The Emergence of
Civilization
As we have seen, early human beings formed small groups that developed a simple culture that enabled them to survive. As human societies grew and developed greater complexity, a new form of human existence— called civilization—came into being. A civilization is a complex culture in which large numbers of human beings share a number of common elements. Historians have identified a number of basic characteristics of civilization. These include:
(1) an urban revolution: cities became the focal points for political, economic, social, cultural, and religious development;
(2) a distinct religious structure: the gods were deemed crucial to the community's success, and professional priestly classes, as stewards of the gods' property, regulated relations with the gods;
(3) new political and military structures: an organized government bureaucracy arose to meet the administrative demands of the growing population while armies were organized to gain land and power;
(4) a new social structure based on economic power: while kings and an upper class of priests, political leaders, and warriors dominated, there also existed a large group of free commoners (farmers, artisans, craftspeople) and at the very bottom, socially, a class of slaves;
(5) the development of writing: kings, priests, merchants, and artisans used writing to keep records;
(6) new forms of significant artistic and intellectual activity: monumental architectural structures, usually religious, occupied a prominent place in urban environments, while smaller examples of individual creativity also proliferated; and
(7) the development of more complexity in a material sense:
capital was accumulated and metals smelted to produce a variety of material
objects.
Why early
civilizations developed remains difficult to explain. Since civilizations developed
independently in India, China, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, can general causes be identified
that would explain why all of these civilizations emerged? A number of possible
explanations of the beginning of civilization have been suggested. A theory of challenge
and response maintains that challenges forced human beings to make efforts that resulted
in the rise of civilization. Some scholars have adhered to a material explanation.
Material forces, such as the growth of food surpluses, made possible the specialization of
labor and development of large communities with bureaucratic organization. But some
areas were not naturally conducive to
agriculture. Abundant food could only be produced with a massive human effort to carefully
manage the water, an effort that created the need for organization and bureaucratic
control and led to civilized cities. Some historians have argued that nonmaterial forces,
primarily religious, provided the sense of unity and purpose that made such organized
activities possible. Finally, some scholars doubt that we are capable of ever discovering
the actual causes of early civilization.