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Research draft

civilization

vr.tr.civilization · SOC.ORG

Let an agent handle civilizations by region, period, features and sources, presenting the concept critically and avoiding value rankings of cultures.

Thing Registry Society, people and institutions

Research draft, second pass

A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.

written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify

Researched by: Claude

Purpose and description

Let an agent handle civilizations by region, period, features and sources, presenting the concept critically and avoiding value rankings of cultures.

A complex society characterised by cities, social stratification, specialised labour, writing or record systems, monumental architecture and organised government; the term is also used for large cultural spheres, and its use has been criticised for implying hierarchy between cultures.

What it is for: Describing large-scale societies in history and archaeology.

It can be summarise early civilizations from sources; explain criteria and critiques of the concept; find archaeological and historical resources; separate speculative uses such as extraterrestrial civilizations.

Distinguishing features

Complex, urban societies

Contested criteria

Studied by archaeology and history

Term carries value judgements

What it looks like

Not physical; evidenced by cities, monuments, writing and artefacts.

How it is recognised

Cities, writing and monuments

Cradles of civilization such as Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

Civility as manners is a different sense

Related models

is a kind of - category

society

is studied by - fields

archaeology and history

includes - feature

city

is related to - concept

culture

In practice

Families and kinds

early river valley civilizations

classical civilizations

Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations

medieval civilizations

hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations

Standards and regulation

World Heritage Convention for sites

Failure modes and hazards

Ranking cultures as more or less civilised

Eurocentric framing

Unsourced claims about ancient societies

Also called

cradle of civilizationmaterial civilizationAfrican civilizationEuropean civilizationextraterrestrial civilizationmedieval civilizationIslamic civilizationoriental civilizationpre-Columbian eraplanetary civilizationintellectual civilizationlost cultureancient civilizationearly civilisationstellar civilizationgalactic civilizationuniversal civilizationmultiversal civilizationClassical African civilizationUral mining civilizationbunmei-kaikaYangtze civilizationGallina culture

Where this came from

wikidata · CC0 1.0

Source repository Registry entry point

Also registered as vr.tr.civilization

Drafted structure

Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.

Society Which civilization.

Sources identify.

Identity

Name and period.

Identity

Identity.

  1. Which civilization, region and period is meant? provenance
  2. Which sources describe it? provenance

Features

Characteristics.

Features

Features.

  1. What features do archaeologists identify, such as cities or writing? provenance
  2. How strong is the evidence? boundary
Concept Critique.

The term is debated.

Criteria

Definitions.

Criteria

Criteria.

  1. Which criteria define a civilization in this source? provenance
  2. Are they contested? boundary

Critique

Value judgements.

Critique

Critique.

  1. Does the use imply a ranking of cultures? boundary
  2. How do scholars critique it? provenance
Evidence Archaeology.

Evidence grounds claims.

Sites

Archaeological sites.

Sites

Sites.

  1. Which sites provide evidence, and are they protected? provenance
  2. How can they be visited? provenance

Myths

Pseudo-archaeology.

Myths

Pseudo-archaeology.

  1. Is a claim about lost civilizations pseudo-archaeology? boundary
  2. What do archaeologists say? provenance
Senses Disambiguation.

Uses vary.

Speculative

Extraterrestrial.

Speculative

Speculative sense.

  1. Is a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization meant? boundary
  2. Which entry fits? action

Games

Media.

Games

Media sense.

  1. Is a game or book titled Civilization meant? boundary
  2. Which entry fits? action

What the second pass must settle

  • Should each civilization be a separate entry?
  • How should critiques of the term be presented?
  • How should speculative uses be split off?
Draft as JSON