254 CHAPTER 11 | The Emergence of Cities and States
A walk down a busy street of a city such as New York or
San Francisco brings us into contact with numerous ac-
tivities essential to life in North American society. Side-
walks are crowded with people going to and from offices
and stores. Heavy traffic of cars, buses, and trucks periodi-
cally comes to a standstill. A brief two-block stretch may
contain a grocery store; sidewalk vendors; shops selling
clothing, appliances, or books; a restaurant; a newsstand;
a gas station; and a movie theater. Other features such as a
museum, a police station, a school, a hospital, or a church
distinguish some neighborhoods.
Each of these services or places of business is depen-
dent on others from outside this two-block radius. A
butcher shop, for instance, depends on slaughterhouses
and beef ranches. A clothing store could not exist with-
out designers, farmers who produce cotton and wool, and
workers who manufacture synthetic fibers. Restaurants
rely on refrigerated trucking and vegetable and dairy
farmers. Hospitals need insurance companies, pharma-
ceutical companies, and medical equipment industries.
All institutions, finally, depend on the public utilities—
the telephone, gas, water, and electric companies. Al-
though interdependence is not immediately apparent to
the passerby, it is an important aspect of modern cities.
The interdependence of goods and services in a big city
makes a variety of products readily available. But interde-
pendence also creates vulnerabil ity. If strikes, bad weather,
or acts of violence cause one service to stop functioning,
other services can deteriorate.
At the same time, cities are resilient in their response
to stresses. When one service breaks down, others take
over its functions. During a long newspaper strike in New
York City in the 1960s, for example, several new maga-
zines were launched, and television networks expanded
their coverage of news and events. This phenomenon re-
sembles the flourishing of reality television programs in
the United States that took place during the 2007–2008
Hollywood writers’ strike.
In many parts of the world the violence of war has
caused extensive damage to basic infrastructure, leading
to the development of alternative systems to cope with ev-
erything from procuring food to communicating within
global political systems. The same is true for people coping
with the aftermath of a natural disaster such as Hurricane
Katrina in 2005 or the massive tsunami that hit the Pacific
in 2004. With the interconnectedness of modern life due
to the Internet and globalization, the interdependence of
goods and services transcends far beyond city limits.
On the surface, city life seems so orderly that we take
it for granted; but a moment’s reflection reminds us that
the intricate fabric of city life did not always exist, and the
concentrated availability of diverse goods is a very recent
development in human history.Defining Civilization
The word civilization comes from the Latin civis, which re-
fers to one who is an inhabitant of a city, and civitas, which
refers to the urban community in which one dwells. In
everyday North American and European usage, the word
civilization connotes refinement and progress and may
imply ethnocentric judgments about cultures. In anthro-
pology, by contrast, the term has a more precise meaning
that avoids culture-bound notions. As used by anthropol-
ogists, civilization refers to societies in which large num-
bers of people live in cities, are socially stratified, and areSince the American invasion in 2003, bombing and pillaging have
damaged the infrastructure of Baghdad. Four days of heavy rain led
to a collapse of the city’s sewage system, which flooded the streets
with contaminated water. Makeshift bridges were constructed and al-
ternate routes were created to help people avoid waterborne disease.© Getty Images©^
Getty Imagescivilization In anthropology, a type of society marked by the
presence of cities, social classes, and the state.