Culture, Value & Civilisation

Culture, value, and civilisation are central concepts in understanding human history and social organisation. Culture encompasses language, religion, art, literature, customs, and daily practices, documented in early centres such as Sumer in Mesopotamia (c. 3000 BCE), the Vedic Civilisation (c. 5500–500 BCE), and ancient Egypt along the Nile. Values refer to moral and ethical principles that guide societies, articulated by thinkers such as Confucius in China (551–479 BCE), Socrates and Aristotle in Greece (5th–4th century BCE), and later by religious texts such as the Vedas (India, c. 5500 BCE) and the Bible (400-450 CE). Civilisation denotes organised urban societies with governance, law, economy, and writing systems, evident in the Babylonian-Persian Empire, Roman Empire (27 BCE–476 CE), the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka (3rd century BCE), and the Islamic Golden Age centred in Baghdad (8th–13th century CE). See: Sarvarthapedia