Gilgamesh

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read Durant’s “Conditions of Civilization.” They should also have done the assigned study guide questions found in the Durant packet.

Activities:

• A. Administer quiz over Durant’s essay. Allow about five minutes for students to complete the quiz. Exchange papers and grade in class. Collect quizzes.

• B. Go over study guide questions.

  • 1. What is Durant’s initial definition of civilization?

    “Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation.”

    What four conditions (NOT ELEMENTS) constitute it?

    The four conditions are geological, geographical, economic, and psychological.

  • 2. According to Durant, in the paragraph on the ECONOMIC CONDITIONS of civilization, what is the sine qua non of culture?

    A continuity of food is the sine qua non of culture.

    How do pre‑civilized or barbarous peoples usually meet this need?

    Pre‑civilized peoples depend upon hunting and trade for their continuity of food.

    How do civilized peoples meet it?

    Civilized peoples depend ultimately on agriculture.

    What is the role of agriculture in the process of civilization?

    Agriculture moves humans toward civilization by giving them leisure time to create the tools of civilization and time to think about wanting them. It teaches them regularity of work habits and orderliness, lengthens their lifespan, and allows for a more thorough transmission of intellectual and moral heritage.

  • 3. How does Durant differentiate between culture and civilization? How does a culture evolve into a civilization? How does he justify his conclusion that “civilization . . . comes to flower only in the towns” in economic terms?

    A culture develops once the continuity of the food supply has been established through the development of agriculture. The leisure time that agriculture yields due to the fact that fewer hands are needed to feed more people allows human beings the opportunity to develop the orderliness and system of education that allows him to pass on intellectual and moral learning that turns into civilization. Essentially, culture is rural while civilization is urban.

    Only in a town do enough people have enough free time to share non‑survival ideas. Life in town also tends to promote tolerance.

  • 4. What significance does race play in the growth of civilization?

    NONE

    What distinction does Durant make between a race and a type of people?

    A type depends upon a group’s values and customs. A race is a physically distinctive group.

    How may blood [Today Durant would use the word genetics.] impede or promote civilization?

    Durant uses blood to refer to the health of the gene pool available to a contained group of humans.

  • 5. Durant asserts that the PSYCHOLOGICAL conditions of civilization are the only one of the four conditions that actually generate a civilization. What five factors, or “generators,” does he identify as necessary aspects of the psychological condition of civilization?

    a. POLITICAL ORDER

    b. UNITY OF LANGUAGE

    c. UNIFYING MORAL CODE

    d. UNITY OF BASIC BELIEF

    e. EDUCATION

    How comprehensive or absolute must each of the five be in order to constitute a civilization?

    They may come precariously close to non‑existence. Political order may verge on chaos; the moral code may be given more lip service than practice; and the basic belief may be subject to heated debate; yet civilization may yet hang on.

  • 6. According to Durant, what differentiates man from the beast?

    “Man differs from the beast only by education…”

    How is this assertion linked to his final definition of civilization?

    When Durant says, “Civilizations are the generations of the racial soul,” he asserts that education carries on an identity from one generation to the next that infuses a group with an identity that transcends that of any individual members and thus creates civilization.

    What is his parting challenge to his readers?

    He challenges his readers to promote education through a concern for both our young and for our heritage.

  • 7. In the penultimate paragraph of his essay, Durant discusses the destruction of civilization. Which destroyers may, in your opinion, currently or soon will afflict our civilization?

    THIS IS AN OPEN QUESTION. However, the threat of famine, disease (AIDS), or ecological disaster may all come up.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read “The Gift of Two Rivers” in your packet and pp. 7‑16 in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Do the corresponding study questions in your packets.