One of my favorite quotes on civilization is from Anthropologist Margaret Mead when she was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. This is an excerpt from Ira Byock’s The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to Transform Care Through the End of Life:

Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts. We are at our best when we serve others.

A civilization does not exist to build riches, expand its domain, advance technologically, or enforce its will upon other civilizations. All of these are cultures within civilization, but not civilization itself. Civilization, at its core, is a method to care for others and ensure a better quality of life.