civilization
Let an agent handle civilizations by region, period, features and sources, presenting the concept critically and avoiding value rankings of cultures.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions
Society Which civilization.
Identity
Name and period.
Identity
Identity.
- Which civilization, region and period is meant? provenance
- Which sources describe it? provenance
Features
Characteristics.
Features
Features.
- What features do archaeologists identify, such as cities or writing? provenance
- How strong is the evidence? boundary
Concept Critique.
Criteria
Definitions.
Criteria
Criteria.
- Which criteria define a civilization in this source? provenance
- Are they contested? boundary
Critique
Value judgements.
Critique
Critique.
- Does the use imply a ranking of cultures? boundary
- How do scholars critique it? provenance
Evidence Archaeology.
Sites
Archaeological sites.
Sites
Sites.
- Which sites provide evidence, and are they protected? provenance
- How can they be visited? provenance
Myths
Pseudo-archaeology.
Myths
Pseudo-archaeology.
- Is a claim about lost civilizations pseudo-archaeology? boundary
- What do archaeologists say? provenance
Senses Disambiguation.
Speculative
Extraterrestrial.
Speculative
Speculative sense.
- Is a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization meant? boundary
- Which entry fits? action
Games
Media.
Games
Media sense.
- Is a game or book titled Civilization meant? boundary
- Which entry fits? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Society, people and institutions
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- SOC
- Domain
- SOC.ORG
- Other names and narrower kinds
- cradle of civilization, material civilization, African civilization, European civilization, extraterrestrial civilization, medieval civilization, Islamic civilization, oriental civilization, pre-Columbian era, planetary civilization, intellectual civilization, lost culture
What it is Filled
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.
Why it exists Filled
Let an agent handle civilizations by region, period, features and sources, presenting the concept critically and avoiding value rankings of cultures.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Complex, urban societies
- Contested criteria
- Studied by archaeology and history
- Term carries value judgements
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Rank peoples or cultures as civilized or uncivilized to justify domination or contempt.
- Present contested or speculative history as settled fact.
- Attribute a civilization's achievements to outsiders without evidence.
- Help loot or trade artefacts taken from archaeological sites.
Only with a human decision
- Publishing claims about the origins of a living community's ancestors.
May
- Describe civilizations from archaeological and historical sources, citing them.
- Compare features of societies such as writing, cities and government without ranking peoples.
Moral aspects Filled
- The idea of civilization has been used to justify colonisation and the erasure of other societies.
- Descendant communities have a stake in how their past is told.
Who is affected
- Descendant communities
- Indigenous peoples
- Students and readers of history
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns the concept; heritage authorities and descendant communities care for the sites and records.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q8425 - registry parent class
related
- society - category
- archaeology and history - fields
- city - feature
- culture - concept
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.civilization
- Wikidata: Q8432 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8432)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Plane SOC: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Cities, writing and monuments
- Cradles of civilization such as Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley
- Civility as manners is a different sense
- Not physical; evidenced by cities, monuments, writing and artefacts.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- summarise early civilizations from sources
- explain criteria and critiques of the concept
- find archaeological and historical resources
- separate speculative uses such as extraterrestrial civilizations
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Ranking cultures as more or less civilised
- Eurocentric framing
- Unsourced claims about ancient societies
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- World Heritage Convention for sites
Context of use required Filled
- Describing large-scale societies in history and archaeology.
- early river valley civilizations
- classical civilizations
- Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations
- medieval civilizations
- hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q8432: civilization - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Civilization - general description of the item
Open questions
- Should each civilization be a separate entry?
- How should critiques of the term be presented?
- How should speculative uses be split off?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q8432/spec.json