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Marshall High Mr. Cline Western Civilization I: Ancient Foundations Unit One BD * What is Civilization?

• Rebooting the Checklist

• Now we can return to making a list of the characteristics of civilization.

• As historians investigating , we are seeking a list that delivers no judgment, either for or against civilization, simply a description of what constitutes most actual civilizations.

• This list may include:

• surplus food

• density of population

• specialized occupations

• social classes topped by small

• subordination of women

• coerced , collected by force if necessary * What is Civilization?

• Rebooting the Checklist

• monumental public buildings

• standing armies

• frequent warfare

• notable modification of the natural environment

• lavish tombs and burial goods for rulers and elites

• system of and numbers

• regular foreign

• representative

• calendars, math, other * What is Civilization?

• Rebooting the Checklist

• some

• epidemics of disease

• By now it seems clear that any given civilization need not have all the characteristics on a list, only most of them.

• It is also clear that, while there is a core of common characteristics of civilization, any list of them reflect the judgment and point of view of its author(s).

• Most big historians have chosen to use the word "civilization" rather than to reject it, but they define it carefully as a particular type of with specific features.

• Why do all these features come together in this type of community but not in others?

• Big historians are still wondering about this profound question. * What is Civilization?

• Analogy with

• Several scholars thinking on the largest scale of have called our attention to the analogies of human with those of the most social insects: ants, termites and bees. • Ants have evolved over a hundred million years from a solitary wasp to creatures living in the most complex of social structures, now being called a super-organism.

• Ants have achieved a success that rivals that of in terms of sheer mass—each group has about ten percent of the animal biomass on the planet. (The animal biomass is only about two percent of plant biomass, which is only about one percent of the bacterial biomass.)

societies have several features in common with human civilization.

• They have a rigid, hierarchical caste system.

• They have , consisting of ten to twenty chemical signals (but no writing or numeration!). * What is Civilization?

• Analogy with Ants

• Some ants herd aphids.

• The leafcutter ants of have ; they chew their cuttings of huge leaves, fertilize them with their feces to produce a mushroom-like fungus, which they eat.

• Most ant societies have aggressive warriors; their societies are even more aggressive and war-like than human societies, sometimes attacking their own species over food and territory.

• Individual ants have relinquished their reproductive roles to the central queen, making their super-organism possible.

• Ants have a significant effect on their environment, moving around as much dirt as earthworms do, enriching the soil.

• Are human societies headed in the direction of ant societies as our density increases? * What is Civilization?

• Analogy with Ants

• Do humans have any choice in the matter, or is this a process beyond our control?

• Where else but in large-scale history do these questions even arise?

• And, as it is with the ants in our analogy, we have to question the of the study of civilization, and whether it is the proper form or level of human interaction to study, as well as what it is and what characterizes it.

• In this class, I have chosen to study a particular civilization, because many of its common characteristics, once relegated to people who met many of the criteria on our list, were and are shared by our ancestors, the founding fathers of the , and even into today by our and social institutions,

• Therefore, to understand what civilization is, is to understand what we are.

• But in defining who we are, we have to have a point of comparison, there must be other civilizations to compare ourselves to, and this is the inherent problem made particularly poignant in the ” by Dr. * What is Western Civilization?

• To begin to understand the concept of Orientalism, and therefore begin to understand what Western Civilization is, I want to engage you in a thought experiment.

• Take about 10 to 15 minutes and describe the following two concepts:

• Black, as in the color, and

• Hot, as in the temperature.

• But, here is the catch:

• You cannot use the words of other colors in describing black, and

• You cannot use the words of other temperatures in describing hot. * What is Western Civilization?

• It was difficult, wasn’t it?

• In order to define a set term, we often need some basis of comparison in order to compare it. Such as white to help describe black, and cold to help describe hot.

• The problem with this oppositional dialectic is that it separates things into categories. And when you are dealing with separating people into categories, you run into the value implication that one is better than the other.

• Hence, when studying Western Civilization, we run into the implication that it is in some ways superior to those we not only do not considered civilized, but superior to other civilizations.

• So, how do we justify the study of western civilization, particularly given the number of committed throughout its history by some of its members, in the names of this theoretical superiority?

• The Orientalism argument does suffer from a serious flaw that haunts historians and historical , * What is Western Civilization?

• If any westerner desires to write about any other civilization or peoples, they are writing from their about it; a western perspective

• In writing in a western perspective, one is imposing cultural and societal biases on the being studied, and therefore is guilty of orientalism.

• Orientalism is a term coined in Said’s book and refers to the historical pattern of studying the (the ) as an almost mythical land filled with low and base characters, camel caravans, oases, spectacular rajes, lustful Turks, and beautiful but hidden women.

• This cultural picture of the orient was found in so many of the region that it became a pervasive fantasy within .

• Thus, whenever a westerner writes about another culture, they can be accused of a similar to the one found in the histories of the Orient.

• This poses two unique, but inherently self defeating premises.

• For one, if westerners cannot write on anything but western culture, then can other groups write about western culture? * What is Western Civilization?

• And, if we can only write about what we belong to, then how limited can history be, especially if we are required to get down to the individual level? Will we only be able to write a history of ourselves?

• Secondly, and subsequently, how can westerners writing about western culture then be accused of being Orientalists? If they cannot write about it, then who can without ascribing cultural biases to it?

• In other words, could anyone write any history?

• These two premises obviously defeat each other, and despite the claims to a form of inherent in the claim of Orientalism, just by studying the subject, it must be completed and done.

• However, we must be careful in understanding and limiting what western civilization is in order to maintain some cultural integrity; so let us examine what is the commonly understood principle of what Western Civilization is. * What is Western Civilization?

• Western Civilization can also be thought of as Western culture, sometimes equated with a Western or European civilization.

• It is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and that have some origin or association with , having both indigenous and foreign origins.

• The term has come to be applied by people of European ethnicity to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration, colonisation, and influence, such as the continents of the and Australasia, whose current demographic majority is of European ethnicity, and is not restricted to the continent of Europe.

• Western culture is characterized by a host of artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal themes and ;

• The heritage of Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Hellenic, Jewish,, and other ethnic and linguistic groups,as well as , including the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church, which played an important part in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. * What is Western Civilization?

• Also contributing to Western thought, in ancient times and then in the and the onwards, is a of in various spheres of life, developed by Hellenistic , , , the and the Enlightenment.

• Values of Western culture have, throughout history, been derived from political thought, widespread employment of rational argument favoring , assimilation of human , the need for equality, and .

• Historical records of Western culture in Europe begin with Ancient and .

• Western culture continued to develop with during the Middle Ages, the reform and modernization triggered by the Renaissance, and with by successive European , that spread European ways of life and European educational methods around the world between the 16th and 20th centuries. • European culture developed with a complex range of philosophy, medieval scholasticism and mysticism, and Christian and . • Rational thinking developed through a long age of change and formation, with the experiments of the Enlightenment, and breakthroughs in the . * What is Western Civilization?

• Tendencies that have come to define modern Western societies include the existence of political pluralism, prominent or (such as movements), and increasing cultural resulting from globalization and .

• The as a geographical area is unclear.

• There is some disagreement about what nations should or should not be included in the category, and at what times.

• Many parts of the Eastern Roman are considered Western today, but were Eastern in the past.

• Geographically, the "West" of today would include Europe (especially the countries) together with extraeuropean territories belonging to the Anglosphere, as well as the Hispanidad, the Lusosphere or the Francophonie in the wider context.

• Since the context is highly biased and context-dependent, there is no agreed definition what the "West" is. * What is Western Civilization?

• It is difficult to determine which individuals fit into which category, and the East–West contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic, and arbitrary.

• Globalism has spread Western ideas so widely that almost all modern are, to some extent, influenced by aspects of Western culture.

• Stereotyped views of "the West" have been labelled , paralleling Orientalism — the term for the 19th-century stereotyped views of "the East".

• As Europe discovered the wider world, old concepts adapted.

• The area that had formerly been considered the Orient ("the East") became the , as the interests of the European powers interfered with Qing and Japan for the first time, in the 19th century. • Thus, the Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895 occurred in the , while the troubles surrounding the decline of the simultaneously occurred in the Near East. • The term Middle East, in the mid-19th century, included the territory east of the Ottoman Empire but West of China - i.e. Greater Persia and , but is now used synonymously with Near East in most languages. * Why Study Western Civilization?

• So why study Western Civilization, especially instead of ?

• It certainly is a topic I had to debate, as once this class was World History

• The for this course goes back to approximately I.

• Before that time, when history was taught in American , it was usually ( and Romans) or American history.

• With the US involvement in Europe and World War I, there was a movement to more fully explain the origins of the American experiment--connected to the then-current idea of American exceptionalism--and make the continuous connection from the first of to the modern United States and thus explaining evolved history of the "western" world.

• Before long, the history of Western civilization became a standard, required history course taught throughout colleges and in the United States. * Why Study Western Civilization?

• So why study Western Civilization, especially instead of World History?

• It certainly is a topic I had to debate, as once this class was World History

• The reason for this course goes back to approximately World War I.

• In the last twenty years or so, there has been a sweeping move, in fits and starts, among historians to replace the western civilization sequence with a world history sequence.

• However, many historians pointed to two key problems associated with the study of "Western Civilization?" , and we have already touched on them in some detail;

• What do we mean by "civilization?"

• What do we mean by "western?"

• Both terms are exceptionally difficult to define as both are problematic and cultural-laden.

• Still many universities and colleges require the courses for a degree. * Why Study Western Civilization?

• It is our needs as that convinced beyond the requirements of college to change from World History to Western Civilization.

• The devastating effects of ethnic conflict and disunity around the world and the special problems and opportunities confronting the United States, a country that was never a nation in the sense of resting on common ancestry but one that depends on a set of beliefs and institutions deriving from Western traditions represent this.

• I would argue that the unity of our country and the defense of its political freedom and individual liberties required that its citizens have a good understanding of the ideas, history, and traditions that created them.

• The debate over mine, and other similar views on this topic revealed a broad and deep ignorance of the historical process by which the very values that encourage current criticisms of the Western experience came into being, taking them for granted, without comprehending their Western roots and their fragility even within the Western tradition.

• It does not seem to be understood, for instance, that the very idea of a liberal is uniquely a product of the Western experience, as is the institution of the in which it has developed. * Why Study Western Civilization?

• But the value of studying the Western experience goes far beyond the needs of Americans.

• No fair-minded person can deny that, whatever its other characteristics, the West has created institutions of and that provide unprecedented freedom for its people and a body of natural scientific knowledge and technological achievement that together make possible a level of health and material prosperity undreamed of in earlier times and unknown outside the West and the areas it has influenced.

• I think V. S. Naipaul, born in Trinidad of Indian parents, is right to speak of the modern world as “our universal civilization” shaped chiefly by the West.

• Most people around the world who know of them want to benefit from the achievements of Western science and .

• Increasingly, they also want to participate in its political freedom. * Why Study Western Civilization?

• The evidence suggests, moreover, that a cannot achieve the full benefits of Western science and technology without a commitment to reason and objectivity as essential to knowledge and to the political freedom that sustains it and helps it move forward.

• The primacy of reason and the pursuit of objectivity, therefore, both characteristic of the Western experience, seem to be essential for the achievement of the desired goals anywhere in the world.

• The civilization of the West, however, was not the result of some inevitable process through which other cultures will automatically pass.

• It emerged from a unique history in which chance and accident often played a vital part.

• The institutions and ideas, therefore, that provide for freedom and improvement in the material conditions of life can not take root and flourish without an understanding of how they came about and what challenges they have had to surmount.