A civilization is a form of society in which people live in artificial environments

We can take the original meaning of the word—in late Latin, civilisatio—as a workable starting point; it means “having or establishing settled communities.” A people known to the Romans was civilized if its members lived in civitates, cities or towns. We can generalize this further, and say that a civilization is a form of society in which people live in artificial environments.

John Michael Greer, 'The Cimmerian Hypothesis, Part One: Civilization and Barbarism' on The Archdruid Report, URL: http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.se/2015/07/the-cimmerian-hypothesis-part-one.html (15/07/2015)