Hi everyone, welcome to civilization.

Actually, you've probably been living in a civilization for your entire life if you're watching this.

So what is it? Why have different peoples formed civilizations?

There are traits that all civilizations have.

To avoid any confusion, civilization discussed here is different in the modern idea of, "behaving in a civilized manner,"

So, it's not about queuing or standing in line, manners or attending cultural performances.

The first civilizations formed in Africa and Asia.

Before civilization, people were often moving to find sources of food along rivers.

And free Wi-Fi.

Wait, there was no Wi-Fi back then!

Fresh water, not Wi-Fi was especially important as it was impossible to live without drinking,

but it also provided food, transportation and protection from enemies, because rivers are harder to cross than land.

People migrated from Africa through the Middle East and then throughout the world, settling near water in search of the best places to live.

And so, water was also important for another discovery that led to civilization: agriculture.

Agriculture, you might call it farming,

was discovered independently

and it was the start of the earliest civilizations in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Successful civilizations provided food for everyone and stayed in the same place.

After all, moving farmland is impossible, and even now moving is never fun.

To protect the farms and the people, civilization built cities.

Walls kept out enemies and city sheltered people.

Cities were able to grow larger as farms fed more people.

Civilization also created specialized jobs.

Before, it was everyone's job to hunt and gather food.

But farmers could just grow food for everyone,

which allowed other people to do different jobs.

Specialized jobs are another characteristic of civilization.

When everyone made tools, hunted and gathered,

technology advanced slowly.

With people in specialized jobs, those that

only made tools, art, buildings, writings and so on, became much better at them.

Writing! Writing is another important characteristic of civilization.

With writing, civilizations were able to pass

down information to other generations for them to build upon.

Writing was able to put laws in stone (but often clay)

so that these laws can be recorded for everyone to see.

Laws and government also were a characteristic of civilization.

They tried to make rules for cities that made life more peaceful.

The Code of Hammurabi is the most famous of these laws and is

one of the oldest pieces of readable language on Earth.

The Code of Hammurabi

has 282 laws about property,

relationships and work with punishments

depending on social status: slaves or free people.

Many ancient civilizations had slaves

and they were often captured during wars with other cities.

Within civilizations there was a social structure that define how people acted with each other:

slaves, farmers, merchants, artists, religious leaders, and royalty

all had different rules and how to talk to each other,

or if they could even talk to each other all.

People in civilizations shared common cultures.

Cultures is many things, people's language,

dress, arts, food, manners, and beliefs that are all common among the group.

Cultures develop naturally, everything is built on

what others have done before, and climate

and environment also influenced culture.

Artists create art by looking and learning from art and artists around them.

Food choices come from what is available in the area,

clothes are created to be practical in the weather

and social media if there was free Wi-Fi.

Oh yeah, there was still no Wi-Fi.

Belief systems were also created within civilizations.

Beliefs about ideas like nature, seasons, flood and drought are part of a civilization's culture,

and these stories often were called myths.

Myths told stories about how life on Earth began,

why the sun rises and even what happens after death.

These systems also tried to teach people

about what was thought to be good behavior.

Things like listening to your parents, cleaning up after yourself and not stealing your neighbor's Wi-Fi.

Well, more like not stealing in general.

Belief systems created rituals for life events like birth, adulthood, marriage and death

as well as rituals to create good fortune, better health, and even tried to make it rain.

These belief systems are very powerful, they gave people feelings of being in control,

a sense of purpose and being part of something larger than themselves.

These belief systems could also cause disharmony, they sometimes hurt people,

and they didn't always tolerate new ideas.

Civilization started when many people were able to grow their own food

so they stayed together in one place and then created ways to keep many people together peacefully.

The traits of civilization once again are: cities,

specialized jobs, writing, laws and government, social structure,

arts and culture, and a belief system or religion.

Throughout the World, different groups have used these same ideas.

Even where you live today has these six traits.

Goodbye for now. Thanks for joining us!

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