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Legacy - The Origins of Civilization

Legacy - The Origins of Civilization

★ 10.0/10•1991•Documentary
Similars

What can the past teach us about the present? Come along as charismatic historian Michael Wood (The Story of India) travels the globe to trace the origins of six great civilizations: Iraq, India, China, Egypt, Central America, and Western Europe. Each journey offers surprising perspectives on questions that matter today-about the environment, the individual, society, and spirituality.

StatusEnded
LanguageEN
First Air DateAug 13, 1991

Episodes

E1

Iraq - The Cradle of Civilization

In places like Uruk and Eridu in modern-day Iraq, humans founded the first cities nearly 6,000 years ago. They left us literature, astronomy, and mathematics, as well as lessons in overpopulation and environmental stewardship.

Aug 13, 1991

E2

India - Empire of the Spirit

Beginning 5,000 years ago, the "Land of the Seven Rivers" cultivated a tradition of nonviolence, renunciation of the material world, and a focus on humans' inner life. Today, these ideas survive in tension with the vestiges of Western colonialism.

Aug 20, 1991

E3

China - The Mandate of Heaven

With great thinkers such as Confucius and Lao-Tzu, the Chinese conceived a civilization reflecting cosmic harmony, sustained by civic and social virtue, ancient ritual, and reverence for ancestors.

Aug 27, 1991

E4

Egypt - The Habit of Civilization

In the world's first great nation, the annual flooding of the Nile conferred not only fertility, but also a deep respect for social and cosmic stability, a belief in the resurrection of the dead, and the hope of eternal life.

Sep 10, 1991

E5

Central America - The Burden of Time

Independent of great civilizations elsewhere, the Maya and Aztecs developed a violent, fatalistic culture, envisioning a cosmos that required bloody sacrifice for renewal. It placed the sovereignty of nature above all else - even human life.

Sep 17, 1991

E6

The Barbarian West

Now adopted nearly all over the globe, the modern Western ideas of individualism, property, and purposeful history trace their roots to Christianity, Greco-Roman humanism, and Germanic social values.

Sep 24, 1991

Actors

Michael Wood

Michael Wood

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