A civilization is a complex way of life that is shared by many people. It includes a number of essential factors such as urban settlements, a division of labor and government.
Civilization was developed by humans during the Middle Paleolithic period, around 50,000 BC. These people were hunter-gatherers, but they had learned to use tools and develop collective learning strategies as they migrated across the world in search of food.
These communities developed into a civilization as they began to establish permanent settlements, often called cities. These settlements would allow a large number of people to be freed from the need to work in the fields.
They also allowed people to work in professions that would not require them to be farmers, such as art or trade. This allows a society to develop the other features that have been identified as being a hallmark of all civilizations, including a written language and a system of governmental administration.
Another feature of civilizations is that they have a surplus of food. This is where farmers grow more than they and their families need, which then frees up craftsmen, artists, merchants and others to be able to devote their time to other professional activities.
Other important aspects of civilization include religion, writing, trading and the development of science and technology. These are all important to defining the civilizations that have existed over the centuries, although they can change and evolve as time goes on.
There are several different theories about when civilizations emerged, and how they developed. Some believe that they began slowly over a long period of time, while others think that civilizations are suddenly created at the same time.
These theories are all based on the assumption that humans have evolved from simple hunter-gatherers into a sophisticated species with big brains and the ability to learn by doing. It seems that most of the human races are still hunter-gatherers at this point, but some have managed to survive through the ice ages and become more sophisticated by adapting their methods to new environments.
This is a difficult proposition to prove, and it will take years of research and experimentation to find out for sure. For now, however, most anthropologists agree that a civilization must have some kind of settlement and not be nomadic.
They must have a surplus of food, and there must be some sort of social mechanism for distributing this surplus amongst the people who live in the settlements. This must be done without a lot of violence and aggression, so that everyone can benefit from the extra food.
Religious leaders were especially powerful, because they could communicate between a group and their god or gods, and they could act as political leaders to make decisions that affected the entire society. This created a strong sense of identity for those who lived in these civilizations, and it gave them power to control other groups of people who did not share their beliefs.