What Defines a Civilisation

Which is the oldest civilization on earth that still exists today? What defines a civilization? Is it based on a religion, a language, an ethnicity, or a culture? 

Back in some 1000 BCE, you find yourself stuck in a forest for a long time. After trying hard to get out, you finally see a pathway, a bullock cart, and some houses. You say, “Finally some civilization!” 

But is it a Civilization? Or is it a simple Culture?

Civilization vs Culture

Culture here is not how we understand it but it is in the archeological context. From archaeological sites, we understand two levels of human society – Culture and Civilization

A culture is where the society is at a basic level. In simple terms, they have a specific kind of pottery, housing style, and agricultural techniques, but a lower population, and have not developed complex social or political hierarchies. When these simple societies develop into complex ones, they transition from cultures to civilizations.

A civilization is defined by the development of a political state, social stratification, urbanization, and the development of language and writing systems. These factors evolve culture, religion, art and philosophy making it unique from other civilizations.

In time, civilizations expanded, invaded, intermixed, faded and decayed. Today, there are nations and states which claim descent from an older civilization. Now the question arises, which is the oldest surviving civilization?

Today, people define civilization based on Political, Linguistic, Genetic, Religious and cultural continuity. But individually, these continuities do not make a civilization.

Religion cannot define civilization. Thailand, Bhutan, Japan, Sri Lanka and Mongolia are nations with prominent Buddhist populations, but they are not the same civilization.

Ethnicity or language cannot define civilization. Turkey and Kazakhstan are both Turkic people, but not the same civilization. In fact, Turks were nomadic “cultures” who migrated and settled in different existing civilizations. Turks who settled in the former Byzantine Empire became Turkish, while those who settled in Central Asia where the native culture was Iranian, became Kazakh and other nations.

Having the same political structure does not make a civilization either: India, Germany, and Singapore are Parliamentary Republics but still do not form one civilization.

Just having the same geography does not give a claim to civilization either – the United States cannot claim roots in the Native American cultures.

If a country wants to claim continuity in an ancient civilization the connection has to be closer. Claiming roots to ancient civilization gets stronger if there is continuity in multiple factors: Polity, ethnicity, religion, culture, and languages.

Let us see the highest to lowest connection between ancient civilizations and their modern nations.

Modern continuous civilization

Japan – political (same dynasty), ethnicity, religion, culture, language

India – ethnicity, religion, culture, language

China – ethnicity, culture, language (not considering religion due to state atheism)

Iran – Ethnicity, language

Greece – Ethnicity, language

Egypt – Ethnicity

Mesopotamia – nothing (ethnoculture survives among minority Assyrians who are now Christians)

Then some countries cannot claim to be independent civilizations. Spain has been part of the Western civilization since the Roman Empire. Tajikistan is part of the Persian civilization, while Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan are part of the Indian civilization. The Indus Valley Civilization had its core in modern-day Pakistan, but due to ideological reasons, Pakistan disowned its links to Indian civilization.

Geographical continuity is also another aspect. Voltaire once said the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. This was because the Holy Roman Empire was a group of small German-speaking kingdoms located mostly in modern-day Germany and Austria.

Alexander the Great was an ancient Greek Macedonian, and today, he is claimed by both Greeks and North Macedonians. But modern North Macedonians are not Greeks, they are Slavic and Albanian-speaking people.

Then comes the periphery states which overlap between two or more civilizations. Afghanistan lies between India and Iran – while they speak Iranian languages like Pasto and Dari, historically Gandhara & Kabul have been part of the Indian civilizational sphere. Mainland Southeast Asia, which was aptly referred to as Indo-China lies between Indian and Chinese civilizations and hence historically came under both Indian and Chinese civilizational influence.

After globalization, the world has become one civilization, and since then exchange of goods, services, ideas, and information has made every civilization more similar. Therefore, it would be incorrect to term clashes between nations as clashes of civilizations.

So, which is the oldest surviving Civilization?

Yet, to answer the question of ‘Oldest surviving Civilization’ we must check the earliest timeline of civilization and the parameters of political, ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic continuity.

Mesopotamian Civilization – 4th Millennium BCE (nothing left except Aramaic-speaking Christian Assyrians)

Egyptian Civilization – 3rd Millennium BCE (only as ethnicity)

Indus Valley Civilization – 3rd Millennium BCE (ethnicity, language, culture, religion)

Chinese Civilization – 2nd Millennium BCE (ethnicity, culture, language)

Greek Civilization – 2nd Millennium BCE (ethnicity, language)

Out of the three oldest, only Indian civilization has continuity in most of the criteria.

Rakhigarhi's DNA has proven genetic continuity from the Indus Valley Civilization to the modern, while the ancient language is considered to be either Sanskrit or a Dravidian language. Culturally, bangles, yoga, swastika, and religious practices of ritual bathing, fire altars, worshipping mother goddess, and rivers were practices which later assimilated into Hinduism. How that could have happened, is a topic for another time.

Today, the world has become one civilization interconnected with commerce, the internet and the exchange of ideas. Therefore, every civilization is in some way a collective heritage of everyone.

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