A civilization is any complex society characterized by urban development, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment. Civilizations are intimately associated with and often further defined by other socio-politico-economic characteristics, including centralization, the domestication of both humans and other organisms, specialization of labor, culturally ingrained ideologies of progress and supremacism, monumental architecture, taxation, societal dependence upon farming as an agricultural practice, and expansionism. Historically, a civilization was an "advanced" culture in contrast to more supposedly primitive cultures. In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts with non-centralized feudal or tribal societies, including the cultures of nomadic pastoralists or hunter-gatherers. As a noun, civilization also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure. Ancient civilization typically refers those civilizations that existed during the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This book covers the Ancient near East, Egyptian, Israel, Mesoamerica, Turko-Persian, Greek, Mesopetamia, Roman, Scottish and Chinese ancient Civilizations.