Re: Maya and Civilization

Philip Deitiker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> On 28 Sep 2003 09:35:03 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> (hotmoon) wrote:
> 
> >What we call "civilized" depends entirely upon quality of the lives of
> >the people within a culture and how they treated one another and how
> >they treated out-group members.  Compassion is the indicator of
> >"civilization"; not buildings.
> 
> Civilized is where 2 or more tribes of people can live in
> the same camp without killing each other. A civilization
> like the aztec civilization counts because large people
> where accumulated and functioned in one place with
> large numbers of families. There was law and law enforcement
> and an administrative government that every now and then cut
> loosed and killed a whole bunch of people.
> 
> But on the other hand the Europeans killed people for owning
> cats, setting of several hundred years of devastating
> plaques. The romans used to civilize people by impaling
> disgruntled roughians on poles. Civility is a subjective
> thing.

 On the other hand, there isn't anything intrinsically 'noble' about the savage.