Indus Valley Civilization: Crash Course World History #2
Summary
TLDRIn this Crash Course World History episode, John Green explores the concept of 'civilization' and its implications, highlighting the Indus Valley Civilization as a prime example. He discusses its sophisticated urban planning, trade practices, and lack of warfare. Green also humorously critiques historical naming conventions and theorizes on the civilization's mysterious decline, drawing parallels to modern life and the importance of understanding motivations behind societal structures.
Takeaways
- 🧐 The script discusses the concept of 'civilization' and its problematic implications, suggesting that it can be used to imply that other social orders are uncivilized or barbaric.
- 🗣️ The word 'barbarian' originally denoted anyone who did not speak ancient Greek, highlighting that the concept of civilization is subjective and culturally specific.
- 🏛️ Civilizations are intellectual constructs, not self-identified by the people living in them, and are useful for comparative analysis but not for hierarchical judgment.
- 🌾 Civilizations are characterized by surplus production, city building, specialization of labor, trade, social stratification, centralized government, shared values, and writing systems.
- 💧 Rivers played a crucial role in the development of early civilizations, providing flat land, water, and nutrient-rich silt for agriculture.
- 🏙️ The Indus Valley Civilization is highlighted as an example of an advanced civilization with impressive city planning, sanitation systems, and trade networks, despite the lack of deciphered written records.
- 🛑 Archaeological evidence suggests the Indus Valley Civilization was peaceful, with little evidence of warfare or weapons, challenging common assumptions about the necessity of conflict in societal development.
- 🔍 The script humorously critiques the naming conventions in history, such as 'The Great Bath,' for being unengaging and lacking creativity.
- 📉 The decline of the Indus Valley Civilization is attributed to possible conquest, environmental disaster, or a massive earthquake that altered river courses, leading to the abandonment of cities.
- 🤔 The script encourages viewers to consider the motivations behind historical actions, such as city building and trade, to reflect on their own life structures and motivations.
- 👫 It uses a personal anecdote about being a 'terrible boyfriend' to illustrate the broader point that human life is about collaboration and understanding motivations in relationships.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of studying history according to John Green?
-Studying history helps us understand why we are alive, how we should behave, and what we should value, including making better decisions in our relationships.
Why is the term 'civilization' considered problematic in historical discussions?
-The term 'civilization' can imply that certain social orders are uncivilized or barbaric, which is a form of ethnocentrism.
What is the origin of the word 'barbarian' and its original meaning?
-The word 'barbarian' originated from ancient Greece and denoted anyone who did not speak Greek, as other languages sounded like 'bar bar bar' to the Greeks.
What are the key indicators that might suggest a society is a civilization?
-Key indicators include surplus production, city building, specialization of labor, trade, social stratification, centralized government, shared values often in the form of religion, and writing.
Why were early civilizations often associated with rivers?
-Rivers provided flat land, water, and nutrient-rich silt from flooding, which were essential for agriculture and sustaining large populations.
What is unique about the Indus Valley Civilization's location?
-The Indus Valley Civilization was located in the flood plain of the Indus and Sarawati rivers, which provided a reliable source of water and fertile land for agriculture.
How do we know about the Indus Valley Civilization since their written language is still undeciphered?
-Archaeological findings, such as cities, artifacts, and seals, provide insights into the Indus Valley Civilization.
What is significant about the city planning of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro?
-The cities had dense, multi-story homes with uniformly sized bricks and perpendicular streets, indicating a form of government and zoning.
Why is the Great Bath in Mohenjo Daro considered an important historical site?
-The Great Bath is the largest public building in Mohenjo Daro, suggesting it had a significant cultural or religious purpose, possibly related to ritual purity.
What evidence suggests that the Indus Valley Civilization engaged in trade?
-Archaeologists found seals and artifacts from the Indus Valley in Mesopotamia and non-native materials like bronze in the Indus Valley, indicating trade.
What are the three main theories proposed for the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization?
-The theories include conquest by people from the Caucasus, environmental disaster due to overexploitation, and a massive earthquake that changed the river courses.
What lesson does John Green suggest we can learn from the Indus Valley Civilization about relationships?
-The lesson is about the importance of collaboration and understanding motivations in relationships, rather than being overly clingy out of fear or a need for companionship.
Outlines
😀 Introduction to the Concept of Civilizations
John Green introduces the topic of civilizations in world history, highlighting the problematic nature of the term due to its implications of superiority over non-civilized social orders. He discusses the intellectual construct of civilizations and their defining characteristics, such as surplus production, city building, specialization of labor, trade, social stratification, centralized government, shared values, and writing. Green emphasizes the historical association of civilizations with rivers, providing examples of various river valleys that have been the cradle of civilizations. He also introduces the Indus Valley Civilization as a favorite example, noting its location in the flood plain of the Indus and Sarawati rivers and its advanced urban planning and trade practices.
😮 The Indus Valley Civilization and Its Mysteries
This paragraph delves deeper into the Indus Valley Civilization, discussing its archaeological findings, such as the well-planned cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, which featured multi-story homes, uniform brick construction, and a sophisticated drainage system. The paragraph also touches upon the civilization's trade practices, evidenced by seals found in Mesopotamia and the presence of non-native bronze materials in the Indus Valley. Green humorously critiques the naming of historical artifacts, such as the 'Great Bath' of Mohenjo Daro, and explores theories about the civilization's decline, including conquest, environmental disaster, or a massive earthquake that altered river courses, leading to the end of the civilization's prominence.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Civilization
💡Indus Valley Civilization
💡Surplus production
💡Specialization of labor
💡Social stratification
💡Centralized government
💡Writing
💡Rivers
💡Trade
💡Environmental Disaster
💡Cultural Collaboration
Highlights
John Green introduces the problematic nature of the term 'civilization' and its implications for non-civilization social orders.
The concept of 'civilization' is an intellectual construct, not a self-aware phenomenon of past societies.
Criteria for diagnosing a civilization include surplus production, city building, labor specialization, trade, social stratification, centralized government, shared values, and writing.
River valleys were the cradle of early civilizations due to their fertile lands and reliable water sources.
The Indus Valley Civilization is highlighted as John Green's favorite, due to its strategic location and advanced urban planning.
Archaeological evidence suggests the Indus Valley Civilization had well-planned cities with advanced drainage systems.
The Great Bath of Mohenjo Daro is discussed as a significant public building, possibly related to ritual purity.
Trade was a key aspect of the Indus Valley Civilization, as indicated by seals found in Mesopotamia and non-native materials in their region.
The civilization's writing system remains undeciphered, with seals providing some of the few clues to their culture.
A unique seal depicting a powerful figure between a tiger and a bull is highlighted as an example of their art.
The Indus Valley Civilization is noted for its apparent peacefulness, with minimal evidence of warfare.
Three theories for the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization are presented: conquest, environmental disaster, and earthquakes.
The decline did not lead to the current inhabitants of the region, suggesting a complete rather than a transformative end.
John Green critiques the naming of historical artifacts, such as 'The Great Bath,' for being unengaging.
The video concludes with a reflection on the motivation behind ancient civilizations' structures and how it relates to modern life.
An open letter to historians encourages more imaginative naming of historical sites to make history more fascinating.
The video promises a discussion on the history of Mesopotamia in the next episode, engaging viewers to return.
Transcripts
Hi, I’m John Green, and this is Crash Course World History.
Let’s begin today with a question.
Why am I alive? Also, why don’t I have any eyes? Ah, That’s better.
The way we answer that question ends up organizing all kinds of other thoughts, like what we
should value, and how we should behave, and if we should eat meat, and whether we should
dump that boy who is very nice, but insanely clingy, in a way that he cannot possibly think
is attractive. All of which adds up-
Uh, Mr. Green, Mr. Green, uh, are you talking about me?
Yes, I’m talking about you, me from the past. I’m telling you that one of the reasons
we study history is so that you can be a less terrible boyfriend, but more on that momentarily.
[theme music]
Today we’re going to talk about civilizations, but in order to do that, we have to talk about
talking about civilizations, because it’s a problematic word. So problematic, in fact,
that I have to turn to camera 2 to discuss it.
Certain Conglomerations of humans are seen as civilizations, whereas, say, nomadic cultures
generally aren’t, unless, you are -- say it with me --
the mongols
By calling some groups civilizations, you imply that all other social orders are uncivilized,
which is basically just another way of saying that they’re savages or barbarians.
side note: originally Greek, the word Barbarian denoted anyone who did not speak ancient Greek,
because to the Greeks, all other languages sounded like bar bar bar bar bar bar.
So, that is to say that we are all essentially barbarians, except for the classics majors,
which is worth remembering when we’re discussing civilizations.
Civilizations are like most of the things we like to study, they’re intellectual constructs.
No one woke up in the city of Thebe’s in Egypt one morning and said, “what a beautiful
morning, I sure am living at the height of Egyptian civilization.” Still, they’re
useful constructs, particularly when you’re comparing one civilization to another. They’re
less useful when you’re comparing a civilization to a non-civilization type social order, which
is why we will try to avoid that.
And yes, I am getting to the good boyfriend stuff. Patience, grasshopper.
So what is a civilization? Well, diagnosing a civilization is a little like like diagnosing
an illness. If you have four or more of the following symptoms, you might be a civilization.
Surplus production. Once one person can make enough food to feed several people, it becomes
possible to build a city, another symptom of civilization.
It also leads to the specialization of labor, which in turn leads to trade. Like, if everybody
picks berries for a living, there’s no reason to trade, because I have berries, and you
have berries, but if I pick berries for a living and you make hammers, suddenly, we have cause to trade.
Civilizations are also usually associated with social stratification, centralized government,
shared values, generally in the form of religion, and writing. And at least in the early days,
they were almost always associated with rivers.
These days you can just bisect a segment of land horizontally and vertically, and boom,
build a city. But 5000 years ago, civilizations were almost always associated with rivers. Whether
that’s the Tigris and Euphrates, the Yellow River, The Nile, the Amazon Basin, the Coatzacoalcos -
Gaaah! I was doing so good until I got to Coatzacoalcos!
(computer says: Coatzacoalcos) Coatzacoalcos. Maybe.
Why river valleys? They’re flat, they’re well watered, and when they flood, they deposit nutrient-rich silt.
We’ll have more to say about most of these civilizations later, but let’s talk about
this guy, the Indus Valley Civilization, ‘cause it’s my all time favorite.
The Indus Valley Civilization was located in the flood plain of the Indus and Sarawati
rivers, and it was about the best place in the world to have an ancient civilization
because the rivers flooded very reliably twice a year, which meant that it had the most available
calories per acre of pretty much anywhere on the planet.
We know the Indus Valley Civilization flourished a long time ago. Probably around 3000 BCE.
Why is that question literally hanging over my head?
But people of the Indus valley were trading with Mesopotamians as early as 3500 BCE. We also
know that it was the largest of the ancient civilizations. Archaeologists have discovered more than 1500 sites.
So what do we know about this civilization? Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
Everything we know about the Indus Valley Civilization comes from archaeology, because
while they did use written language, we don’t know how to read it, and no Rosetta Stone
has thus appeared to help us learn it.
I meant the other Rosetta Stone, Thought Bubble, yeah.
Although, come to think of it, either would be acceptable.
So here’s what we know, they had amazing cities. Harappa and Mohenjo Daro are the best
known, with dense, multi-story homes constructed out of uniformly sized bricks along perpendicular
streets. I mean this wasn’t some ancient world version of Houston, more like Chicago.
This means they must have had some form of government and zoning, but we don’t know
what gave this government its authority.
Cities were oriented to catch the wind and provide a natural form of air conditioning.
And they were clean. Most homes were connected to a centralized drainage system that used
gravity to carry waste and water out of the city in big sewer ditches that ran under the
main avenues, a plumbing system that would have been the envy of many 18th century European cities.
Also, in Mohenjo Daro, the largest public building was not a temple or a palace, but
a public bath, which historians call the Great Bath. We don’t know what the great bath
was used for, but since later Indian culture placed a huge emphasis on ritual purity, which
is the basis for the caste system, some historians have speculated that the bath might
have been like a giant baptismal pool.
Also, they traded. One of the coolest things that the Indus Valley Civilization produced
were seals used as identification markers on goods and clay tablets. These seals contained the writing
that we still can’t decipher, and a number of fantastic designs, many featuring animals and monsters.
One of the most famous and frightening is of a man with what looks like water buffalo
horns on his head, sitting cross-legged between a tiger and a bull. We don’t know what’s
really going on here, but it’s safe to say that this was a powerful dude, because he
seems to be able to control the tiger.
How do these seals let us know that they traded? Well, because we found them in Mesopotamia,
not the indus valley. Plus, archaeologists have found stuff like bronze in the indus
valley that is not native to the region. So what did they trade? Cotton cloth. Still such
a fascinating export, incidentally that it will be the subject of the 40th and final
video in this very series.
But here’s the most amazing thing about the Indus Valley people. They were peaceful. Despite
archaeologists finding 1500 sites, they have found very little evidence of warfare, almost no weapons.
Thanks Thought Bubble. OK, before we talk about the fascinating demise of the Indus
Valley Civilization. It’s time for the open letter.
Magic!
I wonder what the secret compartment has for me today? Oh! Fancy clothes.
I guess the secret compartment didn’t think I was dressed up enough for the occasion.
An open letter to Historians. Dear historians, the Great Bath? Really? THE GREAT BATH? I’m
trying to make history fascinating, and you give me a term that evokes scented candles,
bath salts and Frederic Fekkai hair products?
I know sometimes the crushingly boring names of history aren’t your fault. You didn’t
name the federalist papers or the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Adam Smith. But when you do get
a chance to name something, you go with THE GREAT BATH? Not the Epic Bath of Mohenjo Daro,
or the Bath to End All Baths, or the Pool That Ruled, or the Moist Mystery of Mohenjo
Daro or the Wet Wonder? The Great Bath? Really? You can do better. best wishes, John Green.
So what happened to these people? Well, here’s what didn’t happen to them. They didn’t
morph into the current residents of that area of the world, Hindu Indians or Muslim Pakistanis.
Those people probably came from the Caucasus.
Instead, sometime around 1750 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization declined until it faded
into obscurity. Why? Historians have three theories.
One: Conquest! Turns out to be a terrible military strategy not to have any weapons, and it’s possible
people from the Indus Valley were completely overrun by people from the Caucasus.
Two: Environmental Disaster! It’s possible they brought about their own end by destroying their environment.
Three: Earthquake! The most interesting theory is that a massive earthquake changed the
course of the rivers so much that a lot of the tributaries dried up.
Without adequate water supplies for irrigation, the cities couldn’t sustain themselves,
so people literally picked up and headed for greener pastures.
Well, probably not pastures, it’s unlikely they became nomads. They probably just moved
to a different plain an continued their agricultural ways. I am already boring you and I haven’t
even told you yet how to be a better boyfriend and/or girlfriend. I’m going to do that now.
So we don’t know why the Indus Valley Civilization ended, but we also don’t really know why
it started. Why did these people build cities, and dig swimming pools, and make unnecessarily ornate seals?
Were they motivated by hunger, fear, a desire for companionship, the need to be near their
sacred spaces, or a general feeling that city life was just more awesome than foraging?
Thinking about what motivated them to structure their life as they did helps us to think about
how we structure our own lives. In short, you’re clingy because you’re motivated
by fear and a need for companionship,
and she finds it annoying because it’s enough work having to be responsible for herself
without having to also be responsible for you.
Also, you’re not really helping her by clinging, and from the Indus Valley in the bronze age,
to school life today, human life is all about collaboration.
Trading cloth for bronze, building cities together, and collaborating to make sure that
human lives are tilted to catch the wind.
Next week we will travel here to discuss the Hot Mess o’ Potamia, but in the meantime,
if you have any questions, leave them in comments, and our team of semi-trained semi-professionals
will do their best to answer them.
Also, you’ll find some suggested resources in the video info below, he said, pointing
at his pants. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next week!
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