What would be the oldest Civilization that still exist today?

[Sha-Feer]

Which one of the Civilizations of today would be the oldest and has stood the test of ttime so far?

 

[Pangur Bán]

Be careful here, Civilizations are not the same as nations. Lots of people will answer this question with "China!" because it exists as a state today. But all civilizations, now and in the past, are products of gradual transformation that has taken place over time. That goes for any civilization, however you define it. Chinese civilization have survived over time, but so has ROman and Mesopotamian ciivilization. They are just less recognizable. The question is flawed in assuming civilizations to be coherently demarkable entities. They aren't!

 

[sebanaj]

Chinese civilization?
India?
To classify as a civilization is required an State?
There are aztecs in mexico, incas in Peru and Bolivia
Diaguitas in north of Argentina, etc...
I don't really know to establish objective limits to determine a civilization

 

[luiz]

And dont forget some native inhabitants of Africa who basically live the same way since the dawn of mankind.

 

[Xen]

EITHEOPIA

 

[thedirk]

The simple answer would be to find the first civilization to exist (which will vary based on your definition) as all civilizations continue to this day in some form or another. However, civilizations are always evolving so in another sense no civilization is more than a day old as they all were slightly different yesterday.

Hmmm... with that kind of two-sided, slippery, vague answer maybe I should go into politics

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

It is kind of hard to say what the oldest civilization that exists today is. Ethiopia, China, and Japan have all existed for over 2000 years.

 

[PresidentMike]

I would differentiate between *culture* and *civilization.* The two are not the same.

I'd guess that the honor goes to Egypt, which has had a continuous civilization for about 4,000 years (roughly).

 

[Xen]

Originally posted by SuperBeaverInc.
It is kind of hard to say what the oldest civilization that exists today is. Ethiopia, China, and Japan have all existed for over 2000 years.

there a ALOT of civilizations that have existed for over 2000 years, to be honest, I skepticle about China, japan I can see, and Ethiopia is one of the few lands in history to have not been conqured, and ruled by out siders, ever.Western civilization is the oldest if you want to look at it that, as its simply a matter of when it was established, after all the first cites were in the west (in the middle east, which is far closer to the west then most people know, and hast made untold contributions classicle western thought)

 

[thedirk]

Originally posted by Xen


Ethiopia is one of the few lands in history to have not been conqured, and ruled by out siders, ever.

So what would you call the invasion of Ethiopia by Italy in the 1930's? As I recall the Ethiopian government went into exile and Italy added Ethiopia to their "empire."

 

[Xen]

that was the region of Eturia I belive, just north of Ethiopia

 

[willemvanoranje]

Aboriginals? Native Americans?

 

[andrewgprv]

Originally posted by willemvanoranje
Aboriginals? Native Americans?

those are some of the youngest

 

[willemvanoranje]

well, depends on how you look on it....you can't say the Roman civilization is still around, or the Greek.....even India and China are a lot different than they were. If you count that as the same civ, it's obvious it's one of them, but much has changed, so in that case you have to find a civilization that didn't change a lot for a long time, right?

 

[Xen]

Using that as a guidline there is none, save mabey some of the plains indian tribes- al the old world cultures have change alot over time, though Roman,Greek, and Chinese in the modern forms (in paticular Roman and Chinese) are the dominant cultures in the world

 

[Furius]

What do you mean, Aboriginals are one of the youngest civilizations. I doubt (in fact I know) that the Aboriginal civilization has been around since the time the megafauna died out in Australia and possibly even slightly earlier (I refer you to Aboriginal rock painting sites which depict the giant wombat and are still having new paintings added today). This would make Aboriginal civilization at LEAST 15,000 years old and presumably much older.
On the other hand, the City of Jericho was first founded in 7,000 BC (I think) and even featured a tower, the world's first. seeing as how it was sacked by the isrealites in about 2000 BC (?) that gives it a track record of at least 5000 years, as much as can be claimed by China.
That said, I went and asked for back up on this question from a friend of mine and he answered without hesitation, China! citing Peking Man so obviously the idea of a civilization is VERY vague.

 

[Xen]

Peking man?, no no no, this is history, not pre history and if we wanted to get technicle it would be europe, the Mid-east, or Africa who was oldest, I still support Ethiopea as having the oldest continuos civilization

 

[Mojotronica]

I agree w/ cal -- it's hard to define the limits of a Civ. Certainly it's not defined by national borders... What's good for a nation may not be good for a Civilization, for example.

I'd say it's a combination of language family, religion and some other cultural factors.

Samuel Huntington believes there are eight major modern Civs, and all of the ancient Civs have been absorbed or evolved into them --

Chinese
Japanese
Sub-Saharan African
Russian/Slavic
Western
Latin American
Islamic
Indian/Hindu

Strictly speaking, Egyptian civilization is the oldest, possibly rivalled by Sumerian. Both are physically proximal to Mecca, the cultural center of Islamic civilization, and share it's contemporary cultural commonality -- Islam.

So in a roundabout way, Islamic civilaztion is the oldest... but the nature of the culture has changed so much over 6,000 years it's completely different than in ancient times.

 

[Furius]

The Peking man statement was what my friend honestly thought, which is a bit strange, I admit.
I still support the Aborigines as the oldest civilization.

 

[Xen]

but some african tribes (like the masai) live the way they have for thousands upon thousands of years- very possibly from even before the aboriginies inhabited australia