文明の話 Civilization

自分で書いていてナンですが、随分大げさなタイトルだと思ったアナタ、正解です（笑）ここでは人類がいかにして文明というモノを築いていったか。私なりに学んで考えたことを、簡単に話したいと思います。

I have to admit, even as I write this, the title does seem a bit over the top—so if you thought so too, you’re absolutely right. I’d like to briefly share my own thoughts, based on what I’ve learned, about how humanity went about building what we call civilization.

文明とは何ぞや　What is civilization?

そもそも文明とは何でしょう。そりゃあ、今の社会が文明そのものだといえば簡単ですが、文明と非文明との境は何でしょうか？旧石器時代の人間社会は文明とは言えないと思いますが、じゃあ弥生時代ならどうでしょう？

First of all, what exactly is civilization? Of course, it’s easy to say that our current society is civilization itself, but where is the line between civilization and non-civilization? I don’t think human societies of the Paleolithic era can be called civilizations, but what about the Yayoi period（around 3^rd BC to 3^rd century AD in Japan）?

 

インターネットのgoo国語辞典には、「文明：人知が進んで世の中が開け、精神的、物質的に生活が豊かになった状態。特に、宗教・道徳・学問・芸術などの精神的な文化に対して、技術・機械の発達や社会制度の整備などによる経済的・物質的文化をさす。」とあります。

According to the Goo Japanese Dictionary on the internet, “Civilization: A state in which human knowledge has advanced, society has developed, and people’s lives have become richer both spiritually and materially. In particular, as opposed to spiritual culture such as religion, morality, scholarship, and the arts, it refers to economic and material culture brought about by the development of technology and machinery, as well as the improvement of social systems.”

つまり、技術が進んで、心も豊かになった人間の住む場所といった意味です。知識や経験を積み上げて道具や食料を作り、時に自然に立ち向かってこれを克服し、大規模で複雑な人間関係＝社会を築く。その中で自分は何者で、いかに生きるべきかを考える・・・このような世界を文明というのだと思います。

In other words, civilization refers to a place where people live with advanced technology and enriched minds. By accumulating knowledge and experience, humans create tools and food, sometimes confront and overcome nature, and build large, complex human relationships—that is, society. Within such a world, people contemplate who they are and how they should live. I believe this is what we call civilization.

 

　人類（ホモ・サピエンス）が誕生したのは10万～20万年以上も前と言われていますが、このような文明が出現したのは5～6千年前です。つまりこれまで人類が生きた時間の”90％以上”は、文明など持たない、つまり狩猟採集の時代でした。それを変えたのはいったい何だったのでしょう？

It is said that humanity (Homo sapiens) appeared over 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, but civilizations like this only emerged about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. In other words, for more than 90% of the time humans have existed, we lived without civilization—in other words, in the era of hunting and gathering. So, what exactly was it that brought about this change?

人類最大の発明　Mankind’s greatest invention

　人間も生物である以上、生きるためには「食べる」ことが絶対に必要です。熱帯雨林のように食料が豊富にある場所であれば良いのですが、気候変動などでそのような森が消えてしまえば、自分で食料を確保しなくてはなりません。元々アフリカにいた人類は、氷河期による気候変動を経験し、食料を探して（或いは獲物を追って）歩きまわるうちに、ユーラシア、オーストラリア、アメリカ大陸へと移動していったと考えられています。

As living creatures, humans absolutely need to eat in order to survive. It is ideal to live in places like tropical rainforests, where food is abundant, but if such forests disappear due to climate change or other reasons, we must secure our own food. It is believed that humans, who originally lived in Africa, experienced climate changes caused by ice ages, and while searching for food (or chasing prey), ended up migrating to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas.

そして獲物を捕まえるために槍や弓、網や釣り針といった道具を開発していきました。更には針と糸の発明によって衣服が生み出され、寒さや乾燥から身を護る術を見出だしました。また火を扱えるようになると、猛獣などの外敵を防ぎ、煮たり焼いたりすることで、食べられるもののバリエーションを増やすことにも成功しました。その為の土器も作られました。

In order to catch prey, humans developed tools such as spears, bows, nets, and fishhooks. Furthermore, the invention of needles and thread led to the creation of clothing, allowing people to protect themselves from cold and dryness. Once they learned to use fire, they were able to fend off dangerous animals and increased the variety of things they could eat by boiling and roasting. Pottery was also made for this purpose.

 

　こうして少しずつ人間は知恵をつけていきますが、この段階ではまだ食料の確保は不安定なもので、その個数（つまり人口）も多くはありませんでした。しかし1万年ほど前、恐らくはユーラシアのとある場所で、人類は決定的な発見をします。それが、「人間の手で植物を育てることができる」という事実でした。勝手な想像ですが、こんな事があったのでしょう・・・

In this way, humans gradually became more knowledgeable, but at this stage, securing food was still an unstable process, and the number of people—that is, the population—was not very large. However, about 10,000 years ago, probably somewhere in Eurasia, humanity made a decisive discovery. It was the fact that “humans can cultivate plants with their own hands.” This is just my imagination, but perhaps something like this happened…

今日も草むらから「麦」という植物を採ってきた。この実は小さいが、水を含ませて練るとおいしいのだ。

ある日、家に持って帰る途中で落としたのだろう、地面に落ちていた麦の実から芽が出ていることに気が付いた。しばらくすると、芽は茎となり、大きくなった。あの実が麦へと変わるのか。これは面白い。

試行錯誤の末、柔らかい土に埋めて、真水を何度もあげると、草むらのものと同じ麦になることが分かった。条件さえ合えば、私も麦を育てることができるのだ！

Today, I picked a plant called “wheat” from the grassland again. The grains are small, but when you knead them with water, they taste delicious.
One day, I noticed that a wheat grain lying on the ground had sprouted (I must have dropped some on my way home). After a while, the sprout became a stem and grew bigger. So that grain turns into wheat? How fascinating.
After much trial and error, I found out that if I bury the grains in soft soil and give them fresh water repeatedly, they will become the same wheat as those in the grassland. As long as the conditions are right, I can grow wheat too!

 

・・・こうして、「食料を人間の手で作る」という方法、即ち「農業」が発明されました。最初は狩猟採集を補うようなものだったと思われますが、次第に食料を安定して得られることが分かり、急速にその比重を増していったと考えられます。誰だったかは忘れましたが（！）、とある学者は「農業こそ人類にとって最大の発明だった。」と述べています。それほど農業は、後の人類に大きな影響を与えたのです。

In this way, the method of “producing food by human hands”—in other words, agriculture—was invented. At first, it was probably just a supplement to hunting and gathering, but people came to realize that it provided a stable food supply, and its importance increased rapidly. I forget who it was, but a certain scholar once said, “Agriculture was the greatest invention of humankind.” That is how profoundly agriculture influenced the course of human history.

定住化と人口の増加　Settlement and population growth

食糧が安定して得られれば、当然飢える心配も減り、人口も大きく増加しました。しかし一方で困ったことも。今まで食料を探して移動を続けてきた人類でしたが、畑や田んぼを持っていくことはできませんから、必然的に同じ場所に居座らなければならなくなりました。つまり、定住化です。人口の増加と定住化は、やがて「集落」を作り上げ、それが「村」、そして「国」へと発展していきました。

As people were able to obtain food more reliably, the fear of starvation naturally decreased, and the population grew significantly. However, this also brought some challenges. Until then, humans had moved from place to place in search of food, but since they could not take their fields and paddies with them, they inevitably had to settle in one place. In other words, this led to permanent settlement. The increase in population and the shift to settled life eventually gave rise to “communities,” which then developed into “villages” and, later, into “countries.”

　農業はまた、人々の協力関係をも生み出しました。人口が増えればそれだけ田畑も広げなければなりません。しかし田畑広くなれば、一人で管理することは難しくなります。そこには人々の協力が必要になります。

Agriculture also gave rise to cooperative relationships among people. As the population grew, fields and paddies had to be expanded accordingly. However, as farmland became larger, it became difficult for one person to manage everything alone. This made cooperation among people necessary.

 

みんなで畑を耕す時に、一人が水をジャバジャバかけていたら迷惑なので、共通のルールが生まれます。そして、種まきや収穫にベストなタイミングを測るために「季節」の研究が進み、これが「暦」「時間」という概念を生み出しました（狩猟時代にも、ルール作りや季節の概念は持っていたと思われますが、それがより高度になっていったのは農業開始後です）。

When everyone was working together in the fields, common rules naturally developed—for example, if one person splashed too much water around, it would be a nuisance to others. In addition, in order to determine the best timing for sowing and harvesting, people began to study the seasons, which led to the concepts of the “calendar” and “time.” (It is believed that even during the hunting era, people had rules and a sense of the seasons, but these ideas became much more advanced after the start of agriculture.)

 

更に更に！人口が増えれば、それだけ人間関係も複雑になります。そうなると、トラブルも増えていくことになり、それを解決する方法が求められます。ここでも「共通のルール」が登場し、後の「法律」「刑罰」へと繋がっていきます。

What’s more, as the population increased, human relationships became more complex. This inevitably led to more conflicts, which required solutions. Here again, “common rules” were established, eventually developing into “laws” and “punishments.”

 

また、多くの人々を指導するリーダーのような人間も必要になっていきました。人々のリーダーは他の人よりも信頼のおける人物として特別視されるようになり、やがては村長、そして国王へと”進化”していきました。中には「王たる自分には特別な力がある」などと言って人々を従え、それにふさわしい格好をしたり（光り輝く王冠やアクセサリーを身に着けるとか）、力の大きさを目に見える形にしたり（大きな建造物を作らせるとか）するようになっていきました。

On the other hand, it became necessary to have people who could act as leaders, guiding many others. Leaders were increasingly regarded as special individuals more trustworthy than others, and eventually they “evolved” into roles such as village chiefs and, later, kings. Some even claimed that, as kings, they possessed special powers, and used this claim to command people. They would dress in ways befitting their status, such as wearing shining crowns and jewelry, and also made their power visible—having large monuments built, for example.

このように現在の文明が農業と深く関わっていることが分かります。もし私たちが狩猟採集を続けていたら、今のような国や都市が形成されることもなかったでしょうし、領土問題や人口爆発も深刻ではなかったかもしれません。

Thus, we can understand that modern civilization is deeply connected to agriculture. If we had continued with hunting and gathering, countries and cities as we know them today would probably not have formed, and issues such as territorial disputes and population explosions might not have become so serious.