Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Civilizations and Cultures

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Introduction to Intercultural Economics

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Economics ((BRIEFSECONOMICS))

  • 811 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter investigates the origins and the evolutions of ancient civilizations of the world. In order to answer why ancient civilizations are only associated with the rivers of the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Nile, the Indus, and the Yellow instead of the others, a challenge-and-response model of cultural development is founded, and the relationship between different natural disasters (threats) and the developments of ancient civilizations is examined. My discussion takes into account of the world’s major primary civilizations and concludes that rivers and their cyclic nature of annual floods—not tectonic plate boundaries and earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions—were a greater catalyst to the birth of the world’s oldest civilizations. This chapter also answers question such as why existing cultures are conflicting and also complementary.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that the developments of almost all derivative civilizations have been, to some extent, influenced by other older civilizations (more details will be discussed in Chap. 2).

  2. 2.

    Even today, we can still find wetlands at the deltas of the Indus, the Euphrates, the Tigris and the Yellow rivers.

  3. 3.

    The term ‘natural’ has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without human involvement.

  4. 4.

    Note that other natural disasters and threats (such as predators' attack) might be most important in the evolution of mankind during the prehistoric period.

  5. 5.

    Other literature in this regard would include Wittfogel (1957), Worsher (1985), and Scarborough (2003).

  6. 6.

    Cited from Mencius (c. 300 BC, Gaozi II).

  7. 7.

    Cited from Mencius (c. 300 BC, Teng Wen Gong II). Note that the term ‘dragon’, which has also been known as the ‘God of water or rain’ in traditional Chinese culture, probably was referred as to the beast ‘crocodile’ or other amphibious lizards.

  8. 8.

    Of course, we still need more detailed archeological evidence in order to support this hypothesis. External influences on the evolutions of ancient civilizations will be discussed in Chap. 2.

  9. 9.

    If X, Y, and Z are used to denote the numbers of ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, respectively, the largest number of cultures (N) that encompass different kinds of the ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups can be expressed by N=X·Y·Z.

  10. 10.

    Cited from Brown (2005).

  11. 11.

    The earliest literature would include Bacon (1946), Kroeber (1947), Naroll (1950) and Patai (1951).

  12. 12.

    Other authors who advanced similar arguments include Lind (1990); Buzan (1991); Gilpin (1993); Lind (1992), (1994); Rostovanyi (1993); Vlahos (1991); Puchala (1994); Elmandjra (1994) and The Economist (1994, pp. 21–3).

  13. 13.

    The only exception is the Western culture.

  14. 14.

    For example, Northwest India belongs to the Islamic culture; and the Muslims and Tibetans in Northwest and Southwest China have nothing to do with the Han Chinese culture.

References

  • Aono T (1979) New geography (B) (in Japanese). Nigong Shiyoten, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacon E (1946) A preliminary attempt to determine the culture areas of Asia. Southwest J Anthropol 2:117–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagby P (1958) Culture and history: prolegomena to the comparative study of civilizations. Longmans, Green, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Braudel F (1994) History of civilizations. Allen Lane-Penguin Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bros P (2005) The case for the flood. In: Kenyon JD (ed) Forbidden history, Rochester. Bear & Company, Vermont

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown N (2005) Friedrich Ratzel, Clark Wissler, and Carl Sauer: Culture area research and mapping. Available. www.csiss.org/classics/content/15. Accessed 12 Nov 2008

  • Buzan B (1991) New patterns of global security in the twenty-first century. Int Affairs 67:441–449

    Google Scholar 

  • China Educational Society (2009) Unexplained mysteries (section B). English learners’ lighthouse (yingyu xuexi fudao bao), No. 50 (8 June) (an English-Chinese version). Available. www.ell.cn/pSmallClass.asp?typeid=32&BigClassID=61&SmallClassID=102. Accessed 10 Aug 2009

  • Darwin C (1859) The origin of species by means of natural selection, 1st edn. John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Driver H (1962) The contribution of A. L. Kroeber to culture area theory and practice. Indians University publications in anthropology and linguistics, no. 18, Waverly Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Elmandjra M (1994) Cultural diversity: key to survival in the future. Paper presented to the First Mexican Congress on future studies, Mexico City, Sept 1994

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrand L (1904) Basis of American history, 1500–1900. Ungar, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Force ER (2008) Tectonic environments of Ancient civilizations in the Eastern Hemisphere. Geoarchaeol Int J 23(5):644–653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galtung J (1992) The emerging conflict formations. In: Tehranian K, Tehranian M (eds) Restructuring for world peace: on the threshold of the twenty-first century. Cresskill: Hampton Press, pp 20–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelles PH (2000) Water and power in Highland Peru: the cultural politics of irrigation and development. Rutgers University Press, Fredericksburg

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilpin R (1993) The cycle of great powers: has it finally been broken?. Princeton University, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta A, Ferguson J (1997) Culture, power, place: explorations in critical anthropology. Duke University Press, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo R (2009) On the birth of ancient civilizations—comments on a paper by Eric R Force. Geoarchaeol Int J 24(6):846–848

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holms W (1903) Classification and arrangement of the exhibits of an Anthropological Museum. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntington SP (1996) The clash of civilization and the remaking of world order. Simon & Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1972) Sills DL (ed) vol. 3, The Macmillan Company and The Free Press, New York, Collier-Macmillan Publishers, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Keim M (2007) The public health consequences of disasters. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Available. www.dhss.mo.gov/BT_Response/presentations/PublicHealthAndDisasters-Keim.ppt. Accessed 10 Aug 2007

  • Kendall HM (1976) Introduction to cultural geography. Arnold, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroeber AL (1939) Cultural and natural areas of native North America. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroeber AL (1947) Culture groupings in Asia. Southwest J Anthropol 3:322–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Lind M (1990) American as an ordinary country. Am Enterp 1:19–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Lind WS (1992) North-South relation: returning to a world of cultures in conflict. Curr World Lead 35:1075–1080

    Google Scholar 

  • Lind WS (1994) Defending Western culture. Foreign Policy 84:40–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Malakoff D (2008) Did rumbling give rise to Rome? ScienceNOW Daily News, 22 Aug Available. http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/822/3. Accessed 1 Jan 2009

  • McNeil WH (1963) The rise of the West: a history of the human community. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Melko M (1969) The nature of civilizations. Porter Sargent, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Naroll RS (1950) A draft map of the culture areas of Asia. Southwest J Anthropol 6:183–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Patai R (1951) Nomadism: Middle Eastern and Central Asian. Southwest J Anthropol 7:401–414

    Google Scholar 

  • Puchala DJ (1994) The history of the future of international relations. Ethics Int Aff 8:177–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quigley C (1979) The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis, 2nd edn. Liberty Press, Indianapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Reebs S (2008) Creative destruction—ancient civilizations rose near tectonic boundaries. Natural history magazine, December 2008–January 2009. Available. www.naturalhistorymag.com/samplings/11343/creative-destruction. Accessed 20 Oct 2009

  • Rostovanyi Z (1993) Clash of civilizations and cultures: Unity or disunity of world order. Unpublished paper, March

    Google Scholar 

  • Sapper K (1968) The Verapaz in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: a contribution to the historical geography and ethnography of Northeastern Guatemala. Occasional papers of the Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, Los Angeles, No. 13

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarborough VL (2003) The flow of power: ancient water systems and landscapes. SAR Press, Santa Fe

    Google Scholar 

  • ScienceNOW Staff (2008) The top 10 ScienceNOWs of 2008. ScienceNOW Daily News, 24 Dec 2008

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair K (1987) The yellow river: a 5000 year journey through China. Child & Associates Publishing, Chatswood, Sydney, Australia

    Google Scholar 

  • Spengler O (1928) Decline of the West. A. A. Knopf, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart D Jr (2008) Evidence of the global genesis flood. Available. www.scripturehistory.com/globalflood.php. Accessed 22 Oct 2008

  • The Economist (1994) The new world order: back to the future. Oxford University Press, London, pp 21–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Toynbee A (1961) A study of history. Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Vlahos M (1991) Culture and foreign policy. Foreign Policy 82:59–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wissler C (1917) The American Indian: an introduction to the anthropology of the New World, 3rd edn. Smith, Gloucester

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittfogel KA (1957) Oriental despotism: A comparative study of total power. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn

    Google Scholar 

  • Worsher D (1985) Rivers of empire: water, aridity, and growth of the American West. Pantheon Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Science Association of China, Peking University, Beijing, People‘s Republic of China

    Rongxing Guo

Authors
  1. Rongxing Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Guo, R. (2012). Civilizations and Cultures. In: Introduction to Intercultural Economics. SpringerBriefs in Economics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29276-7_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29276-7_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29275-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29276-7

  • eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation