Anon Durongpisitkul

October 11, 2015

World History- Henderson
Specialization of Labor, sure it's Important?
Where would we be if there was no specialization of labor? What would happen?
Theres 7 characteristics of civilization, but of all these, specialization of labor is the most
vital. If we did not specialize, we would still be farming. Take this paper for example; if
we had not specialized, that bureaucrat of China who invented paper would not be a
bureaucrat, and his ruler would not be there to order him to make paper.
There are many reasons why it is important. One is that when we are specialized,
we develop new advancements in technology in that field faster. Pretending we had not
specialized, you would see a society today where people are still farming, and it would
take farmers years to even want to develop anything that isnt related to farming. To
clarify, we would be living with advanced irrigation and hunting techniques, but none of
the other tools, technology, medications, or organized society we have today. If you want
to argue, unfortunately you cant, even in modern society, people have different jobs, as
we are good at, and prefer different roles. This form of specialization goes way back to
being the motivation for civilization to progress so much over barely 100 centuries. The
fact being: we did not have to worry about other parts of our needs as we can get it from
another master of the craft, thus we could focus more on becoming efficient with our
craft. Third and foremost, this characteristic was the jumping off point for the other six.
Before bureaucrats, priests, builders, scribes, and artisans could happen, we had to have
an unoccupied percentage of population first (as our agriculture became more
productive). Forget about the Feudal system, there would be no social classes except the

Anon Durongpisitkul
October 11, 2015
World History- Henderson
farmer one. Government is definitely out of the question, as again were still farming, so
dont even mention the coup Thailand recently had.
In conclusion, Specialization of labor is the most significant characteristics of
civilization. Its the reason why were able to develop tools that are not agriculturally
related, medications, and other technologies that we could no longer live without today.
Also, it has become the basis of the working society today, as different individuals took
different roles and got the job done faster and more efficiently. Finally, if we did not
specialized, we would not have time for the other six characteristics of civilization, as we
would still be farming. So you should consider yourself lucky that specialization had
impacted the world so much youre wearing a school uniform and can read. (Or shirt and
tie while being able to teach history)