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{{About|human society||Civilization (disambiguation)}}
{{refimprove|date=February 2010}}
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'''Civilization''' ([[American and British English spelling differences#-ise.2C_-ize_.28-isation.2C_-ization.29|or]] '''civilisation''') is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human [[culture]]s that are complex in terms of [[technology]], [[science]], and [[division of labor]]. Such civilizations are generally [[cities|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, [[division of labor|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 [[law|legal]] systems, characteristic [[art]] styles (which may pertain to specific cultures), monumental [[architecture]], [[mathematics]], [[science]], sophisticated [[metallurgy]], [[politics]], and [[astronomy]].
{|
|[[image:2004 02 29 Athènes.JPG|thumb|The [[Acropolis]], directly influencing architecture and engineering in [[Western world|Western]], [[Muslim_world#Classical_culture|Islamic]], and [[Eastern world|Eastern]] civilizations up to the present day, 2400 years after construction.]]
|[[image:Mohenjodaro Sindh.jpeg|thumb|The ancient city of [[Mohenjo-daro]], built around 2600 BC by the Ancient [[Indus valley civilization]], spanning [[Pakistan]], [[Afghanistan]] and [[India]] is known to be one of the world's earliest [[cities]].]]
|[[File:Simatai Great Wall.JPG|thumb|The [[Great Wall of China]] was built between 220–206 BC to protect Chinese civilization.]]
|}

==Definition==
[[File:Forum Romanum April 05.jpg|thumb|The [[Roman Forum]], the political, economic, cultural, and religious center of the [[Ancient Rome]] civilization, during the [[Roman Republic|Republic]] and later [[Roman Empire|Empire]], its ruins still visible today in modern-day Rome.]]

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 sixth century, the [[Byzantium|Byzantine]] [[Emperor Justinian]] oversaw the consolidation of Roman [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]]. The resulting collection is called the ''[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]''. In the 11th century, professors at the [[Bologna|University of Bologna]], [[Western Europe]]'s first [[university]], rediscovered the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'', and its influence began to be felt across bodies. In 1388, the word ''civil'' appeared in English meaning "of or related to citizens."<ref>"Civil", ''Merriam-Webster'', 226.</ref> 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 [[barbarian|barbarism]]" — as contrasted to ''civility'', meaning politeness or civil virtue — until the second half of the 18th century.

According to [[Emile Benveniste]] (1954<ref name=Benveniste>[[Émile Benveniste]], "''Civilisation. Contribution à l'histoire du mot''" (Civilisation. Contribution to the history of the word), 1954, published in ''Problèmes de linguistique générale'', [[Editions Gallimard]], 1966, pp.336-345 (translated by Mary Elizabeth Meek as ''Problems in general linguistics'', 2 vols., 1971)</ref>), the earliest written occurrence in English of ''civilisation'' in its modern sense may be found in [[Adam Ferguson]]'s ''An Essay on the History of Civil Society'' (Edinburgh, 1767 - p.&nbsp;2): "Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood, but the species itself from rudeness to civilisation." <!-- keep original spelling please -->

It should be noted that this usage incorporates the concept of superiority and maturity of "civilized" existence, as contrasted to "rudeness", which is used to denote coarseness, as in a lack of refinement or "civility."

Before Benveniste's inquiries, the [[New English Dictionary]] quoted [[James Boswell]]'s conversation with [[Samuel Johnson]] concerning the inclusion of ''Civilization'' <!-- keep original spelling please --> in Johnson's dictionary:
{{quote|On Monday, March 23 (1772), I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary... He would not admit ''civilization'', but only ''civility''. With great deference to him I thought ''civilization'', from ''to civilize'', better in the sense opposed to ''barbarity'' than ''civility'', as it is better to have a distinct word for each sense, than one word with two senses, which ''civility'' is, in his way of using it.}}

Benveniste demonstrated that previous occurrences could be found, which explained the quick adoption of Johnson's definition. In 1775 the dictionary of Ast defined ''civilization'' as "the state of being civilized; the act of civilizing",<ref name=Benveniste/> and the term was frequently used by [[Adam Smith]] in ''[[An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]]'' (1776).<ref name=Benveniste/> Beside Smith and Ferguson, John Millar also used it in 1771 in his ''Observations concerning the distinction of ranks in society''.<ref name=Benveniste/>

The history of the word in English appears to be connected with the parallel development in French, which may be the original source. As the first occurrence of ''civilization'' in French was found by Benveniste in the [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Marquis de Mirabeau's]] ''L'Ami des hommes ou traité de la population'' (written in 1756 but published in 1757), Benveniste's query was to know if the English word derived from the French, or if both evolved independently — a question which needed more research. According to him, the word ''civilization'' may in fact have been used by Ferguson as soon as 1759.<ref name=Benveniste/>

Furthermore, Benveniste notes that, contrasted to ''civility'', a static term, ''civilization'' conveys a sense of dynamism. He thus writes that:
{{quote|It was not only a historical view of society; it was also an optimist and resolutely non theological interpretation of its evolution which asserted itself, sometimes at the insu of those who proclaimed it, and even if some of them, and first of all Mirabeau, still counted religion as the first factor of 'civilization''.<ref name=Benveniste/><ref>Benveniste (French): ''Ce n'était pas seulement une vue historique de la société; c'était aussi une interprétation optimiste et résolument non théologique de son évolution qui s'affirmait, parfois à l'insu de ceux qui la proclamaient, et même si certains, et d'abord Mirabeau, comptaient encore la religion comme le premier facteur de la "civilization".''</ref>}}

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, both during the [[French revolution]], and in English, "civilization" was referred to in the [[Grammatical number|singular]], never the plural, because it referred to the progress of mankind as a whole. This is still the case in French.<ref name=velkley/> More recently "civilizations" is sometimes used as a synonym for the broader term "cultures" in both popular and academic circles.<ref>"Civilization" (1974), ''[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]'' 15th ed. Vol. II, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 956. Retrieved 25 August 2007.</ref> However, the concepts of civilization and culture are not always considered interchangeable. For example, a small nomadic tribe may be judged not to have a civilization, but it would surely be judged to have a culture (defined as "the arts, customs, habits... beliefs, values, behavior and material habits that constitute a people's way of life").

Civilization is not always seen as an improvement. One historically important distinction between culture and civilization stems from the writings of [[Rousseau]], and particularly his work concerning [[education]], ''[[Emile: or, On Education|Emile]]''. In this perspective, civilization, being more [[rational]] and socially driven, is not fully in accordance with [[human nature]], and "human wholeness is achievable only through the recovery of or approximation to an original prediscursive or prerational natural unity". (See [[noble savage]].) From this notion, a new approach was developed especially in Germany, first by [[Johann Gottfried Herder]], and later by philosophers such as [[Nietzsche]]. This sees cultures (plural) as natural organisms which are not defined by "conscious, rational, deliberative acts" but rather a kind of pre-rational "folk spirit". Civilization, in contrast, though more rational and more successful concerning material progress, is seen as un-natural, and leads to "vices of social life" such as guile, hypocrisy, envy, and avarice.<ref name=velkley>{{Citation|title=Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question| last=Velkley|first=Richard|year=2002|chapter=The Tension in the Beautiful: On Culture and Civilization in Rousseau and German Philosophy|pages=11–30|publisher=The University of Chicago Press}}</ref> During [[World War II]], [[Leo Strauss]], having fled Germany, argued in New York that this approach to civilization was behind [[Nazism]] and German [[militarism]] and [[nihilism]].<ref>"[http://www.archive.org/details/LeoStraussOnGermanNihilism1941 On German Nihilism]" (1999, originally a 1941 lecture), ''Interpretation'' 26, no. 3 edited by David Janssens and Daniel Tanguay.</ref>

In his book ''The Philosophy of Civilization'', [[Albert Schweitzer]] outlined the idea that there are dual opinions within society: one regarding civilization as purely [[materialism|material]] and another regarding civilization as both [[ethic]]al and material. He stated that the current world crisis was, then in 1923, due to a humanity having lost the ethical conception of civilization. In this same work, he defined civilization, saying that it "is 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==
[[File:Sumerian 26th c Adab.jpg|thumb|26th century BC [[Cuneiform script|Sumerian]] [[cuneiform script]] in [[Sumerian language]], listing gifts to the high priestess of [[Adab]] on the occasion of her election. One of the earliest examples of human [[writing]].]]

Social scientists such as [[V. Gordon Childe]] have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society.<ref>Gordon Childe, V., ''What Happened in History'' (Penguin, 1942) and ''Man Makes Himself'' (Harmondsworth, 1951)</ref> Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood, settlement patterns, forms of government, social stratification, economic systems, [[literacy]], and other cultural traits.

All civilizations have depended on [[agriculture]] for subsistence. Growing food on farms results in a surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as [[irrigation]] and [[crop rotation]]. [[Grain]] surpluses have been especially important because they can be [[food storage|stored]] for a long time. A surplus of food permits some people to do things besides produce food for a living: early civilizations included [[artisan]]s, [[priest]]s and priestesses, and other people with specialized careers. A surplus of food results in a division of labor and a more diverse range of human activity, a defining trait of civilizations. However, in some places hunter-gatherers have had access to food surpluses, such as among some of the indigenous peoples of the [[Pacific Northwest]] and perhaps during the [[Mesolithic]] [[Natufian culture]]. It is possible that food surpluses and relatively large scale social organization and division of labor predates plant and animal domestication.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text/1 |title= Göbekli Tepe |publisher= [[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |accessdate= 18 Mat 2011}}</ref>

Civilizations have distinctly different settlement patterns from other societies. The word ''civilization'' is sometimes simply defined as "'living in cities'".<ref>[[Tom Standage]] (2005), ''A History of the World in 6 Glasses'', Walker & Company, 25.</ref> Non-farmers tend to gather in cities to work and to trade.

Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more complex political structure, namely the [[State (polity)|state]]{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}. State societies are more stratified{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} than other societies; there is a greater difference among the social classes. The [[ruling class]], normally concentrated in the cities, has control over much of the surplus and exercises its will through the actions of a [[government]] or [[bureaucracy]]. [[Morton Fried]], a [[conflict theory|conflict theorist]], and [[Elman Service]], an integration theorist, have classified human cultures based on political systems and [[social inequality]]. This system of classification contains four categories:{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}
* ''[[Hunter-gatherer]] bands'', which are generally [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}
* ''[[horticulture|Horticultural]]/[[Pastoralism|pastoral]] societies'' in which there are generally two inherited social classes; chief and commoner.
* ''Highly stratified structures'', or [[chiefdom]]s, with several inherited social classes: king, noble, freemen, serf and slave.
* ''Civilizations,'' with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments.<ref>{{cite book | last = Beck | first = Roger B. | authorlink = | coauthors = Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka, | title = World History: Patterns of Interaction | publisher = McDougal Littell | year = 1999 | location = Evanston, IL | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-395-87274-X }}</ref>

Economically, civilizations display more complex patterns of ownership and exchange than less organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate more [[Ownership|personal possessions]] than nomadic people. Some people also acquire [[landed property]], or private ownership of the land. Because a percentage of people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must [[trade]] their goods and services for food in a [[market]] system, or receive food through the levy of [[tribute]], redistributive [[taxation]], [[tariffs]] or [[tithe]]s from the food producing segment of the population. Early civilizations developed [[money]] as a medium of exchange for these increasingly complex transactions. To oversimplify, in a village the potter makes a pot for the brewer and the brewer compensates the potter by giving him a certain amount of beer. In a city, the potter may need a new roof, the roofer may need new shoes, the cobbler may need new horseshoes, the blacksmith may need a new coat, and the tanner may need a new pot. These people may not be personally acquainted with one another and their needs may not occur all at the same time. A monetary system is a way of organizing these obligations to ensure that they are fulfilled fairly.

[[Writing]], developed first by people in [[Sumer]], is considered a hallmark of civilization and "appears to accompany the rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state."<ref>[[Timothy Pauketat|Pauketat, Timothy R.]] 169.</ref> Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to keep accurate records. Like money, writing was necessitated by the size of the population of a city and the complexity of its commerce among people who are not all personally acquainted with each other.

Aided by their division of labor and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse cultural traits. These include organized [[religion]], development in the [[arts]], and countless new advances in [[science]] and [[technology]].

Through history, successful civilizations have spread, taking over more and more territory, and assimilating more and more previously-uncivilized people. Nevertheless, some tribes or people remain uncivilized even to this day. These cultures are called by some "[[primitive culture|primitive]]," a term that is regarded by others as pejorative. "Primitive" implies in some way that a culture is "first" (Latin = primus), that it has not changed since the dawn of mankind, though this has been demonstrated not to be true. Specifically, as all of today's cultures are contemporaries, today's so-called primitive cultures are in no way antecedent to those we consider civilized. Many anthropologists use the term "[[Protohistoric archaeology|non-literate]]" to describe these peoples.

Civilization has been spread by [[colonization]], [[imperialism|invasion]], [[religious conversion]], the extension of [[bureaucracy|bureaucratic control]] and [[trade]], and by introducing agriculture and writing to non-literate peoples. Some non-civilized people may willingly adapt to civilized behaviour. But civilization is also spread by the technical, material and social dominance that civilization engenders.

==Cultural identity==
<!-- [[File:Persepolis iran.jpg;The king of Holy Kingdon Rum kneel of the king of persian]] comment to remove redlinked img-->
"Civilization" can also refer to the [[culture]] of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique. Civilizations tend to develop intricate cultures, including literature, professional art, architecture, organized religion, and complex customs associated with the elite.

The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization (a classic example being [[China|Chinese]] civilization and its influence on nearby civilizations such as [[Korea]], [[Japan]] and [[Vietnam]]). Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives is that person's broadest cultural identity.

Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as discrete units. Early twentieth-century philosopher [[Oswald Spengler]],<ref name="Spengler, Oswald 1919">Spengler, Oswald, ''Decline of the West: Perspectives of World History'' (1919)</ref> uses the German word "Kultur," "culture," for what many call a "civilization". Spengler believes a civilization's coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol. Cultures experience cycles of birth, life, decline, and death, often supplanted by a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new cultural symbol. Spengler states civilization is the beginning of the decline of a culture as, "...the most external and artificial states of which a species of developed humanity is capable."<ref name="Spengler, Oswald 1919"/>

This "unified culture" concept of civilization also influenced the theories of historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] in the mid-twentieth century. Toynbee explored civilization processes in his multi-volume ''[[A Study of History]],'' which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline of 21 civilizations and five "arrested civilizations." Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of the failure of a "creative minority", through moral or religious decline, to meet some important challenge, rather than mere economic or environmental causes.

[[Samuel P. Huntington]] defines civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species." Huntington's theories about civilizations are discussed [[Civilization#Future|below]].

==Complex systems==
Another group of theorists, making use of [[systems theory]], looks at a civilization as a [[complex system]], i.e., a framework by which a group of objects can be analyzed that work in concert to produce some result. Civilizations can be seen as networks of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures, and are defined by the economic, political, military, diplomatic, social, and cultural interactions among them. Any organization is a complex [[social system]], and a civilization is a large organization. Systems theory helps guard against superficial but misleading analogies in the study and description of civilizations.

Systems theorists look at many types of relations between cities, including economic relations, cultural exchanges, and political/diplomatic/military relations. These spheres often occur on different scales. For example, trade networks were, until the nineteenth century, much larger than either cultural spheres or political spheres. Extensive trade routes, including the [[Silk Road]] through [[Central Asia]] and [[Indian Ocean]] sea routes linking the [[Roman Empire]], [[Persian Empire]], [[India]], and [[China]], were well established 2000 years ago, when these civilizations scarcely shared any political, diplomatic, military, or cultural relations. The first evidence of such long distance trade is in the ancient world. During the [[Uruk period]] Guillermo Algaze has argued that trade relations connected Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan.<ref>Algaze, Guillermo, ''The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization''" (Second Edition, 2004) (ISBN 978-0-226-01382-4)</ref> Resin found later in the [http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/tombs/index.html Royal Tombs of Ur] it is suggested was traded northwards from Mozambique.

Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single "[[world-system theory|world system]]", a process known as [[globalization]]. Different civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically, politically, and even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is debate over when this integration began, and what sort of integration – cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic – is the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. David Wilkinson has proposed that economic and military-diplomatic integration of the [[Mesopotamia]]n and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] civilizations resulted in the creation of what he calls the "Central Civilization" around 1500 BC.<ref>Wilkinson, David, ''[http://jwsr.ucr.edu/archive/vol10/number3/pdf/jwsr-v10n3-wilkinson.pdf The Power Configuration Sequence of the Central World System, 1500-700 BC]'' (2001)</ref> Central Civilization later expanded to include the entire Middle East and Europe, and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization, integrating the Americas, Australia, China and Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson, civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the Central Civilization, or homogeneous, like the Japanese civilization. What Huntington calls the "clash of civilizations" might be characterized by Wilkinson as a clash of cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others point to the [[Crusades]] as the first step in globalization. The more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies have expanded and shrunk since ancient times, and that the current globalized economy and culture is a product of recent European colonialism.

==Future==
{{See also|Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth}}
[[File:Civilizations map.png|400px|thumb|[[Samuel P. Huntington|Huntington]]'s map of world civilizations (1996).]]
Political scientist [[Samuel P. Huntington|Samuel Huntington]]<ref>Huntington, Samuel P., ''The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order'', (Simon & Schuster, 1996)</ref> has argued that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be a [[clash of civilizations]]. According to Huntington, conflicts between civilizations will supplant the conflicts between [[nation-state]]s and ideologies that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries. These views have been strongly challenged by others like [[Edward Said]], Muhammed Asadi and [[Amartya Sen]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.selvesandothers.org/article15618.html|title=A Critique of Huntington’s "Clash of Civilizations"|last=Asadi|first=Muhammed|date=2007-01-22|publisher=Selves and Others|accessdate=2009-01-23}}</ref> [[Ronald Inglehart]] and [[Pippa Norris]] have argued that the "true clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and the West is caused by the Muslim rejection of the West's more liberal sexual values, rather than a difference in political ideology.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003/0304clash.htm|title=The True Clash of Civilizations|last=Inglehart|first=Ronald|coauthors=Pippa Norris|date=March/April 2003|publisher=Global Policy Forum|accessdate=2009-01-23}}</ref> In ''[[Identity and Violence]]'' Sen questions if people should be divided along the lines of a supposed 'civilization', defined by religion and culture only. He argues that this ignores the many others identities that make up people and leads to a focus on differences.

Some environmental scientists see the world entering a [[Planetary Phase of Civilization]], characterized by a shift away from independent, disconnected nation-states to a world of increased global connectivity with worldwide institutions, environmental challenges, economic systems, and consciousness.<ref>[http://www.orionsociety.org/pages/oo/sidebars/America/Rockefeller.html Orion > Thoughts on America<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://www.kosmosjournal.org/kjo/backissue/s2006/laszlo-1.shtml Kosmos Journal Paths to Planetary Civilization<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In an attempt to better understand what a Planetary Phase of Civilization might look like in the current context of declining natural resources and increasing consumption, the [[Global scenario group]] used [[scenario analysis]] to arrive at three archetypal futures: Barbarization, in which increasing conflicts result in either a fortress world or complete societal breakdown; Conventional Worlds, in which market forces or [[Policy reform]] slowly precipitate more sustainable practices; and a Great Transition, in which either the sum of fragmented [[Eco-Communalism]] movements add up to a sustainable world or globally coordinated efforts and initiatives result in a new [[sustainability]] paradigm.<ref>[http://www.gtinitiative.org/documents/Great_Transitions.pdf GTinitiative.org]</ref>

Author [[Derrick Jensen]] argues that modern civilization is intrinsically directed towards the domination of the environment and humanity itself in a harmful and destructive fashion.<ref>Jensen, Derrick (2006), "Endgame: The Problem of Civilisation", Vol 1 & Vol 2 (Seven Stories Press)</ref>

The [[Kardashev scale]] classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement, specifically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. The Kardashev scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist ''(see also: [[Civilizations and the Future]], [[Space civilization]])''.

==Fall of civilizations==
{{Main|Societal collapse}}

There have been many explanations put forward for the collapse of civilization. Some focus on historical examples, and others on general theory.

*'''[[Edward Gibbon|Edward Gibbon's]]''' work ''"[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]"'' was a well-known and detailed analysis of the fall of Roman civilization. Gibbon suggested the final act of the collapse of Rome was the fall of [[Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Turks]] in 1453 AD. For Gibbon:-<blockquote>''"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long."''[Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 4, ed. by J. B. Bury (London, 1909), pp.&nbsp;173–174.-Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.--Part VI. General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.]</blockquote>
* '''[[Theodor Mommsen]]''' in his ''"[[History of Rome (Mommsen)]]",'' suggested Rome collapsed with the collapse of the [[Western Roman Empire]] in 476 AD and he also tended towards a biological analogy of "genesis," "growth," "senescence," "collapse" and "decay."
* '''[[Oswald Spengler]]''', in his ''"[[Decline of the West]]"'' rejected [[Petrarch]]'s chronological division, and suggested that there had been only eight "mature civilizations." Growing cultures, he argued, tend to develop into imperialistic civilizations which expand and ultimately collapse, with democratic forms of government ushering in [[plutocracy]] and ultimately [[imperialism]].
* '''[[Arnold J. Toynbee]]''' in his ''"[[A Study of History]]"'' suggested that there had been a much larger number of civilizations, including a small number of [[arrested civilizations]], and that all civilizations tended to go through the cycle identified by Mommsen. The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred when a [[cultural elite]] became a [[parasitic elite]], leading to the rise of internal and external [[proletariat]]s.
* '''[[Joseph Tainter]]''' in ''"[[Societal collapse|The Collapse of Complex Societies]]"'' suggested that there were [[diminishing returns]] to [[complexity]], due to which, as states achieved a maximum permissible complexity, they would decline when further increases actually produced a negative return. Tainter suggested that Rome achieved this figure in the 2nd Century AD.
* '''[[Jared Diamond]]''' in his 2005 book ''"[[Collapse (book)|Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]"'' suggests five major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures: environmental damage, such as [[deforestation]] and [[soil erosion]]; [[climate change]]; dependence upon [[international trade|long-distance trade]] for needed resources; increasing levels of internal and external violence, such as war or invasion; and societal responses to internal and environmental problems.
* '''[[Peter Turchin]]''' in his [http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/faculty/turchin/HistDyn.htm ''Historical Dynamics''] and '''[[Andrey Korotayev]]''' ''et al.'' in their [http://cliodynamics.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=172&Itemid=70 ''Introduction to Social Macrodynamics, Secular Cycles, and Millennial Trends''] suggest a number of mathematical models describing collapse of agrarian civilizations. For example, the basic logic of Turchin's "fiscal-demographic" model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a sociodemographic [[Social cycle theory|cycle]] we observe relatively high levels of per capita production and consumption, which leads not only to relatively high [[population growth]] rates, but also to relatively high rates of surplus production. As a result, during this phase the population can afford to pay taxes without great problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the population growth is accompanied by the growth of state revenues. During the intermediate phase, the increasing [[overpopulation]] leads to the decrease of per capita production and consumption levels, it becomes more and more difficult to collect taxes, and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state expenditures grow due to the growth of the population controlled by the state. As a result, during this phase the state starts experiencing considerable fiscal problems. During the final pre-collapse phases the overpopulation leads to further decrease of per capita production, the surplus production further decreases, state revenues shrink, but the state needs more and more resources to control the growing (though with lower and lower rates) population. Eventually this leads to famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and demographic and civilization collapse (Peter Turchin. ''Historical Dynamics.'' [[Princeton University Press]], 2003:121–127).
* '''[[Peter Heather]]''' argues in his book [[Decline of the Roman Empire#Peter Heather|''The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the Barbarians'']]<ref>ISBN 0-19-515954-3</ref> that this civilization did not end for moral or economic reasons, but because centuries of contact with barbarians across the frontier generated its own nemesis by making them a much more sophisticated and dangerous adversary. The fact that Rome needed to generate ever greater revenues to equip and re-equip armies that were for the first time repeatedly defeated in the field, led to the dismemberment of the Empire. Although this argument is specific to Rome, it can also be applied to the Asiatic Empire of the Egyptians, to the [[Han Dynasty|Han]] and [[Tang Dynasty|Tang]] dynasties of China, to the Muslim [[Abbasid Caliphate]], and others.
* '''[[Bryan Ward-Perkins]]''', in his book ''[[The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization]]'',<ref>ISBN 0-19-280728-5</ref> shows the real horrors associated with the collapse of a civilization for the people who suffer its effects, unlike many revisionist historians who downplay this. The collapse of complex society meant that even basic plumbing disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar [[Greek dark ages|Dark Age]] collapses are seen with the Late [[Bronze Age collapse]] in the Eastern Mediterranean, the collapse of the [[Maya civilization|Maya]], on [[Easter Island]] and elsewhere.
* '''[[Arthur Demarest]]''' argues in ''[[Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization]]'',<ref>ISBN 0-521-53390-2</ref> using a holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from archaeology, [[paleoecology]], and epigraphy, that no one explanation is sufficient but that a series of erratic, complex events, including loss of soil fertility, drought and rising levels of internal and external violence led to the disintegration of the courts of Mayan kingdoms which began a spiral of decline and decay. He argues that the collapse of the Maya has lessons for civilization today.
* '''Jeffrey A. McNeely''' has recently suggested that "A review of historical evidence shows that past civilizations have tended to [[over-exploit]] their forests, and that such abuse of important resources has been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society."<ref>McNeely, Jeffrey A. (1994) "Lessons of the past: Forests and Biodiversity" (Vol 3, No 1 1994. Biodiversity and Conservation)</ref>
* '''[[Thomas Homer-Dixon]]''' in "[http://www.theupsideofdown.com ''The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization'']", considers that the fall in the [[EROEI|energy return on investments]]; the energy expended to energy yield ratio, is central to limiting the survival of civilizations. The degree of social complexity is associated strongly, he suggests, with the amount of disposable energy environmental, economic and technological systems allow. When this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new energy sources or they will collapse....

==History==
===Early civilizations===
{{See|Prehistory|Cradle of Civilization}}
*[[Paleolithic Age|Old Stone Age]]
*[[Neolithic|New Stone Age]]
*[[Ancient Near East]]
**[[Mesopotamia]]
**[[Indus Valley Civilization]]
**[[Levant]] / [[Canaan]]
**[[Bronze Age Anatolia]] / [[Aegean civilizations|Aegean]]
* [[Bronze Age Europe]]
* [[Bronze Age India]]
* [[Bronze Age China]]

*[[Africa]]
**[[Ancient Egypt]]
**[[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]]
**[[Kingdom of Axum|Axum]]

*[[Pre-Columbian Americas]]
** [[Norte Chico civilization|Norte Chico]] / [[Caral]]
** [[Olmec]]
** [[Zapotec civilization]]

===Antiquity (Axial Age)===
{{see|Old World|Axial age}}
[[Karl Jaspers]], the German historical philosopher, proposed that the ancient civilizations were affected greatly by an [[Axial Age]] in the period between 800 BC-200 BC during which a series of male sages, prophets, religious reformers and philosophers, from China, India, Iran, Israel and Greece, changed the direction of civilizations forever.<ref>Tarnas, Richard (1993) "The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View" (Ballatine Books)</ref>
[[William H. McNeill]] proposed that this period of history was one in which culture contact between previously separate civilizations saw the "closure of the [[oecumene]]", and led to accelerated social change from China to the Mediterranean, associated with the spread of coinage, larger empires and new religions. This view has recently been championed by Christopher Chase-Dunn and other [[world systems theory|world systems theorists]].

* Mediterranean civilizations of the [[Classical Greece|Classical Period]]
**[[Ancient Greece]]
**[[Ancient Rome]]
** [[Hellenistic civilization]]
* Middle East
** [[History of Iran|Persia]] since the [[Achaemenids]]
** [[Second Temple Judaism]]
*[[Ancient India]] ([[Maurya Empire]], [[Gupta Empire]])
*[[Ancient China]] ([[Qin Dynasty]], [[Han Dynasty]])
*[[Ancient Nomads]] ([[Xiongnu|Hun Xiongnu]], [[Göktürks|Kok Turk Empire]])

===Medieval to Early Modern===
{{see|Middle Ages|Early Modern period}}
{{see|Hinduism|Spread of Buddhism|Age of Discovery}}
*[[Christendom]]
**[[Western Christianity]]
**[[Eastern Christianity]]
*[[Islamic World]]
**[[Islamic Golden Age]]
**[[Caliphate]]
**[[Mongol-Turkish]] ([[Ilkhanate]], [[Timurid Empire]])
**[[Mughal India]]
**[[Ottoman Empire]]
*Asia
**[[Chola]], India
**[[Pallava]], India
**[[Pandiya]], India
**[[Chera Dynasty]], India
**[[Tang China]]
**[[Mongol Empire]] (Yuan)
**[[Ming China]]
**[[Feudal Japan]]
**[[Vietnam|Confucian Vietnam]]
*South East Asia
**[[Funan]], [[Chenla]], [[Champa]], [[Angkor|Anghor Cambodia]]
**[[Dvaravati]], [[Hariphunchai]], [[Sukhothai]], [[Ayutthaya Kingdom]], pre Modern [[Thailand]]
**[[Bagan|Pagan Burma]]
**[[Chola]], [[Pallava]], [[Sri Vijaya]], [[Sailendra]], [[Mataram]] and [[Majapahit]]

* Meso-American civilizations
** [[Toltec]]
** [[Kingdom of Cusco]]/[[Inca Empire]]
** [[Aztec|Aztec civilization]]
** [[Maya civilization]]

* African civilizations
**[[Wagadou]]
**[[Mali Empire]]
**[[Songhai Empire]]
**[[Ethiopian Empire|Abyssinia]]
**[[Benin Empire]]

==Contemporary==
{{see|Modernity}}
{{see|cultural bloc|Major world religions|world language|The Clash of Civilizations}}
*[[Western World]]
**[[Europe]]
**[[Anglosphere]]
**[[Latin America]]
*[[Post-Soviet states]]
**[[Russia]]
*[[Islamic world]]
**[[Arab world]]
**[[Middle East]]
**[[North Africa]]
*[[Eastern world]] / [[Far East]]
**[[East Asia]]
***[[Sinosphere]]
***[[Nomadic (Altaic)]]
**[[South Asia]]
**[[Southeast Asia]]
*[[Sub-Saharan Africa]]

==See also==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [[Anarcho-primitivism]]
* [[Barbarian]]
* [[Civilized core]]
* [[Cradle of civilization]]
* [[Culture]]
* [[History of the world]]
* [[Human population]]
* [[Kardashev scale]]
* [[Mission civilisatrice]]
* [[Muslim world]]
* [[Proto-civilization]]
* [[Western civilization]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|colwidth=60em}}
* {{cite book|last= Ankerl |first= Guy |title= Global communication without universal civilization |origyear= 2000 |series= INU societal research |volume= Vol.1: Coexisting contemporary civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western |publisher= INU Press |location= Geneva |isbn= 2-88155-004-5 |pages=|year= 2000 }}
* [http://www.clashofcivilisations.com/ Clash of Civilizations and information on other civilizations], Discussion and news surrounding the clash and concepts such as dialog, equality, acceptance etc. between civilizations.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/interactive/civilisations/ BBC on civilization]
* Wiktionary: [[wikt:civilization|civilization]], [[wikt:civilize|civilize]]
* {{cite book | last = Brinton | first = Crane (et al.) | authorlink = Crane Brinton | year = 1984 | title = A History of Civilization: Prehistory to 1715 | edition = 6th | publisher = [[Prentice Hall]] | location = Englewood Cliffs, N.J. | isbn = 0-13-389866-0}}
* {{cite book | last = Casson | first = Lionel | year = 1994 | title = Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times | publisher = British Museum Press | location = London | isbn = 0-7141-1735-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Chisholm | first = Jane | coauthors = and Anne Millard | year = 1991 | title = Early Civilization | others = illus. Ian Jackson | publisher = Usborne | location = London | isbn = 1-58086-022-2}}
* {{cite book | last = Collcutt | first = Martin | coauthors = [[Marius Jansen]], and Isao Kumakura | year = 1988 | title = Cultural Atlas of Japan | publisher = Facts on File | location = New York | isbn = 0-8160-1927-4}}
* {{cite book | last = Drews | first = Robert | year = 1993 | title = The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C. | publisher = Princeton University Press | location = Princeton | isbn = 0-691-04811-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Edey | first = Maitland A. | year = 1974 | title = The Sea Traders | publisher = [[Time-Life Books]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-7054-0060-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Fairservis | first = Walter A., Jr. | year = 1975 | title = The Threshold of Civilization: An Experiment in Prehistory | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-684-12775-X}}
* {{cite book | last = Fernández-Armesto | first = Felipe | authorlink = Felipe Fernández-Armesto | year = 2000 | title = Civilizations | publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] | location = London | isbn = 0-333-90171-1}}
* {{cite book | last = Ferrill | first = Arther | year = 1985 | title = The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great | publisher = [[Thames and Hudson]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-500-25093-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Fitzgerald | first = C. P. | year = 1969 | title = The Horizon History of China | publisher = American Heritage | location = New York | isbn = 0-8281-0005-5}}
* {{cite book | last = Fuller | first = J. F. C. | authorlink = J.F.C. Fuller | year = 1954-57 | title = A Military History of the Western World | others = 3 vols. | publisher = [[Funk & Wagnalls]] | location = New York}}
*# ''From the Earliest Times to the Battle of Lepanto.'' ISBN 0-306-80304-6 (1987 reprint).
*# ''From the Defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo.'' ISBN 0-306-80305-4 (1987 reprint).
*# ''From the American Civil War to the End of World War II.'' ISBN 0-306-80306-2 (1987 reprint).
* {{cite book | last = Gowlett | first = John | year = 1984 | title = Ascent to Civilization | publisher = Collins | location = London | isbn = 0-00-217090-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Hawkes | first = Jacquetta | authorlink = Jacquetta Hawkes | year = 1968 | title = Dawn of the Gods | publisher = [[Chatto & Windus]] | location = London | isbn = 0-7011-1332-4}}
* {{cite book | last = Hawkes | first = Jacquetta | coauthors = with David Trump | year = 1976 | title = The Atlas of Early Man | publisher = [[Dorling Kindersley]] | location = London | isbn = 0-312-09746-8 (1993 reprint)}}
* {{cite book | last = Hicks | first = Jim | year = 1974 | title = The Empire Builders | publisher = Time-Life Books | location = New York}}
* {{cite book | last = Hicks | first = Jim | year = 1975 | title = The Persians | publisher = Time-Life Books | location = New York}}
* {{cite book | last = Johnson | first = Paul | authorlink = Paul Johnson (writer) | year = 1987 | title = A History of the Jews | publisher = [[Weidenfeld and Nicolson]] | location = London | isbn = 0-297-79091-9}}
* {{cite book | last = Jensen | first = Derrick | authorlink = Derrick Jensen | year = 2006 | title = [[Endgame (Derrick Jensen books)|Endgame]] | publisher = [[Seven Stories Press]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-1-58322-730-5}}
* {{cite book | last = Keppie | first = Lawrence | year = 1984 | title = The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire | publisher = Barnes & Noble | location = Totowa, N.J. | isbn = 0-389-20447-1}}
* [[Korotayev]], Andrey, ''World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World Oikumene Civilizations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective''. Lewiston, NY: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 2004. ISBN 0-7734-6310-0
* [[Nikolay Kradin|Kradin, Nikolay]]. Archaeological Criteria of Civilization. ''[[Social Evolution & History]]'', Vol. 5, No 1 (2006): 89-108. ISSN 1681-4363.
* {{cite book | last = Lansing | first = Elizabeth | year = 1971 | title = The Sumerians: Inventors and Builders | publisher = McGraw-Hill | location = New York | isbn = 0-07-036357-9}}
* {{cite book | last = Lee | first = Ki-Baik | year = 1984 | title = A New History of Korea | others = trans. Edward W. Wagner, with Edward J. Shultz | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | location = Cambridge | isbn = 0-674-61575-1}}
* {{cite book | last = McGaughey | first = William | year = 2000 | title = Five Epochs of Civilization | publisher = Thistlerose Publications | isbn = 0-9605630-3-2 |location=Minneapolis}}
* {{cite book | last = Nahm | first = Andrew C. | year = 1983 | title = A Panorama of 5000 Years: Korean History | publisher = Hollym International | location = Elizabeth, N.J. | isbn = 0-930878-23-X}}
* {{cite book | last = Oliphant | first = Margaret | year = 1992 | title = The Atlas of the Ancient World: Charting the Great Civilizations of the Past | publisher = Ebury | location = London | isbn = 0-09-177040-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Rogerson | first = John | year = 1985 | title = Atlas of the Bible | publisher = [[Infobase Publishing]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-8160-1206-7}}
* {{cite book | last = Sandall | first = Roger | authorlink = Roger Sandall | year = 2001 | title = The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays | publisher = Westview | location = Boulder, Colo. | isbn = 0-8133-3863-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Sansom | first = George | year = 1958 | title = A History of Japan: To 1334 | publisher = Stanford University Press | location = Stanford | isbn = 0-8047-0523-2 (1996 reprint)}}
* {{cite book | last = Southworth | first = John Van Duyn | year = 1968 | title = The Ancient Fleets: The Story of Naval Warfare Under Oars, 2600 B.C.–1597 A.D. | publisher = Twayne | location = New York}}
* {{cite book | last = Thomas | first = Hugh | authorlink = Hugh Thomas (historian) | year = 1981 | title = An Unfinished History of the World | edition = rev. | publisher = Pan | location = London | isbn = 0-330-26458-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Yap | first = Yong | coauthors = and Arthur Cotterell | year = 1975 | title = The Early Civilization of China| publisher = Putnam | location = New York | isbn = 0-399-11595-1}}
* A. Nuri Yurdusev, International Relations and the Philosophy of History: A Civilizational Approach (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
* {{cite book | last = Beck | first = Roger B. | authorlink = | coauthors = Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, Dahia Ibo Shabaka, | title = World History: Patterns of Interaction | publisher = McDougal Littell | year = 1999 | location = Evanston, IL | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-395-87274-X }}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Anthropological categories of peoples]]
[[Category:Cultural anthropology]]
[[Category:Cultural history]]
[[Category:Society]]
[[Category:Theories of history]]
[[Category:Sociocultural evolution]]
[[Category:Cultural geography]]
[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Civilizations]]

[[ar:حضارة]]
[[an:Civilización]]
[[az:Sivilizasiya]]
[[be:Цывілізацыя]]
[[be-x-old:Цывілізацыя]]
[[bs:Civilizacija]]
[[bg:Цивилизация]]
[[ca:Civilització]]
[[cs:Civilizace]]
[[cy:Gwareiddiad]]
[[da:Civilisation]]
[[de:Zivilisation]]
[[et:Tsivilisatsioon]]
[[el:Πολιτισμός]]
[[es:Civilización]]
[[eo:Civilizo]]
[[eu:Zibilizazio]]
[[fa:تمدن]]
[[hif:Sabhyata]]
[[fr:Civilisation]]
[[gl:Civilización]]
[[gan:文明]]
[[gu:સંસ્કૃતિ]]
[[hak:Vùn-mìn]]
[[ko:문명]]
[[hi:सभ्यता]]
[[hr:Civilizacija]]
[[id:Peradaban]]
[[is:Siðmenning]]
[[it:Civiltà]]
[[he:ציוויליזציה]]
[[kn:ನಾಗರೀಕತೆ]]
[[ka:ცივილიზაცია]]
[[kk:Шағын (жергілікті) өркениеттер]]
[[sw:Ustaarabu]]
[[krc:Цивилизация]]
[[la:Civilizatio]]
[[lv:Civilizācija]]
[[lb:Zivilisatioun]]
[[lt:Civilizacija]]
[[hu:Civilizáció]]
[[mg:Haifomba]]
[[ml:നാഗരികത]]
[[arz:حضاره]]
[[ms:Tamadun]]
[[mwl:Ceblizaçon]]
[[mn:Соёл иргэншил]]
[[nl:Beschaving]]
[[ja:文明]]
[[nap:Civìltà]]
[[no:Sivilisasjon]]
[[nn:Sivilisasjon]]
[[oc:Civilizacion]]
[[uz:Tamaddun]]
[[pnb:رہتل]]
[[pl:Cywilizacja]]
[[pt:Civilização]]
[[ro:Civilizație]]
[[qu:Hawaykawsay]]
[[rue:Цівілізація]]
[[ru:Цивилизация]]
[[sah:Цивилизация]]
[[si:ශිෂ්ටාචාරය]]
[[simple:Civilization]]
[[sk:Civilizácia]]
[[sl:Civilizacija]]
[[sr:Цивилизација]]
[[sh:Civilizacija]]
[[fi:Sivilisaatio]]
[[sv:Civilisation]]
[[tl:Kabihasnan]]
[[ta:நாகரிகம்]]
[[te:నాగరికత]]
[[th:อารยธรรม]]
[[tr:Uygarlık]]
[[uk:Цивілізація]]
[[ur:تہذیب]]
[[vec:Siviltà]]
[[vi:Văn minh]]
[[fiu-vro:Tsivilisats'uun]]
[[war:Sibilisasyón]]
[[wo:Xay]]
[[yi:ציוויליזאציע]]
[[zh-yue:文明]]
[[bat-smg:Cėvėlėzacėjė]]
[[zh:文明]]

Revision as of 00:49, 14 September 2011

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