World Civilization
What are the major defining characteristics of a civilization? How has the defining characteristics of a civilization in the past been evolved to better people's lives today? Many factors have been used to develop a civilization. Some have been more effective than others have. Throughout this paper, I plan on analyzing the factors that perennial civilizations before our time used to become effective and prosperous. I will also describe what factors they had and how some of those factors became very important to today's society. Most of the perennial civilizations have been revolutionized throughout the years to enhance the way of life even today. Many people have debated if civilization was evolutionary or passed down progressively with people learning from their mistakes. Some people claim other reasons for civilization to be far greater than the others. Other people claim that all of the reasons in the coming about of civilization played a balance part . I really don't know which reason were more influential than the others, but I do know that all these "theories" are hard to be proven flawless. Civilization represents the highest level of human organization. But, how did civilization get to be the impressive
own special product, accurate timing, the clock Most importantly urbanization led to communication. Even though the communication was nothing close to today's communication with technology, but it was based on literacy. In Article #9, Writing Right, literacy is considered one of the hallmarks of civilization. Without the craving for civilization (people wanting to be civilized), literacy would have never came to part. "Civilized" people have always considered literacy as division between themselves and barbarians. This perception is used even in today's society because it has been passed down in different forms with the same meaning as it did years before. When you see someone that doesn't look educated, you look down upon him or her as if you were superior to them. Most written language reflects the precise reflection of the speech of the language, while others (like English) are a complete mess. Jared Diamond, the author of this article, even poses the question: Is this alphabetical evolution or just the unequal application of logic to literacy? Personally, I think that English is such a mess because it was invented through a melting pot. A lot of different people have came and put their input on the language of English and brought the rules of their native language along with them. There are three basic strategies that underlie writing systems. The strategies differ in the size of speech unit denoted by one written sign : either a single basic sound, or a whole syllable, or a whole word. The most widespread strategy in the modern world is the alphabet is the alphabet, which ideally would provide a unique sign-a letter- for every basic sound, or phoneme, of the language. Alphabets spread along with urbanization as an idea diffusion. Another widespread strategy employs logograms, written signs that stands for whole words. Before the spread of alphabetic writing, systems heavily dependent on logograms were common and included Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan glyths, and Sumerian cuneiform. Logograms continue to be used today, which shows the passing down through generations. Logograms are notable in Chinese and kanji, the predominant writing system employed by the Japanese. The third strategy uses a sign for each symbol. Such syllables were common in ancient times, as exemplified in the Linear B writing of Myceneaean Greece. Diamond intentionally termed these three approaches strategies rather than writing systems because no actual writing employs one strategy exclusively. As a group, alphabets have undergone nearly 4,000 years of evolution. Hundreds of alphabets have been adapted for individual languages, and some of those alphabets have now had long separate evolutionary histories. T
Some common words found in the essay are:
Invented Cities, Technics Civilizations, Personally English, , Middle Ages, Greece Diamond, BC Humans, Amerindians Mesoamerica, West Rest, Incans Article, today's society, mechanical clock, article #9, mechanical clocks, defining characteristics, writing systems, level human organization, food production, people claim, local food, represents level human, widespread strategy, plentiful local food, civilization represents level, people claim reasons,
Approximate Word count = 1841
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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