its citizens, all while encouraging a civil discourse with courteous dialogue.

History often views a civilization as having a farming system or domesticated farming and animal husbandry and/or breeding. A settlement of people that are not only gatherers and hunters.

Characteristic aspects may include:

Religion

Art

Social Structure

Political Hierarchy

Economics

Demographics

Intellectual development

Technology

Answer 3

A civilization is basically an advanced form of human living. To become a civilization, a living community must have a surplus of food, a common language, specialization of labor, writing/art, law, government, and a class system.

Of all these things, surplus of food is the most important because it allows for everything else to become attainable. Without food, people cannot function. When one person can supply food for many, the others that would have been farming would instead focus on other aspects of life. This is called specialization of labor. These people can become artisans, working in different crafts which they can sell for profit. Besides just profit, these crafts are history, showing the culture of the people from whence they came.

Common language is also very important because, without a common language, people wouldn't be able to run an effective civilization. If you cannot speak to your neighbor, how are you to grow physically and mentally. How are you to advance as a civilization? You cant. This leads right into law, government, and the class system. As a civilization, the people must be governed. This is done through the government, which could be whatever suits that particular set of people. For the Greeks, having many different governments with similar ideals was perfect for them. For the Mesopotamians, having one ruler but having the civilization split into different provinces was just fine also.

The government would govern the people through laws set up, which brings us to writing. without writing, you cannot effectively keep the corruption level down in your city. Writing was very important in every aspect of civilization life. Without writing, you couldn't keep track of what belongs to you and what doesn't. You cant effectively disperse laws throughout the country with a few people running around and making public declarations. With writing, you were able to achieve this much easier. Also, writing allowed for history to be written down. Some of the most famous writing was Linear A, Linear B, and cuineform. A famous artifact that was discovered around 196 BCE was the Rosetta stone, which had 3 kinds of writing on it. This allowed us humans today to deciphir what was said ages ago; another importance of writing.

Answer 4

Surprisingly only two:

1. A system of laws, and
2. the means to enforce them.

All other facets are considered consequences of these two.