Civilized Man Vs Early Man

works cited:

Bibliography

Benton, Jenetta Rebold and Robert DiYammi. 1998 Arts and Culture, An Introduction To

The Humanitites. New Jersey. Pretence Hall

Best, Nicholas. 1984 Quest For The Past. USA: Readers Digest Association

Boardman, John. The Cambridge Ancient History. 1982. New York. Cambridge

University Press

Briggs, Asa. 1992 Everyday Life Through The Ages. Berkely Square, London Readers

Digest

Diamond, Jared. 1992 The Third Chimpanzee. New York. Harper

Collins

Edwards, Mike. “Indus Civilization” National Geographic Vol 197, No 6, June 2000,

page 126

Fromkin, David. 1998 The Way Of The World. New York Alfred A. Knoph

Kramer, Samuel. 1971 Cradle Of Civilization. Morristown, New Jersey. Time Life Books

Mills, Dorothy. 1951 The Book Of The Ancient World. New York. G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Civilization And Early Cultures, An Analogy

Early civilizations are credited with introducing government, art, and religion, among other things to the modern world. Does the credit actually belong to the people who created these early civilizations or to those that came before? The final product may be considered greater and certainly more polished than the product created by early man. All things found in an ancient civilization were actually brought to them by the collective memories of the people that came before. Little is known about human life during the Paleolithic Period, 35,000 to 10,000 BC. Cave paintings and a few clay statuettes are the sum total of what has survived the years for modern archeologists to study. (Arts and Culture, An Introduction to the Humanities, p. 14,15 ) Anything made of wood or bone has long since turned to dust. ( Everyday Life Through The Ages, p 13 )

Burial sites that have been discovered recently allow us to peek into the remote past. These discoveries support the idea of an awareness of and homage paid to the spirits and natural forces that shaped the world that these prehistoric people lived in. Severa...

... middle of paper ...

...nd established roads had taken on more importance than ever before. By the time of the first civilization, these techniques were well known and fairly well refined. What was needed was better organization and better communication to bring all of the already established processes together.

While it is clear that the early civilizations took the processes that were already in place and built upon them, every “piece of the puzzle” was already available to them. Established government hierarchy, religious beliefs, and an organizational structure had already been established. It seems incredulous that any civilization could come into being without a culture or cultures already being advanced to the point where the roots of a civilization could take hold.

Working backwards, an advanced culture could not come into existence without the sophisticated framework that an early culture grew into. The knowledge and experience of a fairly advanced tribal culture set the stage for an early township or community, and organizational skills, establishment of religion, and a working form of government was already necessary for a tribal culture whether considered sophisticated or not, to survive.