| 20.10 |
A greater explanation of the concept of cities |
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While technology and "ages of humanity"
tend to be considered as one means of describing the history of humanity,
technology always occurs in the context of social organisations of people. |
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By definition, social organisation means
not only how people think, work and interact, it also means the physical
buildings that constitute their places of work, home and entertainment, the
areas they gather and trade and the systems that support these activities. In a
biological sense, we mean the habitat of a colony of humans. |
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It also means the relative density of
people over a given environment. It also means the legal arrangement of a given
location as well as the model used for these living working environments. |
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We call these models of living "cities",
suburbs, towns and many other names. We begin therefore with the first model
recognized as the 1st model defining human civilization - the city. |
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| 20.10.1
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The definition of the word city |
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The word city comes from the Latin word
civitas mead from two Latin words civis "citizen" + -tat- "condition" to mean
literally "conditions of a citizen." |
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The word "citizen" itself as we have just
discussed comes from the concept of a "free person of the State, the State
being the city", a fundamental basis of the Greek version of democracy. |
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Therefore, in its base sense, the word
city is circular in its argument, as self-defining - i.e."a city means the
conditions of the citizens of a city means.." Initially this summary of the
original meaning of the word city may not appear important or even necessarily
make sense for the moment. However, the word "city" will prove to be of
significant purpose later in this chapter. |
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| 20.10.2 |
The usage of the word "city" to describe certain models
of organized human life |
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Rather than applying to all habitats and models of
organized human life, the name city appears only to be bestowed to certain
models of organized human life, that adheres to certain rules and structures. |
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We say a city is a city not because of any one thing,
but because of a multitude of things, such as o number of people in a given
area o legal status as a city o tall buildings, large buildings, central
buildings and so on. But most commonly if asked in a day to day lives why we
call a city a city, our answer most likely would be "because its always been a
city.." |
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| 20.10.3 |
Key components that define all cities |
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Initially, it may appear improbable that all human
societies might be considered common elements transmitted from the first
civilizations to our present day civilizations It defies our belief of
evolution of knowledge and sophistication to think of our societies and
civilization as anything but the most advanced that has ever lived on the
planet Earth. |
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However, the discovery of the more than one million cuneiform clay tablets in
the ruins of the 6,000 year old great library of Nippur testifies to their
civilization also having to deal with same "key news" of the day. Some tablets
talk of the problems of corruption in the legal process and the public service.
Others talk of problems within education and crime. Others talk of the problems
and issues surrounding greedy merchants. |
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Common components exist for all cities that have ever
existed on the planet Earth. We now define these according to their type and
category: |
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| Buildings (Geographic centre of the city) |
1 Symbolizing religious and absolute power
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2 Symbolizing Civic and Regal power
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3 Symbolizing Military/Police Power
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4 Symbolizing Legal Power
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5 Symbolizing Financial and Administrative
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6 Symbolizing Knowledge and technology of society
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| Areas |
1 Professional/Administrators Accommodation
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2 Storage-Goods-warehouse/distribution
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3 Workers/Slaves Accommodation
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4- Markets
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5- Industry
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6- Central Common Ground
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| Systems |
1- Public Service Administration System
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2- Legal Justice System
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3- Military/Police System
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4- Roads/Transport System
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5- Food/Produce/Market/Distribution System
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6- Water & Sanitation System
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7- Power System
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8- Public Standard of Living
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Health System
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Education System
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Public Welfare & Entertainment System
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