Class "Notes" January 10

Metal tools - copper, then bronze - from 4000 BCE - first in Mesopotamia
1500 BCE - iron

origins of "civilization" - in Middle East/Mesopotamia ca. 3500 BCE.  soon thereafter in Northeast Africa/Egypt

2500 BCE in Indus River vallue - N.W. India
soon thereafter in China and Central America

"Civilization" - a subjective concept -

• enough econ surplus to form divisions of labor and social hierarchy = major inequalities
• emergence of formal political organizations or states - take place of family and tribe [as rules today in Afghanistan]

"civilization - from Latin word for "city"

• cities permit rapid exchange of ideas
• encourage intellectual thought / as opposed to purely practical thinking - i.e. planning, creating, solving - and artistic expression
• promote specializations

most "civilizations" develop writing - why?, what purposes?
first form appears to have been Mesopotamian "cuneiform"
a civilization which develops writing:

• organize political structures more effectively
• send messages, keep records
• tax more effectively
• make contracts and treaties
• more explicit intellectual climate - i.e., can build on past written knowledge.

becoming literate - does this change the way one thinks?
until last couple of centuries, literate population in any society a tiny fraction

were also some minuses with civilization

• social class and wealth distinctions
• class and caste divisions - including slavery
• separation between ruler and ruled
• greater inequality between men and women
• most "civilizations" in early stages were ruled by men; most gods male
• negative effects on environment