Universals?
Human beings appear to need certain things no matter where you find them in space or time. When we organize ourselves culturally and socially to achieve these things, we are engaging in civilization. While there seems to be no end to the diversity of civilizations, in reality the end remains that all are universal in seeking to guarantee or manage these necessities: food, water, shelter, security, self worth, reproduction/child raising?, waste, reflection, creativity, spiritual expression. Many of these are now considered human rights (see article) as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Types of Subsistence: scavenging – hunting-fishing/gathering – slash & burn (swidden) – horticulture - pastoral life – agriculture – trade – production economy – industry.
Types of Social Organization: family – clan – band/tribe – nation (semi-nomadic, or nomadic) – village – town – city – city/state – state – nation/state.
Maps, Notes, Pictures Interactive Map of Eurasia / Africa 300BCE - 1000CE World Map
Types of Subsistence: scavenging – hunting-fishing/gathering – slash & burn (swidden) – horticulture - pastoral life – agriculture – trade – production economy – industry.
Types of Social Organization: family – clan – band/tribe – nation (semi-nomadic, or nomadic) – village – town – city – city/state – state – nation/state.
Maps, Notes, Pictures Interactive Map of Eurasia / Africa 300BCE - 1000CE World Map
A Definition of Civilization
Organized human responses to change, seeking equilibrium (see definitions of race, culture, etc.). or being civilized. Well bred and complaisant. Highly developed social organization characterized by divisions of labor, shared culture, and relatively stable patterns of subsistence.
OR
complex social organization and division of labor allowing groups of people to seek equilibrium with the environment.
OR
People living in cities.
OR
Writing
Change may be gradual or catastrophic –
Adaptations to change Agents of change
Cultural Environmental
Beliefs
Observations (receptivity) Geographic
Social Theo-philosophic
Political
Economic Ideological
Technologic
Technologic
WAR / INVASION
Economic
OR
complex social organization and division of labor allowing groups of people to seek equilibrium with the environment.
OR
People living in cities.
OR
Writing
Change may be gradual or catastrophic –
Adaptations to change Agents of change
Cultural Environmental
Beliefs
Observations (receptivity) Geographic
Social Theo-philosophic
Political
Economic Ideological
Technologic
Technologic
WAR / INVASION
Economic
Definition of Terms
History: History is the interpretation of the incomplete written record or oral tradition of the experiences of humans through the contexts of time. While history demands many types of critique – such as political, economic, technological, or social critique – all are dependant on documents and their interpretation. History, like language, is very plastic.
Politics: Politics, or political process refers to the ways and means that a group of peoples uses to interact with the institutions of their government. It is the developed social structure for affecting government.
Economic: The institutional systems of exchange of value between individuals or institutions within a society, or between societies. These systems often place abstract or market values on labor, and its products, or on land and its products. Some historians, such as Karl Marx, view all history as the result of the struggle between those who produce, and those who own the means of production – the worker and the wealthy – this is essentially an economic interpretation of history.
Technology: Any purposeful alteration of what is perceived as the natural environment by humans for the perceived benefit of humans. Technology includes making fire where there was none (duplicating nature phenomena), as well as computers (an attempt at duplicating the abstract human mind).
Society: A society is an artificial construction of a collection of linked formal and informal institutions that govern group behavior. It means labor, specializations of labor, a sense of wealth, and poverty - in short, class.
Culture: Culture is the set of conscious and unconscious individual beliefs and assumptions about the way in which world works that governs individual behavior.
Note: Keep in mind that the verb: govern, implies both the promotion and limitation of freedom.
Community: Communities are formed from the interactions of culture and society. When individuals are united into groups by complimentary internal (cultural) and external (social) influences, the groups of people can be identified as communities.
Race: Biologically, there is only one race – human. All other categories of race are artificial social constructs of classification based on visual differences, cultural expressions, political necessity, and economic priority. What is commonly called race is really racism*. The history of the concept of race parallels the development of the human identity.
*Racism (also called ethnocentrism) When a labeled group is disadvantaged socially based on the artificial classifications of race by another group in possession of unearned power and privilege to do so.*
Ethnicity: Ethnicity refers to heritage or culture expressed over time. The cultural history of a group of people produces differences in populations that give rise to ethnicity.
Class: Class is the stratified level of economic opportunity within a culture or society. Class differences – differences in social status, opportunity, and access – may be based on racism, ethnicity, gender, education, age, disability or a host of other recognized group classifications.
Gender: Gender is a social role performed in a social context. People are taught by their society, and culture what acceptable gender behavior is. The social gender role carries with it power and privilege for "proper" behavior, and punishments for "inappropriate" behavior. For the purposes of this discussion, the term gender will include gender orientations as in the case of gay men and lesbians.
Nationality: Nationality is a political description of place of birth or naturalization as a citizen.
Asabiyya: Social glue (voluntary to coercive). A society or civilization works because people believe in it. They do not have to be forced to do "the right thing," they do it because they see value in it. They experience a better set of social conditions - human rights - that causes them to feel that participating in the system is for the general good. If a civilization loses this voluntary participation - this culture of belief in the system - then it is in trouble. A civilization that loses asabiyya may well last, but it does so because its institutions force the people to do what it takes for the social system to continue. A society can be evaluated on how it provides human rights. It can be diagnosed by how coercive its institutions are.
The idea is to identify psychological, economic, environmental and social factors that contribute to the advancement of human civilization and the currents of history. In this context Yemenite historian and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun analyzed the dynamics of group relationships and showed how group-feelings, al-'Asabiyya, give rise to the ascent of a new civilization and political power and how, later on, its diffusion into a more general civilization invites the advent of a still new 'Asabiyya in its pristine form. He identified an almost rhythmic repetition of rise and fall in human civilization, and analyzed factors contributing to it. His contribution to history is marked by the fact that, unlike most earlier writers interpreting history largely in a political context, he emphasized environmental, sociological, psychological and economic factors governing the apparent events. This revolutionized the science of history and also laid the foundation of Umraniyat (Sociology).
Fact: An empirically witnessed event, occurrence, object, pattern, or person. In social sciences such as history, the classic scientific method which relies so heavily on independent observation to verify fact just cannot be employed. Historic events cannot be duplicated for the social scientist, and historic documents are the interpretations of sometimes distant events by others.
Theory: A theory is the set of causal (cause and effect) relationships that explain events. Theory requires orientation on a basic set of primary factors that may be responsible for change. What happened and how did it come about? This theoretic orientation guides the search for facts and conditions the resulting interpretations of facts and their meaning.
Interpretation: This is an evaluation of the significance. Why did an event occur? Of what importance is it? What does it mean? How does it fit?
Context: Variables affecting the understanding of human events. The sets of circumstances and conditions surrounding an event, a person, or a phenomena. Elements of the environment that contribute to, or detract from the nature of an event, person, or phenomena.
Determinism: Causations. Cause and effect models. Dialectic, such as: x+ y = z. If you drop a ____, when it hits the ____, it makes_____. What you say makes things work the way they do. Theoretical orientation. Another classic model:
Thesis -------- Antithesis
V
Synthesis
In addition there are some concepts that are useful in the discussion of world civilization.
Critique: Identification of apparent conflicts and resolving those conflicts.
Push Factor: Push factors cause individuals or groups to relocate from one place to another.
Pull Factor: Pull factors draw individuals or groups to a specific location.
Diaspora: Diaspora refers to the (often forced) dispersal of populations from a specific location to several locations throughout the world.
Comparative: Examining and analyzing history by isolating specific aspects events, individuals or phenomena and noting their similarities.
Contrasting : examining and analyzing history by isolating specifics and noting their differences.
Multidisciplinary: Making many points of view contribute to a better understanding of history, typically through the use of many different scientific disciplines and sources.
Politics: Politics, or political process refers to the ways and means that a group of peoples uses to interact with the institutions of their government. It is the developed social structure for affecting government.
Economic: The institutional systems of exchange of value between individuals or institutions within a society, or between societies. These systems often place abstract or market values on labor, and its products, or on land and its products. Some historians, such as Karl Marx, view all history as the result of the struggle between those who produce, and those who own the means of production – the worker and the wealthy – this is essentially an economic interpretation of history.
Technology: Any purposeful alteration of what is perceived as the natural environment by humans for the perceived benefit of humans. Technology includes making fire where there was none (duplicating nature phenomena), as well as computers (an attempt at duplicating the abstract human mind).
Society: A society is an artificial construction of a collection of linked formal and informal institutions that govern group behavior. It means labor, specializations of labor, a sense of wealth, and poverty - in short, class.
Culture: Culture is the set of conscious and unconscious individual beliefs and assumptions about the way in which world works that governs individual behavior.
Note: Keep in mind that the verb: govern, implies both the promotion and limitation of freedom.
Community: Communities are formed from the interactions of culture and society. When individuals are united into groups by complimentary internal (cultural) and external (social) influences, the groups of people can be identified as communities.
Race: Biologically, there is only one race – human. All other categories of race are artificial social constructs of classification based on visual differences, cultural expressions, political necessity, and economic priority. What is commonly called race is really racism*. The history of the concept of race parallels the development of the human identity.
*Racism (also called ethnocentrism) When a labeled group is disadvantaged socially based on the artificial classifications of race by another group in possession of unearned power and privilege to do so.*
Ethnicity: Ethnicity refers to heritage or culture expressed over time. The cultural history of a group of people produces differences in populations that give rise to ethnicity.
Class: Class is the stratified level of economic opportunity within a culture or society. Class differences – differences in social status, opportunity, and access – may be based on racism, ethnicity, gender, education, age, disability or a host of other recognized group classifications.
Gender: Gender is a social role performed in a social context. People are taught by their society, and culture what acceptable gender behavior is. The social gender role carries with it power and privilege for "proper" behavior, and punishments for "inappropriate" behavior. For the purposes of this discussion, the term gender will include gender orientations as in the case of gay men and lesbians.
Nationality: Nationality is a political description of place of birth or naturalization as a citizen.
Asabiyya: Social glue (voluntary to coercive). A society or civilization works because people believe in it. They do not have to be forced to do "the right thing," they do it because they see value in it. They experience a better set of social conditions - human rights - that causes them to feel that participating in the system is for the general good. If a civilization loses this voluntary participation - this culture of belief in the system - then it is in trouble. A civilization that loses asabiyya may well last, but it does so because its institutions force the people to do what it takes for the social system to continue. A society can be evaluated on how it provides human rights. It can be diagnosed by how coercive its institutions are.
The idea is to identify psychological, economic, environmental and social factors that contribute to the advancement of human civilization and the currents of history. In this context Yemenite historian and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun analyzed the dynamics of group relationships and showed how group-feelings, al-'Asabiyya, give rise to the ascent of a new civilization and political power and how, later on, its diffusion into a more general civilization invites the advent of a still new 'Asabiyya in its pristine form. He identified an almost rhythmic repetition of rise and fall in human civilization, and analyzed factors contributing to it. His contribution to history is marked by the fact that, unlike most earlier writers interpreting history largely in a political context, he emphasized environmental, sociological, psychological and economic factors governing the apparent events. This revolutionized the science of history and also laid the foundation of Umraniyat (Sociology).
Fact: An empirically witnessed event, occurrence, object, pattern, or person. In social sciences such as history, the classic scientific method which relies so heavily on independent observation to verify fact just cannot be employed. Historic events cannot be duplicated for the social scientist, and historic documents are the interpretations of sometimes distant events by others.
Theory: A theory is the set of causal (cause and effect) relationships that explain events. Theory requires orientation on a basic set of primary factors that may be responsible for change. What happened and how did it come about? This theoretic orientation guides the search for facts and conditions the resulting interpretations of facts and their meaning.
Interpretation: This is an evaluation of the significance. Why did an event occur? Of what importance is it? What does it mean? How does it fit?
Context: Variables affecting the understanding of human events. The sets of circumstances and conditions surrounding an event, a person, or a phenomena. Elements of the environment that contribute to, or detract from the nature of an event, person, or phenomena.
Determinism: Causations. Cause and effect models. Dialectic, such as: x+ y = z. If you drop a ____, when it hits the ____, it makes_____. What you say makes things work the way they do. Theoretical orientation. Another classic model:
Thesis -------- Antithesis
V
Synthesis
In addition there are some concepts that are useful in the discussion of world civilization.
Critique: Identification of apparent conflicts and resolving those conflicts.
Push Factor: Push factors cause individuals or groups to relocate from one place to another.
Pull Factor: Pull factors draw individuals or groups to a specific location.
Diaspora: Diaspora refers to the (often forced) dispersal of populations from a specific location to several locations throughout the world.
Comparative: Examining and analyzing history by isolating specific aspects events, individuals or phenomena and noting their similarities.
Contrasting : examining and analyzing history by isolating specifics and noting their differences.
Multidisciplinary: Making many points of view contribute to a better understanding of history, typically through the use of many different scientific disciplines and sources.
Critical Questions
What does “classical” mean when used to describe a civilization or it's parts?
Why the “peaks and valleys," or the "rise and fall" of civilizations?
What is progress? How can it be defined, and does it really exist?
Why do we war?
Why are gender roles and social status constructed so that someone always loses?
Why do civilizations decay?
What is the rule of law? (draw on Anarchy to develop this).
What is order?
What is literature?
What is art?
What is religion?
Why the “peaks and valleys," or the "rise and fall" of civilizations?
What is progress? How can it be defined, and does it really exist?
Why do we war?
Why are gender roles and social status constructed so that someone always loses?
Why do civilizations decay?
What is the rule of law? (draw on Anarchy to develop this).
What is order?
What is literature?
What is art?
What is religion?
Remember the inferential rule of opposites…i.e.. if the Catholic church was the sole source of learning, then what other sources that existed were probably suppressed by theCatholic church.
World History and Civilization: The world history approach differs significantly from that of any of the other areas of historic inquiry. While all history is the study and interpretation of the documented record of human activity, some history deals with the particulars – names, dates, events, and individuals – that make up the record, others are concerned primarily with concepts that generate the phenomena of history. While those interested in the particulars are concerned with the who/what/when/where of history, the conceptualists are driven to know why and how things happen (or happened) the way they do (or did).World civilization is a discipline of history intimately focused on answering the “why” and “how” questions of the human experience. This is partly because there are simply far too many particulars to be learned about the whole of the collective human adventure (or misadventure) by any single historian. But this preoccupation with knowing why and how people have done what they have done is also a facet of an emphasis the world civilization historian places on the usefulness of historic information. Despite the vast amount of historic particulars available to historians, the truth will always be that we will never really know all there was that has occurred in the past. The documented historic record is fragmentary at best. When we realize that not all historic facts were ever recorded in the first place, the realization emerges that the "what" of history will never be more important than the "whys." What happened in history – while very essentially important – can never be more important than coming to know why we did what we have done, and how we got to be who we are. Most students of history understand this intimately on one level or another. She has had her enthusiasm drowned in data, or he has had his fervor mired in the minutiae of facts. The world civilization approach gives meaning to the minutiae, provides value to the data. To be sure, all historians seek meaning, and to that end, will interpret the data – will often impose value on historic events, individuals, or phenomena by proceeding from a theoretical orientation. Really a fancy phrase for point-of-view, a theoretical orientation at its best is a perspective or set of fundamental assumptions that guide inquiry. Ideally, the set of basic principles will allow salient patterns of meaning to emerge. This is good social science. However, a theoretical orientation at its worst becomes dogma. A stiflingly limiting rhetoric that – not unlike propaganda – crushes all creativity and enthusiasm except that which “fits.” A misused theoretic orientation generates not hypotheses for testing, but instead imposes pre-judgments. In the harsh realm of the misused theoretic orientation facts of history are either bludgeoned into place with the pre-existing model, or they are suppressed and discarded. In this environment, the free exchange of ideas and the enthusiasm to put them into practice is trampled beneath the hob-nailed goose-stepping jackboots of conformity. The poetic diversion into anti-nazi metaphor is, alas, not by chance. Hitler's Mein Kampf is a study – all be an extreme one – in the misuse of theoretical orientation. It was a corrupt and entrenched view of history that endorsed and executed the extinction of millions of human beings. That was bad social science. There are other, more subtle misuses of historic perspective. Some of those misuses of history generate conflict, encourage ethnic division, maintain gender and class oppression, perpetuate poverty and starvation. History can be political and nationalistic. It can also be economic, technological, geographic, or social and cultural. World civilization approach invites historians to be broadly comparative and interdisciplinary.
World History and Civilization: The world history approach differs significantly from that of any of the other areas of historic inquiry. While all history is the study and interpretation of the documented record of human activity, some history deals with the particulars – names, dates, events, and individuals – that make up the record, others are concerned primarily with concepts that generate the phenomena of history. While those interested in the particulars are concerned with the who/what/when/where of history, the conceptualists are driven to know why and how things happen (or happened) the way they do (or did).World civilization is a discipline of history intimately focused on answering the “why” and “how” questions of the human experience. This is partly because there are simply far too many particulars to be learned about the whole of the collective human adventure (or misadventure) by any single historian. But this preoccupation with knowing why and how people have done what they have done is also a facet of an emphasis the world civilization historian places on the usefulness of historic information. Despite the vast amount of historic particulars available to historians, the truth will always be that we will never really know all there was that has occurred in the past. The documented historic record is fragmentary at best. When we realize that not all historic facts were ever recorded in the first place, the realization emerges that the "what" of history will never be more important than the "whys." What happened in history – while very essentially important – can never be more important than coming to know why we did what we have done, and how we got to be who we are. Most students of history understand this intimately on one level or another. She has had her enthusiasm drowned in data, or he has had his fervor mired in the minutiae of facts. The world civilization approach gives meaning to the minutiae, provides value to the data. To be sure, all historians seek meaning, and to that end, will interpret the data – will often impose value on historic events, individuals, or phenomena by proceeding from a theoretical orientation. Really a fancy phrase for point-of-view, a theoretical orientation at its best is a perspective or set of fundamental assumptions that guide inquiry. Ideally, the set of basic principles will allow salient patterns of meaning to emerge. This is good social science. However, a theoretical orientation at its worst becomes dogma. A stiflingly limiting rhetoric that – not unlike propaganda – crushes all creativity and enthusiasm except that which “fits.” A misused theoretic orientation generates not hypotheses for testing, but instead imposes pre-judgments. In the harsh realm of the misused theoretic orientation facts of history are either bludgeoned into place with the pre-existing model, or they are suppressed and discarded. In this environment, the free exchange of ideas and the enthusiasm to put them into practice is trampled beneath the hob-nailed goose-stepping jackboots of conformity. The poetic diversion into anti-nazi metaphor is, alas, not by chance. Hitler's Mein Kampf is a study – all be an extreme one – in the misuse of theoretical orientation. It was a corrupt and entrenched view of history that endorsed and executed the extinction of millions of human beings. That was bad social science. There are other, more subtle misuses of historic perspective. Some of those misuses of history generate conflict, encourage ethnic division, maintain gender and class oppression, perpetuate poverty and starvation. History can be political and nationalistic. It can also be economic, technological, geographic, or social and cultural. World civilization approach invites historians to be broadly comparative and interdisciplinary.