Editing Civilization (section)

== Cultural identity ==
{{further|Cultural area|culture}}
"Civilization" can also refer to the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique. Civilizations tend to develop intricate cultures, including a [[state (polity)|state]]-based [[decision-making]] apparatus, a [[literature]], professional [[art]], [[architecture]], organized [[religion]] and complex customs of [[education]], [[coercion]] and control associated with maintaining the elite.

The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization, a classic example being [[Chinese culture|Chinese]] civilization and its influence on nearby civilizations such [[Chinese influence on Korean culture|as Korea]], [[Chinese influence on Japanese culture|Japan and]] Vietnam<ref>{{multiref2|1={{Cite book |last=Seth |first=Michael J. |oclc=1104409379 |title=A concise history of Korea: From antiquity to the present |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-5381-2897-8 |edition=Third |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham, Maryland, U.S. |page=67}}|2={{cite book |last1=Stearns |first1=Peter N. |title=World civilizations: the global experience |date=2004 |publisher=Pearson Longman |location=New York |isbn=978-0-321-18281-4 |edition=4th |url-access=subscription |chapter=Chapter 13 - The Spread of Chinese Civilization: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam |url=https://course-notes.org/world_history/outlines/world_civilizations_the_global_experience_4th_edition_outlines/chapter_13_the |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024040551/https://course-notes.org/world_history/outlines/world_civilizations_the_global_experience_4th_edition_outlines/chapter_13_the |url-status=live }} }}</ref> Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives is that person's broadest cultural identity.<ref name="clash"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Key Components of Civilization |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/key-components-civilization/ |website=National Geographic Education |publisher=National Geographic Society |language=en |date=17 August 2023 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719170759/https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/key-components-civilization/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Blue Shield Fact Finding Mission Libyen.jpg|right|thumb|A [[Blue Shield International]] mission in Libya during the war in 2011 to protect the cultural assets there.]]

It is precisely the protection of this cultural identity that is becoming increasingly important nationally and internationally. According to international law, the [[United Nations]] and [[UNESCO]] try to set up and enforce relevant rules. The aim is to preserve the [[cultural heritage]] of humanity and also the cultural identity, especially in the case of war and armed conflict. According to [[Karl von Habsburg]], President of [[Blue Shield International]], the destruction of cultural assets is also part of psychological warfare. The target of the attack is often the opponent's cultural identity, which is why symbolic cultural assets become a main target. It is also intended to destroy the particularly sensitive cultural memory (museums, archives, monuments, etc.), the grown cultural diversity, and the economic basis (such as tourism) of a state, region or community.<ref>{{cite periodical |last1=Wegener |first1=Corine |last2=Otter |first2=Marjan |title=Cultural Property at War: Protecting Heritage during Armed Conflict |magazine=The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter |url=https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/23_1/feature.html |issue=1 |date=Spring 2008 |volume=23 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=11 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011212832/https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/23_1/feature.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Stiffman |first1=Eden |title=Cultural Preservation in Disasters, War Zones Presents Big Challenges |url=https://www.philanthropy.com/article/cultural-preservation-in-disasters-war-zones-presents-big-challenges/ |work=Chronicle of Philanthropy |date=11 May 2015 |access-date=19 September 2023 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024040555/https://www.philanthropy.com/article/cultural-preservation-in-disasters-war-zones-presents-big-challenges/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Hans |last=Haider |title= Interview mit Karl Habsburg: 'Missbrauch von Kulturgütern ist strafbar' |trans-title=Interview with Karl Habsburg: 'Misuse of cultural assets is a punishable offence' |language=de |newspaper=[[Wiener Zeitung]] |date=29 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Karl von Habsburg auf Mission im Libanon |trans-title=Protecting Cultural Property: Karl von Habsburg on a mission in Lebanon|date=28 April 2019 |access-date=18 December 2020 |url=https://www.krone.at/1911689 |newspaper=Krone Zeitung |language=de |archive-date=26 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526200932/https://www.krone.at/1911689|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-and-blue-shield-signed-memorandum-understanding |title=The ICRC and the Blue Shield signed a Memorandum of Understanding, 26 February 2020. |date=26 February 2020 |access-date=18 December 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322065528/https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-and-blue-shield-signed-memorandum-understanding |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| author=Friedrich Schipper |title=Bildersturm: Die globalen Normen zum Schutz von Kulturgut greifen nicht |language=de |trans-title=The global norms for the protection of cultural property do not apply| newspaper=[[Der Standard]] |date=6 March 2015}}</ref>

Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as discrete units. Early twentieth-century philosopher [[Oswald Spengler]],<ref name="decline two">{{cite book |last1=Spengler |first1=Oswald |title=The Decline Of The West |date=1928 |publisher=George Allen Unwin |location=London |volume= II: ''Perspectives of World History'' |translator-last=Atkinson |translator-first=Charles Francis |edition=Revised |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.284252/page/n481/mode/2up}}</ref> uses the German word ''Kultur'', "culture", for what many call a "civilization". Spengler believed a civilization's coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol. Cultures experience cycles of birth, life, decline, and death, often supplanted by a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new cultural symbol. Spengler states civilization is the beginning of the decline of a culture as "the most external and artificial states of which a species of developed humanity is capable".<ref name="decline two" />

This "unified culture" concept of civilization also influenced the theories of historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] in the mid-twentieth century. Toynbee explored civilization processes in his multi-volume ''[[A Study of History]]'', which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline of 21 civilizations and five "arrested civilizations". Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of the failure of a "creative minority", through moral or religious decline, to meet some important challenge, rather than mere economic or environmental causes.

[[Samuel P. Huntington]] defines civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species".<ref name="clash">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LO4xG-bH1CQC&pg=PA43 |title=The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order |last=Huntington |first=Samuel P. |date=1997 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-6124-8 |page=43 |language=en |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=30 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230121309/https://books.google.com/books?id=LO4xG-bH1CQC&pg=PA43 |url-status=live }}</ref>