Civilization is the term used for complex societies that have a high level of culture, science, industry and government. It also refers to the elaborate cultures developed in these societies, including a system of government that rules over large numbers of people, a literature, professional art, architecture and organized religion. While every complex society, from the foragers at Gobekli Tepe to the Inca Empire, has a unique set of ideas and customs, there are certain things that all civilizations tend to have in common.
The earliest civilizations developed in places where it was possible to grow food in abundance. As these settlements grew larger, it became necessary to have some system to rule and control the population. Civilizations evolved as groups of elites gained control over ever-larger territories and populations, eventually establishing the notion that human beings were capable of creating organized institutions.
Agricultural civilizations typically began to develop in river valleys, where soil was fertile due to the silt that was washed down from floods. Many early cities were established near these water sources, which made sense since prehistoric hunter-gatherers gravitated toward the same areas for survival. These areas were often the site of ancient irrigation schemes that magnified the fertility of the land, first on a small scale by farmers and then, as civilizations evolved into states, by powerful leaders.
Many of the early civilizations developed writing and other means to record information, which was essential to keep track of the growing complex institutions they had created. The first cuneiform inscriptions appeared in Mesopotamia, and glyphs similar to these were carved onto oracle bones in ancient China to help predict the future. Later, inscriptions on clay tablets were used in Egypt and the Indus valley, and quipu-knotted strings that kept records and performed mathematical calculations became common in South America.
As civilizations developed and grew even more complex, they were able to create monuments that reflected their power and status, and also to develop intricate manufactures and arts, especially in the areas of music, dance and painting. They also developed a system of education that taught the masses the values and beliefs that their elites espoused. The idea of progress and improvement was reinforced by the development of religion, which was seen as a vehicle for teaching morality and enforcing laws.
By the 1960’s, anthropologists were beginning to drop the assumption that civilization meant human progress and were trying to find more value-free ways to classify complex societies. However, they still relied on terms such as savagery and barbarism to describe other forms of human community, such as bands of mobile hunters/gatherers.
As more information has been discovered and long-held nationalistic and racialist narratives have been discarded, the definition of civilization has expanded. The Kardashev scale, which places civilizations on a continuum based on the amount of energy they are able to harness, is one example of a new approach. In addition, more attention is being paid to the concept of sustainability, which involves balancing the consumption and production of resources.