Unlike the wilderness, civilization is a place where people are not shackled by natural instincts or by primitive traditions, but can live in comfort and freedom. Civilization also represents human progress: It’s what separates human societies from savagery and chaos, and it’s what allows us to work toward such goals as art and education. Civilization is an evolutionary achievement, not a static concept, but it’s important to understand what it really means in order to appreciate it.
The word “civilization” has long been synonymous with culture, which is a society’s collection of ideas and customs that govern how people behave and interact. It’s a big, broad idea that encompasses many aspects of human life and culture, from a nation’s religious beliefs to its arts, architecture, music, literature and politics.
Civilization has become synonymous with a particular type of complex society characterized by urban areas, shared methods of communication and a division of labor. This definition has led to some controversy as it excludes the moundbuilding cultures of ancient North America, which had no writing system but were definitely a civilization, and it seems to exclude any societies without cities that develop highly stratified social structures with several inherited classes, such as kings, nobles, freemen, serfs and slaves.
In general, a civilization is thought to have emerged when hunter-gatherers began to establish semi-permanent or permanent communities and developed a reliable food supply. This enabled a division of labor so that not everyone had to dig for food all the time and it also meant that surplus artifacts could be produced, which, along with food, could be traded with other communities in exchange for other goods.
These early agrarian societies also developed highly complex institutions of governance, including a system for keeping track of the food they grew and for managing their population. At the same time, power from below (consensual power) and power from above (coercive power) seemed to emerge simultaneously in most cases, although consensual power probably preceded coercive power in most cases.
The emergence of civilizations and their huge populations also necessitated the development of systems for regulating trade, warfare and property. The earliest rulers demanded tribute from their subjects, who paid for state-run armies and state production centers in exchange for food, land and other resources. These tribute payments, sometimes called taxes, increased the ruler’s wealth and power and provided an incentive to defend the city from invaders.
As civilizations evolved, they created complex religions and ideologies that bound the people together. The emergence of these institutions enabled them to develop a more specialized form of government, with leaders emerging who could create and enforce laws. Despite the fact that most of these governments were coercive, they remained a step above the savagery and chaos of the natural world. Consequently, Western historians have historically used the term “civilization” to imply a particular type of highly regulated and stratified human society.