When most people hear the word “civilization,” they think of a culturally advanced state of human society in which complex arts, sciences and social structures flourish. This is a mistake. Civilization is a concept that anthropologists, historians and archaeologists use to describe the development of certain aspects of human culture and social organization. While recognizing that the term may have connotations of wealth and power, anthropologists and historians are careful not to overstate the role that civilization has played in human history.
Civilization has developed all over the world in different times and places. But the basic features of civilization have remained the same. Civilization consists of groups of people who live more or less permanently in one place at densities high enough to require routine importation of food and other goods from outside the area. It also requires sophisticated social and economic structures with class systems.
The first step in the development of civilization involves moving from a mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a permanent and sedentary existence. This allows people to live in communities that can be enlarged and organized into social classes, which provide the structure for governing and managing the production of food and other products. It also allows the development of political and religious institutions.
This enables the creation of highly stratified societies with several inherited classes, including kings and queens, nobles, freemen and serfs or slaves. These classes are separated by their wealth and type of work performed.
Civilization also enables the production of artifacts and other manufactured goods in large quantities, so that they can be offered in trade with other communities. It also leads to the development of rudimentary writing systems for maintaining business agreements. It also enables the formation of a specialized group of workers who produce the building materials and infrastructure for cities.
Developing civilizations required a lot of energy, so people living in cities gathered together to exchange food and other resources. These resources included food from the fields and forest, as well as metals for tools and weapons. They also traded with other civilizations to acquire items that they could not produce themselves, such as pottery or weaving.
The development of cities is an essential part of civilization. Without them, people could not live in the densely packed and heavily populated conditions that characterize civilizations. The city is a social and economic center with walls, roads, temples and palaces. The city’s residents collect taxes, or tribute, which is money paid to a centralized government in return for public services such as military protection.
The city is also a site where the political and religious leaders of a nation live, and it serves as an important center for communication and the dissemination of knowledge. It is here that civilizations develop a written language and a system of law. In addition, it is here that civilizations develop a variety of artistic styles and monumental architecture.