THE PRIMARY CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION 



By John R. S wanton 

 Collahorator, Bureau of American Ethnology 



If civilization is produced, or induced, by biological factors, factors 

 in the natural environment, or factors in the cultural environment, 

 a study of the several centers where it originated may enable us to 

 isolate these and use that knowledge for the benefit of the race. 



But at the outset it is somewhat difficult to determine the exact 

 number of cultural or civilizational centers with which we have to 

 deal since the archeological survey of our globe is still incomplete. Yet 

 certain general statements may be made. Taking the Eastern Hem- 

 isphere first, it would be pretty generally agreed that one such center 

 existed in Egypt, a second in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, and a 

 third in the valley of the Indus, while most would probably be willing 

 to add a fourth, in northern China. Elsewhere in and near the Iranian 

 Plateau, however, in Syria and Asia Minor and in the island of Crete 

 there were higher cultures of an antiquity nearly as remote. The 

 site of Anau north of the Elbruz has shown a series of archeological 

 types which seem to parallel in antiquity those of India and the twin 

 rivers, and almost as much may be said for the remains in Crete. This 

 last center, although undoubtedly dependent on the cultures of Egypt 

 and Asia, shows from an early age such esthetic maturity as to incline 

 one to give it semi-independent position. As to the rest, it is clear that 

 although they pursued in the main an independent course of develop- 

 ment, they yet influenced one another at times in a very marked man- 

 ner. This is not so evident in the case of China, but sinologists gen- 

 erally^ hold that China was in its beginnings subject to strong influ- 

 ences from the west. 



In the New World we have another series of centers lying, as in the 

 case of the Old World, along the main mountain massif of the con- 

 tinent and not far from its center. Here, however, it would be gener- 

 ally agreed that two stand out above the rest, in Central America and 

 in Peru, although there were a number of secondary foci and these 

 two centers themselves show considerable complexity. 



In the present study of these several culture centers we shall have 



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