Comprehensive list of civilizations/socities

[Asmor]

So just trying to come up with a list of different civilizations. This isn't meant to be very fine-grained. For example, there are certainly differences between medieval England, France and Germany, but I'm going to roll them all up (along with others) as European.

African (I know nothing about African culture(s) if anyone wants to expand on that)

Aboriginal (Australian, that is)

Babylonian (catchall for the "fertile cresent" civilizations)

Celtic (Druids, etc)

Central American (Aztec/Maya/etc)

Egyptian

European

Greek/Roman

Indian (from India)

Inuit (Maybe worth folding into Native American?)

Native American (North American, e.g. Cherokee)

Oriental (Japanese, Chinese, maybe mongols and such?)

Russian (Seems distinct from European to me)

Viking (Norse)

Ok, so that's all I've got with a bit of thought. I'm sure I've missed some cool ones, and there's probably cases where I rolled things together which are dissimilar enough to merit having separate entries, so please continue the list!

 

[Greg K]

Inuit (Maybe worth folding into Native American?)

Native American (North American, e.g. Cherokee)

Definitely not worth folding. North American is extremely diverse with different languages, subsistence patterns (e.g, hunting, farming), descent patterns, religious practices, dress. political organziations (e.g., bands, clans, tribes), etc..
For starters, you have the following regions each which are often the start of examination
- Arctic
- Subarctic
- Northwest Coast
- California
- Plateau Region
- The Great Basin:
- The South West Desert
- Great Plains
- North East U.S
- South East:

 

[Asmor]

Definitely not worth folding. North American is extremely diverse with different languages, subsistence patterns (e.g, hunting, farming), descent patterns, religious practices, dress. political organziations (e.g., bands, clans, tribes), etc..
For starters, you have the following regions each which are often the start of examination
- Arctic
- Subarctic
- Northwest Coast
- California
- Plateau Region
- The Great Basin:
- The South West Desert
- Great Plains
- North East U.S
- South East:

Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to detract from any of those cultures. However, just from the great specificity of your list it seems that you're involved a bit in the topic and might not have an impartial view. I mean, Chinese and Japanese cultures were also very different, but I still feel comfortable lumping them together as Oriental.

Basically, what it comes down to is this: If you showed a representative picture to some guy off the street, how would he classify it? Chances are, if you showed someone a teepee or a totem pole or a head dress, they'd probably just say it was Native American, even though for all I know maybe there never was any tribe which both made teepees and totem poles.

 

[jgbrowning]

Some additional large-scale suggestions.

South-East Asian
Oceanian (melanesian, micronesian, and polynesian)

joe b.

 

[Tonguez]

African (I know nothing about African culture(s) if anyone wants to expand on that)

Africa is the worlds second largest continent and at the broadest level you need to distinguish between
[

• the ancient civilisations - Egypt, Carthage, Sheba, Zimbabwe, Opar
• The Maghreb Sahara and Sahel - Bedouins, Timbuktu, Algeria etc
• the West African Kingdoms - Mali, Songhay, Hausa, Ashanti etc
• East Africa - Maasai: ranging from Ethiopia through Kenya and Tanzania and home of the "big five" elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and rhinoceros.
• Jungles - Kongo (home of the Aka and Mbuti)*
• South Central Highland Plateau - Bantu, San
• *these groups were known as Pygmys but the term is considered degrading

America

I still think you need to break this down to a degree perhaps distinguishing between the South-Central American Civilisations and between Plains, Woodlands, Desert peoples of North America (afterall I can't see much similarity between Hopi and Lakota - but am not qualified to comment further)

Oceanic

• Malay (Island Asia) - Java, indonesia, Timor, Phillipines, Taiwan (Natives)
• Melanesiann/Papuan * including Northern Australian islands
• Polynesian/Micronesia

 

[aurance]

Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to detract from any of those cultures. However, just from the great specificity of your list it seems that you're involved a bit in the topic and might not have an impartial view. I mean, Chinese and Japanese cultures were also very different, but I still feel comfortable lumping them together as Oriental.

Basically, what it comes down to is this: If you showed a representative picture to some guy off the street, how would he classify it? Chances are, if you showed someone a teepee or a totem pole or a head dress, they'd probably just say it was Native American, even though for all I know maybe there never was any tribe which both made teepees and totem poles.

That's just it. As some of replies might indicate, there is no absolutely impartial view of categorization in this way. You'd have to make a whole lot of assumptions about the "guy off the street," and based on his cultural background or education he will make an entirely different categorization than the next guy off the street.

 

[Byronic]

Well you have the Polynesian and the Malaysian civilisations. They seem to be distinct enough (if Russian civilisation is different enough from European).

There's the Islamic civilisation.

I can't think of any other though at the moment.

 

[mattdm]

This'd be great in the Arcana Wiki The Arcana Wiki: Welcome to the Arcana Wiki!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

<blatant plug>

If you are interested in exploring these different cultures, then why not write some entries for them in the Arcana Wiki?

That's what it is for, after all - among other reasons...

</blatant plug>

 

[Morrus]

Or, indeed, EN World's own Wiki!