中文摘要：

古代文明或国家的诞生是人类社会发展史上里程碑式的一个转折点。本文在以往研究的基础上,利用人类学家R.L.Carneiro提出的文明产生＂限制理论＂来探讨以夏朝建立为标志的中国古代文明产生的过程和原因,以及中国文明形成个案对丰富这一重要理论的可能贡献。

英文摘要：

The emergence of civilization, one of great marks in the history of human evolution, has been remained one of the hottest topics in the world. In this paper, R. L Cameiro＇s ＂circumscription theory＂ is invoked to explain the causes of the emergence of Chinese ancient civilization marked by the establishment of Xia Dynasty, and the possibity of a contrbution of this Chinese case to the ＂circumscription theory＂ is discussed.