# Civilizations

A civilization (American English and Oxford spelling) or civilisation (common British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, urbanization, and standardized symbolic systems of communication, namely writing systems. civilizations are organized around densely populated settlements, divided into more or less rigid hierarchical social classes of division of labour, often with a ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which engage in intensive agriculture, mining, small-scale manufacture and trade. Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings.