Sub-Saharan Civilizations

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The textbook has defined a civilization as a “sophistication of a peoples intellectual, cultural, and artistic traditions” (149). It continues to describe characteristics such as writing, the development of cities, as well as a state bureaucracy as a means of recognizing civilizations (149). These, while a general guide, do not and should not solely determine whether or not a society is a civilization as there are many other factors to take into account. Africa, for example, differed from Europe and Asia tremendously in organization, among many other ways (149). While many African societies did not consist of all these characteristics, many were literate and developed urban populations (149). The lack of state bureaucracy within an African society, or an absence of another characteristic alone, should not solely determine whether or not a society is a civilization (149). One must take other factors into consideration because the civilizations of one region, do not mimic that of others. The geographic location and make up of the African continent hindered Sub Saharan contact with the...

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