INTRODUCTION

Civilization, by definition, is the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social and cultural development and organization. Thanks to advancements in agriculture and a surplus of food, humans across the globe were able to create complex civilizations. These civilizations continued to live on, evolving and adapting historically for better or worse. However, despite these differences, each and every current nation-state maintains a certain set of characteristics and developments of civilization. To help elaborate, here are ten key characteristics and developments of civilization according to National Geographic:

1) Urban Areas - Large population centers, or urban areas, allow civilizations to develop, although people who live outside these urban centers are still part of that region’s civilization.

2) Monuments - All civilizations work to preserve their legacy by building large monuments and structures.

3) Shared Communication - Shared communication is another element that all civilizations share. Shared communication may include spoken language; alphabets; numeric systems; signs, ideas, and symbols; and illustration and representation.

4) Infrastructure & Administration - All civilizations rely on government administration—bureaucracy.

5) Division of Labor - Civilizations are marked by complex divisions of people performing specialized tasks.

6) Class Structure - The division of people into classes is a complex idea that can be broken down into two parts: income and type of work performed.

7) Trade - The exchange of goods and ideas between people has been a foundational development in the creation and maintenance of civilization.

8) Exploration - With more needs of land and resources for sustainability, civilizations developed a habit to explore and expand their influences as needed.

9) Conflict - Alongside the need to expand land and resources, conflicts became a development of civilization, where winning states forced others to give additional land and resources to their state, including human slave labor.

10) Innovation - The surplus of food allowed for people to have more time to pick up different occupations (such as mining and blacksmithing) to create better tools and ideas for the state to grow food, fight in conflicts, etc.

However, why are there still groups of people such as those in the Amazons and North Sentinel Island seem hostile to these concepts? These groups of people should make us ask what causes others to abandon or reject civilization. It is easy to believe that the majority of people see civilization as a means to be seen as "modern" and "more advanced" culturally and socially than others. However, philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau have argued against the idea of civilization as an "improvement" for humankind. With all this in mind, let us look into the counterpoints of civilization.

ACTIVITY

Read this article on the tribes of the Amazon Forest (link)

Read the article on the Jarawa people of North Sentinel Island (link)

Below is an edited video of John Greene’s conversation on the rejection of civilization and the concept of Zomia:

Now that we have gone through this activity, let’s answer the following questions in the comment section:

1) Why do you think that people reject civilization?

2) From what you read from the key characteristics and developments of civilization according to National Geographic, what are some of those characteristics and developments that would cause an individual to reject the concept of civilization?

3) Are there any characteristics that a person who lives in civilization and a person who is separated from civilization shares? If so, what are they and why do you think that?