Introduction to World Civilizations
Summer 2025
Course Teacher
Mohammad Afzalur Rahman
Faculty Initial: AFRN
Email: mohammad.rahman36@[Link]
Office- NAC 1125
Changing vocabularies of studying civilizations
“...to the great despair of historians, men fail to change their vocabulary every time
they change their customs.”
Marc Bloch, Historian’s Craft, p. 34.
“The Vocabulary of the Social Sciences, unfortunately, scarcely permits decisive
definitions.”
Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilizations, p. 3.
“Words, are instruments that people are free to adapt to any use, provided they
make clear their intentions.” - Claude Levi-Strauss
Some key concepts in the study of
civilizations
• Civilization
• Culture
• Pre-History
• History
• State
• Transitions
• Society
• Time
Culture
“Culture is the sum total of the ways of living built up by a group and
passed on from one generation to another. Culture includes behavior
such as courtship or child-rearing practices; material things such as
tools, clothing, and shelter; and ideas, institutions, and beliefs.”
Albert M. Craig, The Heritage of World Civilizations, 2012.
“Civilization”
There is disagreement about what exactly defines a civilization.
The word “civilization” is a Neologism, emerged in France in the eighteenth century,
and subsequently spread across Europe.
In England, due to the influence of some anthropologists the word ‘culture’ was used
to describe the primitive societies. Civilization was used to be used in connection with
more developed societies.
To the German sociologists, the civilization was no more than a mass of practical,
technical knowledge, a series of ways of dealing with nature. Culture, by contrast, was
a set of normative principles, values and ideals - the spirit.
By Civilization we will denotes both moral and material values.
World history usually looks at bigger societies that have more trade
and cultural connections. One important type of society is called a
civilization. Civilizations are a key part of world history, although
historians now agree that other types of societies also deserve
attention.
Civilizations are different because they produce more than what is
needed just to survive. This extra, or surplus, allows people to do
different kinds of jobs, leads to clear social classes, and encourages
both local and long-distance trade. Surplus also helps cities grow and
leads to the creation of formal governments with organized systems,
instead of informal ways of leading. Most civilizations also develop
writing systems to keep records and communicate.
Civilization
“A form of human culture marked by urbanism, technological adaptation, social
complexity, long-distance trade, and symbolic communication.” Albert M. Craig et al,
The Heritage of World Civilizations, 2012.
“the sum total of its cultural assets, that its geographical area is its cultural domain,
that its history is cultural history, and that what one civilization transmits to another is
a cultural legacy or a case of cultural borrowing, whether material or intellectual.” --
Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilizations
attributes of Civilization/defining characteristics of the form of human culture that
constitute civilization:
urbanism;
technological, industrial, and social change;
long-distance trade;
and new methods of symbolic communication
Herodotus (c.484 – c. 425 BC) and
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
Arnold J Toynbee
Oswald Arnold Gottfried
Spengler
Components of Studying Civilizations
Civilizations as-
Geographical Areas:
Every civilization is based on an area with more or less fixed limits.
Each has its own geography with its own opportunities and
constraints, some virtually permanent and quite different from one
civilization to another.
Discussing civilization involves exploring the space, land contours,
climate, vegetation, animal species, and natural advantages. It also
entails examining how humanity has adapted these basic
conditions through agriculture, livestock breeding, food production,
shelter, clothing, communication, and industry.
The natural and man-made environment cannot predetermine
everything; it is not all-powerful. However, it significantly influences
the inherent or acquired advantages of any given situation.
Civilizations As
societies:
Characterizing a civilization could be simplified by describing its society, its
constituent parts, tensions, moral and intellectual values, ideals, habits, tastes, and
the individuals who embody and transmit it.
For instance, it can be said modern civilization is comprised of industrial society or
societies.
If a society changes, the civilization based on it changes too.
Economies
All societies and civilizations are influenced by economic, technological, biological,
and demographic factors. Material and biological conditions play a crucial role in
shaping the fate of civilizations. Changes in population size, health, economic and
technological advancements, or declines profoundly impact both cultural and social
structures.
economic activities always produce surplus, and that in turn, influence the fate of
civilizations.
boom or slump/redistribution of wealths, etc.
civilizations as ways of thought
psychology
mentality
collective unconscious.
civilization dictates a society's attitudes, guiding its choices, as well
as confirms its prejudices and directs its actions.
More than just the accidents or circumstances of a specific historical
period, society is shaped by ancient beliefs, fears, and anxieties that
are almost unconscious. These deeply ingrained influences, passed
down through generations, affect how a society responds to current
events, pressures, and decisions. These reactions are often driven
more by a collective unconscious compulsion than by logic or self-
interest.
These basic values, these psychological structures, are assuredly the
features that civilizations can least easily communicate one to
another. They are what isolate and differentiate them most sharply.
And such habits of mind survive the passage of time. They change
little, and change slowly, after a long incubation which itself is largely
unconscious.
Therefore, how should we approach civilizations?
Study of Civilizations involves all the social sciences.
history
demography
economics
geography
psychology
Things to look at:
periods within civilizations
continuity and rupture
underlying structures
a combination of long-view and short-view
event and process
Underlying structures
appearance vs underlying causes
Profound forces, often initially unrecognized, particularly
by contemporaries who perceive them as entirely natural
or take them for granted if considered at all, are what we
now refer to as ‘structures’.
Foundational elements, the underlying structures of
civilizations: religious beliefs, timeless agricultural
practices, and attitudes towards death, work, pleasure,
and family.
These structures, are generally ancient and long lived,
and always distinctive and original. They it is that give
civilizations their essential outline and characteristic
quality.
• To see the structures clearly one has to withdraw,
mentally at least, from the civilization of which
one is a part.
• The question of women is one big example of
structural aspects of civilization.
• Question of gender, sexuality, reasons, and
madness too.
Three ways of historical time
long duration time: addresses a history that progresses almost imperceptibly and
very slow. This history is defined by gradual changes and continuous cycles of
repetition. The relationship between humans and their environment falls within this
category. Geography, climate, and long-standing social structures on human history,
etc.
Medium range time: there is another type of history, characterized by slow but
perceptible rhythms. It encompasses the rhythms of economic activity, social
changes, and other phenomena that shape societies in the intermediate term. This
could be called social history in its true sense, focusing on the history of groups and
communities.
Event based Time : This refers to the short-term history of events, such
as political revolutions, wars, and other immediate occurrences. It
focuses on individual incidents and actions that can be precisely dated
and have immediate, often dramatic, impacts. This is also part of
traditional history.
Questions to ponder:
Which time-frame is most appropriate to study civilizations?
What are the things that represent civilization as way of thoughts?
Do civilizations interact with each other and subsequently do they
change?
Name some of the structural elements of a civilization.
