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Interrogating Civilisational Analysis in a Global Age Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access i Debating civilisations Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access ii Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access iii Debating civilisations Interrogating civilisational analysis in a global age JEREMY C. A. SMITH Manchester University Press Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access iv Copyright © Jeremy C. A. Smith 2017 The right of Jeremy C. A. Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 1 5261 0528 8 hardback ISBN 978 1 5261 0529 5 paperback First published 2017 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Out of House Publishing Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access v Contents Acknowledgements vi Part I: Theoretical engagements in civilisational analysis 1 1 Civilisations debated: uses and critiques of ‘civilisation’ 3 2 Currents and perspectives in contemporary civilisational analysis 25 3 Counterpoints, critiques, dialogues 53 4 Inter- civilisational engagement: imaginaries, power, connected worlds 79 Part II: Studies in inter- civilisational engagement 111 5 Saltwater horizons: seas, oceans and civilisations 113 6 Pacific imaginaries: ontologies of connection, reconstruction of memory 132 7 Engagement in the cross- currents of history: perspectives on civilisation in Latin America 151 8 Japan in engagement and the discourses of civilisation 169 9 Conclusion 185 References 193 Index 204 Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access vi Acknowledgements This book about the core of studies of civilisations in history and sociology has been written from the edges of two continents: the eastern edge of Australia and the western edge of North America. Both edges are along terrestrial borders of the Pacific Ocean. I feel myself influenced by the ecologies of these places with their ocean prospects and coastal horizons. Those ecologies, those horizons help with thinking about civilisations, societies, inter-connections and flows. More than places, however, it is people – several people – who have contributed to the thinking that sits behind the main arguments made in the chapters that follow. Some have provided direct support as interlocutors around major theoretical, political and historical questions; others have read drafts and provided feedback; and yet others have contributed indirectly in different conversations over several years or by providing me with their work. Amongst them I acknowledge Craig Browne, Dietrich Jung, Alice Mills, José Mauricio Domingues, Janice Newton, Johann Arnason, Said Arjomand, Jane Mummery, Wolfgang Knöbl, Charles Crothers, David Waldron, Jamie Doughney, Adam Yaghi, Teruhito Sako and Karl Smith. I am especially grateful to John Rundell and Strobe Driver for their valuable feedback on various chapters. Long discussions with John have been irreplaceable experiences of intellectual friendship. I give particular thanks to Suzi Adams for many years of valuable conversations and for her intellectual and general friendship. In addition to Suzi, I would like to acknowledge shared discussions with my other colleagues from our journal Social Imaginaries: Paul Blokker, Natalie Doyle and John Krummel. I want to extend my thanks to all the editorial and production staff at Manchester University Press. Thanks to Robin Cohen is called for, given his patient encour- agement at the outset of this project (including when he was on holiday!). My thanks for a second time (and the second monograph) go to Cathie Pilbeam for her copy- editing expertise and to Fiona Bryant and Gavin Myers for their won- derful and timely administrative help. In addition to people, the project has received generous support from Federation University Australia, where I teach and research. I would like to thank, in particular, John McDonald for his enthusiastic support. A significant portion Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access newgenprepdf vii Acknowledgements vii of the research for the book took place as part of the Visiting Fellowship at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. I am especially grateful to the Centre’s Director, Paul Bramadat, for his warm and collegial support during my fellowship. I would also like to thank my partner Bronwyn Jennings for her unwavering patience and support and to our daughters Sari and Mietta for putting up with a ridiculously busy father. An earlier version of the final section of Chapter 3 appeared as: ‘Grounds for Engagement: Dissonances and Overlaps at the Intersection of Contemporary Civilizations Analysis and Postcolonial Sociology’, Current Sociology, 63, 4 (2015), 566– 85. Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access viii Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access 1 Part I Theoretical engagements in civilisational analysis Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access 2 Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access 3 1 Civilisations debated: uses and critiques of ‘civilisation’ It is unfeasible for human beings to dwell like animals in solitude and it is a corollary of their nature to at all times seek collectivity in dwelling and abode. Philosophers enthused by this sociality, have defined this circumstance by asserting ‘humans are naturally predisposed to sociality’, and in their terminology, civilisation (Madaniyyah) consists in the sociality of mankind [sic] on the realm of earth. (Ibn Khaldun, cited in Sentürk and Nizamuddin, 2009: 67) Let us bear in mind that our population is neither European nor North American, but are closer to a blend of Africa and America than they are to Europe, for even Spain herself is not strictly European due to its African blood, institutions and character. It is impossible to pinpoint exactly which human family we belong to. Most of the indigenous peoples have been annihilated, the European has mixed with the American and with the African, and the African has mixed with the Indian and the European. We are all children of the same mother but our fathers are strangers and differ in origin, blood, figure and form from each other. (Simon Bolivar, cited in Bolivar, 2009: 87) Sailing is a noble thing … it joins together men [sic] from different lands, and makes every inhospitable island a part of the mainland, it brings fresh knowledge to those who sail, it refines manners, it brings concord and civilisation to men [sic], it consoli- dates their nature by bringing together all that is most human in them. (George Pachymeres, cited in Paine, 2013: 599) Khaldun, Bolivar and Pachymeres point to specific notions of civilisation. They stress, respectively, the human creation of social cooperation, the mix of humanity and the crucibles of connection. Each casts one particular insight into conditions of human existence as an anthropological universal, which each believes is the essence of social life. Each feature, in fact, can be found Jeremy C.A. Smith - 9781526105318 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 08:27:54PM via free access 4 4 Debating civilisations in abundance in a host of societies. In a modest way, each illuminates a small corner of a sociological axiom about humanity’s past: human connection and engagement across different social formations and civilisations (including in conflict) are extensive, while the occurrence of isolated societies is less com- mon than is often believed. In a contemporary world context of tensions and conflicts (whether of global inequalities, poverty and increasing ecological calamities, or around violence, war and terrorism), an argument that there is a profusion of webs of social cooperation evident in past societies need not be an indulgence in the innocent pastime of historical curiosity. Instead, it can be a potent argument about a diverse range of social formations and what their connections and conflicts suggest about how to confront the problems that contemporary societies face. In place of perspectives positing a clash of civilisations, such an understanding of the past can better serve the purpose of understanding and responding to the problems of the twenty- first century. Moreover, how the critical social sciences can help to elucidate and explore those problems
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