Introduction

Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways.
Primarily, the term has been used to refer to human cultures that are complex in terms of
technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally urbanized. In
classical contexts, civilized peoples were called this in contrast to ‘barbarian’ peoples, while
in modern contexts civilized peoples have been contrasted to ‘primitive’ peoples.

In modern academic discussions however, there is a tendency to use the term in a less strict
way to mean approximately the same thing as ‘culture’ and can therefore refer more broadly
to any important and clearly defined human society, particularly in historical discussions.
Still, even when used in this second sense, the word is often restricted to apply only to
societies that have attained a particular level of advancement, especially the founding of
cities, with the word ‘city’ defined in various ways.

The level of advancement of a civilization is often measured by its progress in agriculture,

long-distance trade, occupational specialization, and urbanism. Aside from these core
elements, civilization is often marked by any combination of a number of secondary
elements, including a developed transportation system, writing, standards of measurement
(currency, etc.), contract and tort-based legal systems, characteristic art styles (which may
pertain to specific cultures), monumental architecture, mathematics, science, sophisticated
metallurgy, politics, and astronomy.

Origin & Definition of Civilization

The word civilization comes from the Latin Civilis, meaning civil, related to the Latin Civis,
meaning citizen, and Civitas, meaning city or city-state.

In the 6th century, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian oversaw the consolidation of Roman civil
law. The resulting collection is called the Corpus Juris Civilis. In the 11th century, professors
at the University of Bologna rediscovered the Corpus Juris Civilis. In 1388, the word civil
appeared in English meaning ‘of or related to citizens.’ In 1704, civilization was used to mean
‘a law which makes a criminal process into a civil case.’ Civilization was not used in its
modern sense to mean ‘the opposite of barbarism’ until the second half of the 18th century.

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According to Emile Benveniste, the earliest written occurrence in English of civilization in its
modern sense may be found in Adam Ferguson’s An Essay on the History of Civil Society
‘Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood, but the species itself from
rudeness to civilization.’

According to Collins Dictionary of Sociology –

‘The advanced cultural forms (e.g. central government, development of the arts and learning,
articulated concern with morals and manners) associated with cities and the wider societies in
which these are located’.

Or

‘A particular society or culture area possessing the above characteristics (e.g. Chinese
Civilization or Western Civilization)’.

Jatinder Kumar Sharma defined civilization as -

‘Achievements and attainments endow human beings with minimum level of physical
comfort, ensuring survival and preservation’.

Albert Schweitzer defined civilization as –

‘the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of
view in so far as the progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the
progress of all progress’.

Characteristics of Civilization

Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a
civilization from other kinds of society. Civilizations have been distinguished by –

1. Means of subsistence (e.g. hunting-gathering, agriculture, industry),

2. Types of livelihood (e.g. artisans, priests and priestesses, and specialized careers),
3. Settlement patterns (e.g. farmers, non-farmers, city-dwellers, non-city-dwellers),
4. Forms of government,

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 5. Social stratification (e.g. the ruling class and the ruled class), Morton Fried and Elman
Service, have classified human cultures based on political systems and social
inequality. This system of classification contains four categories:
a. Hunter-gatherer bands, which are generally egalitarian.
b. Horticultural/pastoral societies in which there are generally two inherited
social classes; chief and commoner.
c. Highly stratified structures, or chiefdoms, with several inherited social classes:
king, noble, freemen, serf and slave.
d. Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional
governments.
6. Economic systems (e.g. ownership and passion of property, trade and exchange,
market, money),
7. Literacy (e.g. Hieroglyphic, traders and bureaucrats kept records), and
8. Other cultural traits (e.g. religion, arts, science and technology).

Anonymous –

a. Cities
b. Central governments and law codes
c. Writing and record-keeping
d. Specialized jobs
e. Social classes
f. Complex technologies
g. Highly organized religions.

Anonymous –

 Urban society: Living together in communities.

 Religion: Beliefs that provide answers to “unanswerable” questions.
 Literacy: The ability to read and write.
 Government: Having a set of rules, leaders or organization to society
 Specialization: Using unique skills to benefit all.
 Social classes: Groups of people with common characteristics.
 Tool-making: The ability to problem-solve.
 Concept of time: Understanding of patterns like the seasons, sunrise and sunset or
tides can be used to your benefit.
 Leisure: Recognizing the value of the arts and entertainment.
 Education/criticism: Striving to improve as an individual or as a culture.

Anonymous –

 Cities,

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 Organized Governments,

 Art,

 Religion,

 Class Divisions, And

 A Writing System.

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Importance of Studying the History of Human Civilization

History of human civilization discusses about the progress, made possible by human society.
It covers different aspects of human life:

 Social development of human species;

 Spread of man over the globe;
 Origin of human societies;
 Evolution of human societies; and
 Origin and development of human civilization.

Civilization involves the presence of several (though not necessarily all) of the following
condition within a society or group of independent societies:

A. Presence of governmental system to administrate the political needs and

responsibilities;
B. Presence of development of urban society;
C. Human beings will have become tool makers;
D. Some degrees of specialization of function will have begun;
E. Emergence of social class;
F. Development of literacy;
G. Presence of concept of leisure;
H. Presence of higher beings to explain events and find purpose;
I. Presence of the concept of time that can provide a distinction between past, present
and future;
J. Presence of a developed faculty of criticism.

Besides these, the importance of studying history of human civilization is as follows:

 To understand the origin of human being;

 To understand the mechanisms of primitive men’s survival;
 To understand the various mode of production;
 To explain the pattern of social structure of previous civilization;
 To explain the pattern of culture;
 To analyze the emergence of various associations and institutions;
 To analyze the role of various organizations;
 To explore the pattern of socialization and social control;
 To analyze the pattern of social stratification; and
 To analyze the trend of future development based on past experience.

Perspectives and Techniques of History of Human Civilization

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Primarily, history was restricted to battles and treaties, the personalities and political
statement of the laws and the decrees of the rulers. However, all these elements by no means
constitute the whole substance of history. There are four kinds of historical techniques,
applied to understand human civilization. These are:

(A) History more than battles and treaties

Over the last few decades, historians have recognized that history comprises a record
of past human activities in every sphere, not just political developments, but also
social, economic and intellectual ones. Women as well as men, the ruled as well as the
rulers, the poor as well as the rich are part of history. Family and social class,
manorialism and city life, capitalism and industrialism, ideas and attitudes too not just
of intellectuals but also people, whose lives may have been virtually untouched by
great books are all part of the historians concern. And most importantly, history
inquiries into the causes of events and patterns of human organizations and ideas, a
search for the forces that impelled humanity towards its great undertakings and the
reasons for its successes and failures.
(B) New historical methods
Historians have extended the scope of their works, they have also equipped
themselves with new methods and tools to ensure better results and practices. To
understand the evidences and statistics, they learn the methods of the computer
science, to interpret the effect of rise in the cost of living the study economics, to
deduce marriage patterns or evaluate the effect upon an entire population of wars and
plagues, they master the skills of the demographers, to explore the phenomena of
cave-dwelling or modern urbanization, the become archeologists, to understand the
motives of the men and women, who have acted in the past, they draw on insights of
social psychologist, to illuminate the lives and thoughts of those who have left few or
no written records, they look for other cultural remains, such as folk songs, folk tales
and funerary monuments to draw a life sketch of the lost people.
(C) Limited evidence and the quest for valid reconstruction
An almost infinite number of past events are not retrievable because they transpired
without living any traces, many others are at best known imperfectly. The difficulties,
inherent in assembling and interpreting all sorts of data for the purposes of historical
analysis, should not be regarded with despair, but look down upon as stimulating
intellectual challenges.
(D) Approaches to history

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It is foolish in its assumption that everything we do now is better that whatever people
did before. It seems best, then to avoid, either revering the past or condescending to it.
Instead, many historians seek to understand how people of a given era strove to solve
their problems and live their lives fruitfully in terms appropriate to their particular
environments and stages of development. Other historians’ alternative look for change
over time without postulating a march of progress to a current best of all possible
wolves. Such historians believe that identifying patterns and mechanisms of change
will allow a better understanding of the present land a greater possibility of plotting
prudent strategies for coping with the future.