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  • [Theme music]

  • 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!

  • [Outro music]

[Theme music]

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文明の特徴 (Traits of Civilization)

  • 42 1
    April Lu に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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