Culture is described as a people’s way of life that is developed over time and is passed from one generation to another (Yavuz, 2013). There are quite a number of forces that contributed to the development of culture of early civilizations with their influences ranging from small to large scale levels. For example, the ancient Greeks believed that the universe consisted of everything except humans and their culture. The ancient Greeks had a clear understanding of subjectivity following the development of the tradition of debate that enabled them distinguish the internal subjective world from the external subjective world. This was not the case in ancient China where the people lacked the aspect of curiosity of outsiders. For these reason, their culture placed more value on collective identities as opposed to personal identities of their counterparts. Other forces that influenced culture included the topography of a place, demographics of an area, economic activity (trade and agriculture) and religion (Anonymous. 2013).
Following the influence of the identified forces that led to the development of culture, there arose several social issues as the consequence. These include conquests citing the example of Alexander the Great who conquered several states forming the Persian Empire, war and invasions (Trigger, 2003). Social issues could also result from a community’s religious beliefs such as killing those who are opposed to what they believe and finally the politics of civilizations that brought about economic problems that threatened the existence of the civilizations as well (United Nations Development Program, 2004).
References
Anonymous. (2013). Social Organization: Agriculture and its Consequences. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/C004203/social/social06.htm on 12/11/2013.
Trigger, B. G. (2003). Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Retrieved from http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/2002074052.pdf on 12/11/2013.
United Nations Development Program. (2004). Challenges for Cultural Liberty. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr04_chapter_2.pdf on 12/11/2013.
Yavuz, E. (2013). Early Civilizations. Retrieved from http://www.yeditepe.edu.tr/dotAsset/74061.pdf on 12/11/2013.
