Civilization is a society that is advanced enough to have developed complex institutions like governments and religions. These have led to economic systems, enabling the production of food, shelter, and clothing in quantities that allow people to live a long time. They also have given rise to a high degree of cultural sophistication, in the form of writing and art. Civilization is a triumph of reason over instinct, of the human mind over animal nature.
The first civilizations grew up in river valleys, where the flat land could support large populations of farmers and city dwellers. This required a division of labor and the development of farming techniques that allowed many different kinds of crops to be grown. The city was the hub of these new societies, where the bulk of the population lived. It also allowed people to trade and interact with others outside their own villages or towns.
Eventually, the cities became so large that they needed some sort of leadership to keep the peace and ensure that everyone had enough to eat. This was the origin of government. Over time, the government also developed laws to protect citizens and regulate their lives. It also organized armies to defend the communities.
In the nineteenth century, anthropologists generally applied the term “civilization” to societies that had achieved some degree of economic and political stability. They looked for ways of classifying human groups based on these qualities, rather than on family or tribal affiliations and the extent to which they hunted or fished. They used terms such as “savagery” and “barbarism” to describe primitive groups that did not have these characteristics, but in later years anthropologists have dropped the assumption that civilization represents progress.
Even though the term is not used in the same way today, scholars still use it to distinguish between those societies that have developed an intricate culture of art, professional writing, architecture, and organized religion, as opposed to those whose cultures are less sophisticated. But the concept of civilization is not without its problems, because it can be used to impose Western values on non-Western countries and to justify imperialism.
The evolution of a civilization is complex, and there are many theories of its causes. Some emphasize technological advances, such as the invention of pottery and metal tools. Others point to changes in climate that allowed the farming of certain crops to be spread over large areas. Still other theorists, such as historian Arnold J. Toynbee, believe that a civilization’s decline usually results from its failure to meet some important challenge, rather than from economic or environmental factors. Toynbee developed a model of the rise and fall of 21 civilizations to explore this idea.