Abstract
The beliefs and values shared within a group of individuals in the society developing over long periods across generations are referred to as culture. Civilization, on the other hand, refers to the transition of these cultural ways over generations to complexity and modernization. Culture make brought many influences to early civilization that is still felt in the current generations. This change of culture brings out the need to understate revisionist history.
Forces that contributed to early civilization cultural makeup
Early civilization arose from the natural way of life since the earliest human creatures had their own cultures such as lighting fires for cooking. They were also able to make tools, carry out burials for their dead people, and even covered themselves with skins (Levack, 2007).
Farming is considered one of the major forces that led to early civilization. This is observed from the fact that human beings who used to hunt gather for food started transforming to farming in search of food. Because of the increased population, people developed the art of agriculture to avoid long distances in search of food. This was a major development in cultures such as Mesopotamia where a decrease in mortality of young children was noticed. The introduction of seasonal foods was fully exploited to replace hunting (Cunningham, 2006).
The population growth was another force on early civilization because it brought the need for people to build permanent shelters. This resulted from the difficulty in moving large populations from one place to another. People started restructuring their temporary huts to form a new culture of permanent settings.
Social issues due to the cultural makeup
Cultural makeup was associated with social aspects due to the intricacy of newer cultures. All over the world, different societies became more complex due to the introduction of agricultural practices. This was observed in African, American, and Asian societies because the social order started producing architectural monuments which were later on used by future generations for spiritual purposes.
As the culture went on getting modernized, societies came up with rules and laws that were used to govern the social behaviors in different societies. These laws were passed on to other generations that came after. Social characters like music, drama, and literature, arose as a result of civilization and cultural makeup. These social aspects were passed on to very many generations that have come by because of their effects on the emotions of human beings. Philosophy and poetry also came up from the Greek culture as a result of civilization (Benton, 2005).
Main cultural influences on early civilizations
Cultural makeup had important influences on early civilizations. The influences range from political artistic and scientific to the introduction of governments and recognition of individual beings in modern society. Advancement of culture led to kingdoms which formed governments with kings as their leaders. This further saw the introduction of constitutions and democracy hence human beings were able to practice their democratic rights (Cunningham, 2006).
People started valuing each other and events such as sporting activities including athletics were invented and honored due to cultural makeup. It also included other fields that were honored such as musicians, poets, and judges among others could perform what they liked.
Importance of revisionist history
According to Witt (1997), revisionist history is an important subject because it facilitates the review and discussions of evident processes of the historical past. Revisionist history is also necessary because it connects the present to the past while availing room for changes based on newfound evidence. This is vital because, with time, more debates and questions bring out new evidence hence an improvement of historical information. Therefore, interpretation of history needs not be neglected as it recognizes the efforts made by new historians.
References
Benton, J. R., & DiYanni, R. (2005). Arts and culture: An introduction to the humanities. 2ndedn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Levack, B. P., Muir, E., Maas, M., & Veldman, M. (2007). The West: Encounters & transformations. New York: Longman.
Cunningham, L. S., & Reich, J. J. (2006). Culture and values: A survey of the humanities. Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
Witt, M. F., Brown, C. V., Dunbar, R. A., Tirro, F., & Witt, R. G. (1997). The humanities: Cultural roots and continuities. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.