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  > > From the President

 


Uncivilized definition

McGuire Gibson's archaeological work ("Investigations," August/00) is fascinating, but his criteria for "civilization" strike me as pretty uncivilized. According to the story, these criteria are having "a division of labor, an organized and respected hierarchy...to help societies develop order, defend themselves, and provide opportunities for wealth to grow and arts to flourish."

This sociologist would like to know why having a hierarchy is civilized and when one was ever respected except by those at its top, whose order is being developed, who is being defended against whom, and who gets the wealth.

Some societies do nicely without many of these inequalities, and some also create art, if not always the museum kind. They may lack complexity but appear more civilized than the one defined by Prof. Gibson's criteria.

Herbert J. Gans, PhB'47, AM'50
New York, New York

 


  OCTOBER 2000

  > > Volume 93, Number 1


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