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Studying Civilizations: Retrospect and Prospect

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Human-Earth System Dynamics

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Abstract

Why did the Middle East host the oldest civilization of the Old World? And why did Andean South America give birth to the oldest civilization in the Western Hemisphere? Civilizations cannot be created in places where there is extremely impoverished soil—a space suitable for living is the precondition for the reproduction of human beings. However, it is not the soil fertility that had eventually given birth to the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia. In Andean South America, since it had far less frequent intercultural influences than those in the Old World did, the exogenous factors contributing to the rise of cultures and civilizations can be minimized, if not totally ignored. As a result, the endogenous geographical and environmental factors contributing to the rise of cultures and civilizations can be more clearly identified accordingly.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Shady et al. (2001) and Haas et al. (2004) for more details about the archaeological evidence of this civilization.

  2. 2.

    The Hemudu and Liangzhu cultures have been identified to be sources of modern Austronesian and Daic (including Thai and Lao) or, possibly, of modern Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) populations (Yan 2005, p. 36; and Li et al. 2007).

  3. 3.

    See Guo (2018) for a more detailed description of these six civilizations that cannot be found in the usual text.

  4. 4.

    Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=oasis, accessed 2017-2-18.

  5. 5.

    Cited from Lanning (1967, p. 64).

  6. 6.

    For example, the total number of the short and narrow valleys that are found to have hosted agricultural villages is as many as 78 (Lanning 1967, pp. 57–59).

  7. 7.

    See, for example, Harris (1990, p. 13).

  8. 8.

    This phase is earlier than the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2047–1940 BC) in Mesopotamian and the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC) of Egypt.

  9. 9.

    Cited from www.harappa.com/har/indus-saraswati.html. Accessed 2016-10-1.

  10. 10.

    See Table 7.1 for a comparison of the four ancient civilizations in the Eastern Hemisphere.

  11. 11.

    Even today, several Maya groups in Guatemala, including the K’iche’, Q’eqchi’ and Kaqchikel, and the Mixe people of Oaxaca, continue using modernized forms of the Mesoamerican calendar.

  12. 12.

    See Wu (1982, pp. 66–67 and 467) for a more detailed account.

  13. 13.

    It does, however, stay constant with respect to other phenomena, notably tides, which are vital to people living in coastal areas.

  14. 14.

    See Meeus and Savoie (1992) and Urban and Seidelmann (2012, p. 595).

  15. 15.

    Employing spectral analysis Korotayev and Tsirel (2010) confirmed the presence of the Juglar cycles in world GDP dynamics.

  16. 16.

    See, for example, Rosen et al. (1994).

  17. 17.

    See, for example, Kuznets (1930), Forrester (1977, pp. 107–121), and Korotayev and Tsirel (2010).

  18. 18.

    The English version of this book, titled Long Wave Cycle, was published in 1984 (Kondratieff 1984).

  19. 19.

    See Schumpeter (2005) and Keklik (2003).

  20. 20.

    See Rosenberg (1994, pp. 62–84).

  21. 21.

    Some of the works involving long cycle research and technology include Marchetti (1986), Ayres (1989), and Tylecote (1991).

  22. 22.

    This theory was developed by Irving Fisher following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. See, for example, Minsky (1992) and Keen (1995).

  23. 23.

    See Mansfield (1983).

  24. 24.

    Spectral analysis is a technique that is used in the fields of electrical engineering for analyzing electrical circuits and radio waves to deconstruct a complex signal to determine the main frequencies and their relative contribution.

  25. 25.

    Other, similar research includes Freeman and Louçã (2001) and Perez (2002). Perez (2002) places the phases on a logistic or S curve, with the following labels: beginning of a technological era as irruption, the ascent as frenzy, the rapid build out as synergy, and the completion as maturity.

  26. 26.

    This is a topic that needs to be further discussed in a greater detail.

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  1. Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, China

    Rongxing Guo

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Guo, R. (2019). Studying Civilizations: Retrospect and Prospect. In: Human-Earth System Dynamics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0547-4_7

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