Tell us how you define civilization. What do you think are the elements of a civilization? Then tell us if your thoughts were consistent with the textbook definitions of civilization. Format this blog in two sections:
Section 1: your prior thoughts on what is a civilization and
Section 2: how similar/different are your thoughts compared to the author.
Think about what I have been teaching you concerning the interactions with the text. Section 1 would concern the "Before" reading and section 2 would concern "During" reading. In fact, you may head each section as "Before" and "During."
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24 comments:
Sarah Kelley- Period 4
Before Reading- Before reading pages 5-9, my idea of a civilization was a group of people who lived and worked together to survive. Together, these common people helped one another maintain a food supply, raised and educated children, and developed communities. The people of a civilization were trying to reach a goal of improving society for generations to come.
After Reading- After reading pages 5-9, I realized that my idea of a civilization compared and contrasted with the ideas of the author. The author states that a civilization is a complex culture in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements. Characteristics of these early civilizations included social standings according to economic power, religion, growth of writing/recording, and creating political and military structures. Roles for men and women began in these civilizations. Trading goods expanded and there was a demand for new products to be invented.
My idea of a civilization was general while that of the author is specific. Before reading I predicted civilizations came to be because early people needed protection, and therefore had to come together. But in the text I learned that although there are many possibilities for how civilizations came to be, some claim we will never discover the true reasons.
Edward Cummins:
Before: Civilization is a society that lives together that makes positive improvements to the environment around them and works together to survive. This means that the people have to contribute in producing society. They also have to teach other people of what they know. I think they are the precedents of the future. This is my thoughts before reading the text.
During: The thoughts that I have after the text are pretty unique or different than my ideals before I read the text. Well first of all, the definition of civilization in the book is a complex culture in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements. The emergence of civilization was based on about 7 characteristics which are an urban focus, new political and military structures, a new social structure based upon economic power, more complexity in a material sense, distinct religious structure, development of writing, new and significant and intellectual activity. The author obviously thought differently than I did. I didn't elaborate enough of what civilization obviously includes with the trading. Even then they assumed men have different labors than the women as we sometimes do now. I think it was interesting that scholars think that we will never be capable to find the causes of the early civilization. I absolutely agree with everything that Sarah K. said. It was good how she explained her thoughts during the pages 5-9.
Katelyn Connor (Period 4)
Before Reading: When I think of the word civilization, I imagine people living and working together in a society to accomplish tasks needed to live. Many people can get organized to get food, shelter, water and use their skills to grow, construct, and make plans together to make life easier. Kind of what I would think that people who were shipwrecked on an island would have to do. Also, I think of what I saw on one of my favorite TV shows, LOST. The show has characters try to make a civilized life on a stranded island after a plane crash (pick a leader, make decisions, people lend a hand doing different things to help – some fish, some build, some get water, some hunt, some explore) as a description of starting a civilization.
During Reading: My ideas about civilization were not as sophisticated as the ones identified in the reading. However, my basic belief that in a civilization people come together to develop a community that is organized toward working to make a more advanced society fits in with the points in the reading. Using talents of many people makes progress occur faster so more people can have a better life.
The description in the reading had much more to add. I did not realize how much religion and other beliefs may have united people together. Also, the invention of writing, I agree, would be most valuable for a civilization to become more sophisticated. Forming governments and armies to gain land and power could help the more powerful, but may even hurt the weak civilizations. As far as the causes of civilization, I agree with the “challenge and response” reason that created civilizations. Solving common problems always makes people work together to get things done. That reason makes the most sense to me.
Before Reading-What i thought a civilization was a group/nation of people doing the tasks they needed to, to survive. They would strive for their basic necessities knowing that is what they needed. They would also usually have a majority of men doing the more physical work than the woman. The civilization would do everything they can, to make things better and easier for them and for the people in the future.
After Reading: After reading the pages in the book, my thought of a civilization was some what similar to the author's point of view. The author also had a some what stereotypical thought of the men and women. He also thought of how they had to make life easier and better by having a military type of thing and economic views towards the civilization. Religion played a big role in this as well. People would come together or separate depending on the religion.
I love the idea on how the people had evolved and became more intelligent with more ideas making life the way it is now.
before-a civilization is a group of people who live together and strive for a common goal. in the caveman in this case, like sarah said, to survive. they who worked together survived better. a civilization should work well together.
Before Reading- I think that civilizatiion is any kind of controled enviorment with a orginized society. It has to be a place that is under a system that works for them and not total anarchy. It also needs a system in place to work together to acconplish tasks such as building shelter, getting food, or getting water.
After Reading- I think me and the author share some of the same ideas. Everything is said about like working together and different systems was basically right. I did fail to mention about the military services that they had which i didn't even though existed that far back. i also failed to mention how religon was a part of an civilization's average life back then.
Before Reading- A civiliazation is a large settlement with these three characteristics.
1. A Religion, the single most important aspect of humanity, that separates us from animals. The ability to ask the question, WHY?
2. A government, a civilization must hve some form of government, be it democratic, theocratic, communistic,or a monarchy, it must have one, to be, well, civilized.
3.An Economy, not necessarally money, but power and classes, and differences between people, must be present, as a loose correlation of farmers cannot be considered a civilization.
After Reading-Many of my ideas are the same, although I overlooked Recording/writing as a necessary component in a civilization, and it seems like the author and I share the same opinion on alot of matters.
Before Reading- A civiliazation is a large settlement with these three characteristics.
1. A Religion, the single most important aspect of humanity, that separates us from animals. The ability to ask the question, WHY?
2. A government, a civilization must hve some form of government, be it democratic, theocratic, communistic,or a monarchy, it must have one, to be, well, civilized.
3.An Economy, not necessarally money, but power and classes, and differences between people, must be present, as a loose correlation of farmers cannot be considered a civilization.
After Reading-Many of my ideas are the same, although I overlooked Recording/writing as a necessary component in a civilization, and it seems like the author and I share the same opinion on alot of matters.
BEFORE READING
A civilization is a group of people working together to survive. It is based mostly around religion, survival,and power. Religion because people always have this sense of "where did i come from?" they want to no why things happen. Certain civilizations may even have certain rituals that they believe favor them in their religion to help with hunting, good crops, rainfall, etc. Survival, the civilization works together to survive, their whole purpose, they depend on each other. Some people may be depended on more then others ex. warriors. Which brings me to my next point, power. Almost all disputes in take place over power, warriors and hunters usually have the most power. If you have something someone wants, you will have more power.
AFTER READING
I didn't really think reading and writing was part of civilization. I mean I know it is a civilized thing but I didn't think it was part of making a civilization work. I also overlooked government but, i think government is directly related to power. The government has more power, and people with more power usually control the government.
mr yip i was unn aware of ready pages 5-9 did u mention this to me since ive been there
Before I read pages 5-9 my idea of civilization was a group of mixed tribes and early humans that had to hunt and use anything they find in the world around them. They had to use multiple aspects of team work to hunt the larger animals of that time. the mane thing I thought of was the way the people set up a foundations for todays civilization
After reading pages 5-9 I relized many details on diffrent things such as the tools they used and religion.They also where very speedy growth wise in the start of writing and recording data other than those things me and the author share many of the same thoughts
Reison Gomez Period 4
Before reading-
Civilization is like a society of people living together. In conclusion of living together they must help and protect each other. They gather food for themselves and help others in need.
After reading-
My thoughts were about the same as the author's. But I never really gave a thought about developing armies. I do understand however why they developed armies. As it said on the book, they would provide for protection, gain more land, and obviously more power. It's interesting how the author specifies most things, as for I didn't.
My definition of a civilization is a large group of people who live and support each other. This could be by gathering food or supporting your neighbor’s physically and emotional wellbeing. In my opinion a civilization is a community where the essential human goal is present, the goal to survive.
The author’s thoughts (which in themselves are most likely more intelligible then mine own or I would be getting paid to write my views on history in his place) have a great similarity to that of my own, most of the aspects of his definition of society revolve around survival; constructing a military to protect one another from attack, establishing trade to help people to receive their basic necessities. What I found to be interesting is the mention again of humans desire to be remembered when they are gone, they invented writing so they could communicate their findings to there decedents, so that their discovers will survive even if the inventor has passed and will never return.
oh, ya up top you know the kid who finds himself amusing (bond) thats Tom Wynne
Before Reading: A civilivation is a group of people that work together to help prosper and survive. There are usually roles or jobs that each member must accomplish such as farming or hunting or gathering, etc. Also, as theyre civilaztion grew, they wpuld become more adaptable and advanced with the use of new inventions created among it.
After Reading: My theory of what a civilization is was mstly accurate. However, i neglected to credit the religous aspect of a civilization (i didnt realize religon was such a big part of their lives. Also, i did not know that the advanced aspects of modern life were also used by the Neolithic people, such as trading with other civilizations and creating a goverment with upper and lower classes. I now know that a civilization is a complex culture in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements.
Kelly Francisco.
Before Reading
Before reading civilzation in my mind was a community or group of people who did their best to survive while helping each other. I though civilzation would be coming up with new and effiecient ways to survive, while facing hard choices. Each gender would have different roles on what they did to improve the chance of survival.
During Reading
Civilization is infact a large group of people sharing common elements, more or less. They have certain religious beliefs based on culture, they also have other characteristics including an urban focus, development of writing and so on. As time went on people became more complex with more intelligent ideas. They now lived in houses, and men and woman had different roles. Men, became to play the more dominant part or role in the society, which is what most people would say when asked who had a more dominant role. My idea or civilaztion and the book's idea were similar.
Before I read the section I would define a civilization as a gathering of people to do specific jobs in order for the group of people to survive. There must also be a set of rules to keep order in the civilization. I don't think there is a specific reason on how civilizations started but it could be for a larger supply of food and in greater numbers means greater chance of survival.
After I read the section I realized that in the book the idea of a civilization was much more sophisticated than I described it as. It went into more detail on what the main ideas were such as religion, political views protection and economic structure. In a way I was somewhat close to the idea of a civilization but yet I was missing some important elements.
justin
I was interested to learn that the Neolithic people evolved into more than just mindless uncivilized creatures. They had a plan and system and everyone had a role to play. Some of this I learned in clad the other from the book.
originally, i thought that civilization was domesticated grounping of people. that they were only civilized and basically the opposite of living in the wild
after, i realized that my idea was off. a civilization is a "complex culture" that lots of people inhabit with similar elements. trading expanded and new products were invented.
Before- Previous to reading pages 5-9, i thought of a civilization as being a group of people living in the same area. Also, i thought of there being houses or some type of homes.
During- After reading pages 5-9 I would say that my thoughts about a civilization were pretty much right. The book talks about the people's houses, how they had food, and how they cared for each other
before reading.
I think that a civilization is a group of people that help each other to survive. Way Before our time and after, people will have to rely on each other to live.
After reading.
The authors actual definition is quite different from mine. I focused on them surviving he/she focused on the culture and common elements. But at the beggining of the same paragraph the author says " early human beings formed similar small groups that developed a simple culture that enables them to survive". which is basically what i said above.
So the authors exact definition wasnt really close ot mine, but how civilizations came to be is what is what I said.
Before reading-a civilization was a group of ppl that worked together to survive. The people who lived in the civilizations would each have a job or task like getting food, making food, making clothes, raising babies,and so on. This sets an example for future generations of these people.
After reading-The author has mostly different ideas from my thoughts on civilization and how there were consquences for having a society. I would never think that when we came into a civiliztion that we would start having the men be domainent and all that. His definition of civilization is better than mine because its more about culture.
Before Reading: What i thought a civilization was before reading, was a large group of organized people, such as people who actually live in houses, have a currencey system, and a caste system with slaves at the bottom and then ordinary working folk, then who ever ruled over the people.
After Reading: I had some similar ideas as the author such as a caste system but i did not know they had military and priest. I did not really know for sure if religon was a big part of a civilization then. I also figured that back then there was only one ruler, not any political leaders.
meg
before:
My general idea of what made a society included an intelligent and adaptable community that worked together to survive and maintain a stable society. I think that the major role of a civilization is to create some sort of government, economy, and unified citizens.
After:
I think that my idea of what civilization meant was close to that of the authors but more general/broad. The author focused on military, goverment, economy, and religion as major parts of what makes a society civilized.
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