20.1
Human community life
 
  Human beings are a social animal. We prefer to live in settlements, rather than alone. One hundred years ago, 8 out of 10 of all human lived in settlements of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Today, 1 in 3 people live in major metropolis centres of one million or more people.  
  The shift towards larger and larger urban settlements in the past forty years is arguably one of the most dramatic shifts in human history. Historians and social commentators point to the shift as a clear sign post along a path of evolution of the human species- from ape, to "civilized ape".  
  We are taught that civilization is less than 10,000 years old. That it was the agriculturists, the farmers along rich river beds who stumbled across civilization when trying to protect their settlements from raiders and the elements. Slowly we are told, human beings learned from the experience of their ancestors and further refined their notion of societies- gradually culminating in the knowledge of the modern world.  
  This precise and seemingly logical model is the one taught to almost every single child who has learned history. So confident are we that it is true and without contradiction that almost no opposition to it receives much interest or airplay. Yet, less than one hundred years ago, the estimated age of the dawn of western civilization was considered no more than 6,000 years old. And two hundred years ago, the figure was more closely aligned to 4,000 years old.  
  What has pushed back our concept of the age of human civilization has been the continuous work of archeologists and specialists scientists in being able to find previously lost ancient civilizations (such as the Sumerians) and predate ancient and known discoveries (such as the water marks on the Sphinx and the astrological alignment of Sth American temples). Yet, no matter what the new date, there is almost no dispute on the basic premise that x thousands of years ago, humans were less civilized and gradually became more so.  
20.1.1 What is the origin of human society?  
  Yet is this accurate? Is this what really happened? The "uncivilized to civilized" argument seems patently absurd and simple untruthful when issues such as the 15,000 year old ruins at Tiahuanaco on Lake Tititaca in Sth America, the ruins of Balbeek in Lebanon and the Great Pyramid are considered. If anything, our ancient "uncivilized" forefathers were better engineers than us. Then what about the ancient 6,000 year old Sumerian culture and vast libraries of clay tablets that show they were every bit as sophisticated in social living as we are today?  
  It begs the question why? and how? If a society was using legal models frighteningly similar to ours 6,000 years ago as well as vast libraries of medical knowledge- how did it happen? It is as if the trail goes cold and simply disappears. One minute human beings are living as savages and the next minute, a few are living in cities, using rules and ideas, very similar to the present day?  
  A further angle to this argument also raises a great paradox- why were humans so great and precise at building cities and monuments thousands of years ago, only to revert to savagery and/or less civilized practices as shown in Sth America, Pacific (Easter Island), Asia, Egypt, Europe and Mesopotamian region. Surely the argument that Pol Pot and Chairman Mao type regimes (anti-knowledge, anti-culture) were responsible. Even as a result of both regimes, the history and customs of the old still managed to survive. yet when we talk of sophisticated skills such as the Maya and the Olmecs, we see almost a complete disappearance of all knowledge and skill- a complete anomaly.  
  Such questions and investigation touches on dangerous and controversial subjects already raised in previous chapters such as the Origins of Humans. To raise such questions is to stir the angst and ire of well funded and well connected schools of belief. However, we will answer these questions in more detail in later chapters.  
20.1.2 What is the structure and nature of a society?  
  It is common sense, that a human being requires food, shelter, warmth and companionship. But what of the aggregate of humans that come together to form a society? In this chapter we will look to describe and classify the essential structures of a society- what it requires, what makes a society a society and how different models of society have evolved.  
  In terms of the nature of a society, we will consider the common sense realization that a society- like any other level of matter should also be considered a living organism- an enclosed ecosystem with dynamic motives, collective thoughts and behavior. This is in direct contrast to the mechanistic attitudes of modern day economics and many social sciences that view societies as mechanical things, rather than living symbiotic wholes.  
20.1.3 The development of cities  
  As societies and cities are often considered synonymous, we will review and discuss the nature of cities- their construction and evolution.  
20.1.4 Finding common sense to move ahead  
  Ultimately, we will rely on the discussions and importance of society later in chapters, we seek to provide a framework from which to further investigate the nature and behaviour of human life.  
     
 
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