Civilization
In order to determine whether or not a society can be considered a civilization, it is essential to have a clear definition of the word itself. Webster's dictionary defines a civilization as an advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of writing, and the appearance of complex political and social institutions. While this may seem to be an acceptable definition, in the world of archeology, it simply isn't elaborate enough. V. Gordon Childe, a famous archeologist, created ten conditions, which he felt needed to be fulfilled in order to consider a society a civilization. While each of Childe's ten conditions are all of importance, it is essentially incorrect to assume that a society is not a civilization simply because it does not fulfill all of the conditions. Two of the ten conditions which are well defined and clearly cut in Childe's work are the concepts of class stratification and monumental architecture. It is now essential to define these conditions and then apply them to real societies to prove that they are civilizations. (Childe, 1950: 7, 11) Class stratification is a socially multi-layered structure within a s
Monumental architecture refers to public buildings of many different forms of architecture, whether it be temples, tombs, roads or other works which took many man hours to produce (Erickson Lecture, 11/15/00). This represents the social surplus of a society or civilization. The large public works represent a social surplus as it takes an immense amount of human hours to create such monuments (Childe, 1950:11). ociety. At the top is a ruling class, which oversees the rest of the society. Below the ruling class are usually skilled artisans and warriors. At the bottom of the social structure are service people as who are responsible for all manual labor in the city. They may include low-level artisans, farmers, and slaves. (http://home.eol.ca/~smithda/classstructure.html, 1) lyphs. Each ruler had an emblem glyph, which marked his rank and title with reference to his territory. (Erickson Lecture, 11/27/00). ilding of Sacsawaman, Cieza wrote that "four thousand laborers quarried and cut the stones, six thousand dug the ditch and laid the foundations, while still other cut poles and beams for the timbers." Other chroniclers have stated that Sacsawaman took over 50 years to build(Hagen and Morris, 1998: 10). It is unquestionable that the Incas put many hours into their architectural structures therefore fulfilling Childe's characteristic. Now that the conditions are defined, it is now possible to apply them to real societies. The Inca and Maya societies are two perfect examples that demonstrate both class stratification as well as monumental architecture within a civilization. . Childe's ten characteristics are each good indications of a civilization, but cannot all be used together to determine whether or not a society is a c
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Approximate Word count = 1182
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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