Civilization or Society?

I think that now days we find it hard to differentiate a civilization from a community or society for many reasons. One reason is that we get confused because of the word uncivilized. We think of uncivilized to be barbaric and rude but some of the things that the Romans did were barbaric. For example gladiator fights. They would make people fight each other and just for the fun of it they would through in some lions and things in order to make it extra fun. That can make people believe that they weren’t one of the most advanced civilizations of all time because of the fact that some things they did that were considered uncivilized. The definition of civilization is: the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced of its time. So 500 years ago their might be a society that is most advanced of its time but now it wouldn’t be considered a civilization because right now we wouldn’t consider it highly advanced.

I think it is hard to understand what a civilization is because we use it so often that it is almost a synonym for society or community. I think that a civilization is a self- sustaining community that has surpassed its basic needs for survival. If there is a group of people who have formed a community that are only meeting their basic needs then they don’t have a civilization because they are only focusing on eating where as in civilizations there are also focuses on things like art and music. Also most civilizations have a governmental structure so the people need to be well fed and have access to water in order to care about government or be able to create a structure of government. I feel most civilizations have a sense of harmony within itself. If they had to many conflicts then they wouldn’t be able to keep going. Also they have to have some type of justice system so that people can’t just go around murdering people. Also I think that a civilization has borders and has a distinct place that is their land where as a society or a community might have loose borders or just live in a forest. I think in many ways a civilization is up to interpretation but there are still basic guidelines that separate a civilization from other terms about groups of people.