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Caribbean Civilization

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Submitted By ACE8995
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How accurate is it to assert that "...by 1492 the Caribbean region was part of world civilisation"?
Since the emergence of our species, early humans lived by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants. These were referred to as Paleolithic societies, which had to follow their food and as a result, were forced to live mostly nomadic lives wandering from place to place in search of food. Eventually these early humans learned to cultivate plants, herd animals and make airtight pottery for storage. This settled lifestyle was known as Neolithic societies. It is through this progression from Paleolithic to Neolithic, that “civilisation” is said to have its beginning.
In my interpretation I think that civilisation refers to an organized way of people existing together and working towards improving their way of life while striving for the continuation and development of their existence. The Oxford Dictionary defines “civilisation” as “the stage in human social development and organization which is considered most advance”. A key point to note is the reference of the term advance indicating development. Professor V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957), a very influential theorist of civilisation in the Western world during the first half of the twentieth century had identified a number of characteristic for what would constitute a civilisation. Some of these characteristics included, surplus of food resulting from development in animal husbandry, plant cultivation and storage methods. Other characteristics were the establishment of large urban centers, division of labour with specialized occupations of members, hierarchy system governing there social structure with a ruling class exempt from manual labour and a state religion/ideology were some of the main characteristics .
As mentioned above, early human beings in Paleolithic societies in search of food brought settlers to the

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