Which came first: culture or civilization?

Question

And which is more important do you think?

Answer 1

Culture came first. Sitting around the fire telling stories [in a primitive language or series of hand gestures] is culture, as are the cave paintings.

Civilization is all about laws, codes of conduct/behavior, and societal expectations & pressures.

Answer 2

Oooh... very good question, I've never thought about this.

I'd say culture. Culture is a person or peoples' way of life. This includes food, art, tools, etc...

Take the cavemen for example. They weren't civil, yet they had culture. They had a way of hunting food, and a certain type of food to hunt. They were able to produce art and possibly tell stories and legends. They used animal skins for clothes and certain homes for shelter.

Civilization can be defined as an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been achieved.

So that's that: culture. That definition clearly tells me civilization is just polished culture.

Answer 3

Definitely culture. Culture develops from art, from artistic creation, which generates understanding of our condition. The difference of man to the animal (probably the only one) is that he/she is creating, that he has the creative spark in himself. Making tools is not the same as creating an object, that helps understanding or reflects on oneself inside of the all existing. An ape who uses a stick to dig some fruit from earth, is not creative. A Camel running in the desert would not turn around and look at the footprints it leaves behind. But man, who draws the outlines of his hands on a rock, he is an artist. He tries to understand his condition and reflects on himself inside of the universe around him. From there evloves culture, and from there civilized structures.
Thus art is the base of culture, culture the base of civilization. Art is created by and based on the individual.
To call the social organsation of man in certain contexts civilization, is mostly understood as a measurement of value. There might be well intelligences which would not regard our way of living civilized. It would need more culture to it.

Answer 4

A civilization is not civil without culture. They travel together.

Answer 5

culture - the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively • the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.

civilization - the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced.
------------
in my opinion culture came first because as a species we have always been interested in the arts -- that's what our brains have evolved to specialize in. we have also been a very mobile species spreading ourselves across the earth and diverting off into different groups where different intellectual achievements become necessary for differing ways of life. also, you can have culture but not have civilization if civilization can be defined as the advanced social organization of a group of people. but you can't successfully have civilization (i.e advanced social organization) without a common culture (i.e. common customs, art, social institutions and achievements.)

Answer 6

Culture is the physical artifacts of a civilization. They co-exist. One comes out of the other. Neither is first.

Answer 7

Civilization first, then cultures were formed. As it has been many many years since the dawn of man, you really can not have one without the other.

Answer 8

i think it depends on your definitions. i'd go by whatever an anthropology textbook said. i think that culture is first, or always present, any group of people can have a 'culture'. a 'civilization' is something else and also a matter of opinion, you could say.

Answer 9

Haven't you ever played civ ?!! They go hand in hand.It's like asking which came first the chicken or the egg.

Answer 10

civilization.
Culture is based upon civilization.