Civilization

Category: Fields of research

The term civilization is used in several different ways. The first usage denotes a stage in socio-cultural development, usually associated with the emergence of attributes such as cities, monumental architecture, states, advanced agriculture, writing, etc. The second usage refers to the process that a society goes through as develops from a pre-civilized stage to a civilized one. The third way of using the term civilization is to describe a cluster of societies that share important cultural patterns, and are usually geographically near each other – i.e. Western civilization, Islamic civilization, Hindu civilization, etc.

Civilization as a Stage in Socio-cultural Evolution

Based on data on modern hunter-gatherer tribes, Herbert Spencer concluded that there was homogeneity in the original "barbarian" tribes and that all individuals of the same sex performed all functions, with the only gender division of labor. The fear of death among people in these societies was a source of religious beliefs. With the appearance of nomadic tribes, which number over a hundred members, power relations are formed for the first time because the power of the chief appears, but even then the chief performs all tasks like other members of society. At this level of development, wars with other societies play a particularly important role in social evolution, because they can lead to the increase of society by subjugating other societies or they can lead to the complete destruction or subjugation of society. Successful warfare requires the establishment of a central military command by the warlord. In primitive groups, war actions are occasional, so the government is temporary.

When one tribe becomes militarily strong enough to be able to permanently subjugate other tribes, a supreme chief appears, who rules the lower chiefs, and members of the conquered tribes work as slave labor for members of the conquering tribe. With the numerical and territorial increase of the society, the war becomes more frequent and the government becomes permanent, so the temporary military administration transforms into a permanent civilian administration. When complex societies unite with similar complex societies or subdue them militarily, the supreme power of the king, local rulers, and separate classes (military, priestly, and slave) emerges. Spencer calls this level of social evolution a "militant type of society." This type of society is characterized by a great centralization of the administrative system and the development of despotic power. In addition, in militant societies, women and those who perform physical work have very low status, while military work has a high reputation. Social mobility is very small, and the position of an individual is determined by the class in which he or she was born. Economic policy is protectionist, it strives for economic autarchy, while entrepreneurship is limited and constrained.

The transition from the militant to a new type of society mostly depends on favorable external factors, primarily on the possibility of establishing peaceful relations between neighboring countries. When such favorable external conditions are met, and when there is a large enough number of members of society and the complexity of society is sufficiently pronounced, then there is the economic development of society. This enables the division of labor and the development of trade, which leads to the differentiation and specialization of functions within society. These processes necessarily lead to increased coordination within society. The division of labor, increased coordination between functions, and increased heterogeneity, together lead to increased interdependence of parts and increasing integration of society.

With the advent of animal husbandry and later agriculture, economic development and technological discoveries took place. This paves the way for the emergence of crafts and the division of labor into agriculture and crafts. Craft production leads to the creation of products intended for exchange, therefore, comes the advent of commodity production and trade. With economic growth comes increasing economic stratification, while land ownership shifts from local communities to full private ownership. All this led to an increase in population density and the creation of large alliances of tribes, formed to wage wars of conquest and defense, and headed by military leaders. By transforming the leadership from the occasional military leader into a permanent and formal position of power, a hereditary monarchy is formed. The division of individuals from the same gentes into poor and rich landowners leads to the disintegration of the genetic order of society, and the creation of classes and hereditary nobility. The disintegration of the gentile organization into a class organization led to the formation of the first state and civilization. Thus the state emerges as a political expression and organ of power for the economically dominant class of large landowners and slaveholders. The formation of the state led to the further development of trade, which in turn led to the creation of a separate mercantile class, metal money, money market, lending of money and interest payments, and loan-sharing. The formation of the state also leads to the creation of a state bureaucracy that serves to organize the army and collect taxes.

With the emergence of civilization and the formation of the state, there is the development of a monogamous family. Monogamous marriage is characterized by the greatest strength of the marital relationship, the woman is completely separated from the public sphere and her role is only to maintain the household and give birth to children. Although marriage is very difficult to resolve, men are allowed to have sexual intercourse outside of marriage, primarily in the form of prostitution or sexual exploitation of slaves. In this sense, monogamy, and prostitution, although seemingly in opposition, are inextricably linked and caused by the same socio-economic circumstances. With the emergence of the state and the disintegration of kinship gentes, marriage ceases to be controlled by complex kinship ties but begins to be based only on the material and class interests of the fathers of future newlyweds.

In Ancient Society (1877) Henry Lewis Morgan argued that societies went through three main stages of evolution – savagery, barbarism, and civilization. Stages of savagery and barbarism were each further divided into three successive stages or ‘ethnical periods’ (lower, middle, and higher). Although cultural evolution develops in parallel stages, it happens at varying paces in different societies and locations. The lower level of savagery marks the start of the human race and culture, and there is no existing society at that level now. The middle level of savagery, of which Australian Aborigines are extent representative, starts with the use of fire, which leads to the development of language, common ownership of the property, and sexual promiscuity. The higher level of savagery starts with the invention of the bow and arrow, which led to the development of matrilineal family and matrilineal clan but the ownership of the property stayed communal. This level is represented by the Athabaskan people living in Canada.

Lower level of barbarism starts with the use of horticulture and pottery and those inventions lead to the start of the use of village settlements. On this level there is a certain degree of sexual equality; while marriage can be monogamous or polygamous, it is easily dissolved. the Iroquois represent this stage of cultural development. The middle level of barbarism is marked by the inventions of irrigation and the domestication of animals, which led to patriarchy, the rise in inequality on all levels, and the decline of communal ownership. On this level evolution of culture diverged in Eurasia and the Americas, due to the greater availability of animal protein in Eurasia. Morgan argues that higher intake of protein in some societies in Eurasia allowed for brain size to increase in Aryan and Semitic peoples, which enabled them to make greater technological progress. The invention of the plow, which happened only in Eurasia, marks the start of the level of higher barbarism. The stage of civilization starts with the invention of writing and is also marked by the sharp rise of the importance of private property and the development of monogamous marriage and family. For Morgan, civil society is based on private property relations, and government based on the control of defined territory.

Edward Tylor took earlier classifications of evolutionary stages into savagery, barbarism, and civilization and applied them to his theory. Based on archaeological and historical research of technological inventions and technological progress all over the world Tyler divided these stages by their major technological developments. Savagery starts with the use of stone tools, barbarism starts with the invention of farming and metallurgy, and civilization begins with the use of writing. Evolutionary progress in the use of technology is in almost all cases nonreversible, that is, once some society invents better technology it does not revert to an earlier lesser form.

Ludwig Gumplowicz advocated the idea of the polygenetic origin of humanity. These biologically diverse populations were gathered in large numbers in small groups or hordes. These groups were united by blood, they had common economic interests, and there was social equality and free sex life. Later, society goes through stages of matriarchy and patriarchy. As there is a natural, inevitable, and innate tendency of individuals and social groups to improve their economic situation, the first conflicts arise. With the emergence of the patriarchy comes the emergence of the first wars. Initially, these wars end with the physical destruction of the country that lost the war. Later, the defeated group is subdued, and the winners begin to carry out the economic exploitation of the defeated. This is how the first states and classes were formed. Gumplowicz believes that the state is always created by conquest and that ethnic differences, which existed between the two societies before the war, precede class differences. Thus the emergence of classes is a consequence of war and conquest and the implementation of a relationship of exploitation of one ethnic group over another. After the creation of the state, at first, there were only two classes - the rulers and the subordinate class. Later, a third class was formed, consisting of foreign merchants. These merchants later formed the bourgeoisie. From these three classes emerge other derived classes - clergy and craftsmen.

The formation of classes follows the economic law that every need creates a means to its satisfaction. In the later periods of the state's development, cultural assimilation took place. Over time, the subordinate group gradually adopts the language, religion, nature, and customs of the conquerors. That is how nations are formed. Although over time, there are different class struggles and coalitions, the very nature of the state - that it always represents political domination and economic exploitation of the minority over the majority, will never change. The only kind of progress that Gumplowicz saw is certain periods in some societies when there is social and cultural progress, but those periods are short-lived and end in social collapse. He believes that civilizations go through cyclical periods of development and decline. According to Gumplowicz, the individual is not important for sociology, even when it comes to the most powerful ruler, because he, like the whole society, only obeys laws that they don’t have influence over. The only significant role that individuals have in Gumplowicz's sociology is the role of the leader. A leader always takes control of a group, class, company, or party, and then leads his subordinates as if they were a herd.

Franz Oppenheimer studied social evolution and came up with the law of systematic uniformity in the origin of several social areas: state, law, property, and class. He believed that, in the societies that existed before the state, there was no use of economic means in order to achieve economic or political goals. Each individual worked for himself and not for someone else. It was only when one group of people subjugated another group by political means and took their fields, that wealth was created based on the work of other (subjugated) people. This transpires by the process of warrior tribes invading and conquering the territory of a peaceful people. When the conquest was over, then the conquering group consolidated itself as the nobility and established a monopoly over land ownership (agricultural land). The land monopoly led to the emergence of other monopolies. In this way, classes were created, as was the state.

The state is a product of the need to normatively regulate the monopoly ownership of the land, so the emergence of the state led to the creation of a legal system. The specific legal form of land monopoly regulation has varied throughout history, and from state to state. Somewhere the subjugated population worked as a slave force on the land of the slave owners, while in other societies there were serfs or semi-independent tenants of the land, who paid taxes or feudal levies to the owner of the land. Oppenheimer is very explicit in his view that every primitive state was created by conquest and that power has no other purpose than to enable the economic exploitation of the conquered population, by the conquerors. Since land and other monopolies are not based on labor, but on conquest, this order is not in accordance with natural law and justice.

Leonard Hobhouse was interested in the evolution of the mind and ethics. In his observation of the evolution of morality and the evolution of the mind, he concluded that these two phenomena went through five evolutionary phases. In the first phase, at the level that precedes the emergence of civilization, mental action is driven by impulses, and ethics and morality are based on obligations to members of one's local kinship group. In the second phase, when the first civilizations are formed, proto-science appears in Babylon and Egypt; while morality at the same stage begins to be linked to the protection of life and property, but continues to apply only to members of one's own group. The third mental level is related to the period between the eighth and fifth centuries BC when the world religions were formed: Judaism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

Archeologist Gordon Vere Childe, in his works Man Makes Himself (1936), What Happened in History (1942), and “The Urban Revolution” (1950) researched the development of civilization from preexisting socio-cultural forms. He argued that civilization started about five thousand years ago in areas around alluvial valleys of rivers Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, and Indus. Neolithic farmers in those areas started using more efficient agricultural practices, which allowed an increase in food production, which in turn brought a rise in the size and density of the population. Greater population and increase in efficacy of food production structurally allowed differentiation and functional specialization in population with the creation of full-time specialists like craftsmen, priests, merchants, officials, and clerks. The need to control and coordinate big populations and large public works (such as irrigation canals) ushered in the creation of a centralized political organization – “the state –church”. The establishment of the state-church, which had a monopoly on physical coercion, brought about class division of society. The ruling dominant class, which controlled the mechanisms of the state, forced the subordinate class of agricultural workers to maximize food production in order for the ruling class to appropriate the surplus. This process of creation of the civilization Childe named “the urban revolution”. Writing is a necessary corollary of the urban revolution.

Childe also introduced, what he called, the “minimum definition of civilization” - set out 10 characteristics that some culture has to possess for it to be recognized as a civilization: (1) increase in the size of settlements, (2) cities with full-time specialists, (3) taxation of surplus production, (4) monumental architecture, (5) class-based society, (6) recording systems, (7) systems for counting, measuring, and making calendars, (8) advanced artistic expression, (9) long-distance trade in luxuries, and (10) a politically organized based on territory in lieu of kinship.

Karl Wittfogel is best known for his "hydraulic thesis", which he presented most thoroughly in the book Oriental Despotism (1957). The hydraulic thesis is a hypothesis about the emergence of the first states on the territory of Asia and Egypt. Wittfogel starts from Marx's concept of the "Asian mode of production" in order to explain the origin and development of oriental despotic states. According to Wittfogel, the Asian way of production is a product of specific ecological circumstances. In the valleys of large rivers (Nile, Indus, Yangtze, etc.), societies have developed irrigation technology to increase agricultural production. As agricultural production and population increased, these irrigation systems became more complex over time, so a high level of cooperation and central planning was needed to maintain these systems. The experts who managed these irrigation systems eventually took power, created a thorough bureaucratic management system, and centralized political decision-making. The states that emerged in this way were characterized by the existence of mass forced labor aimed at maintaining irrigation systems. Those who held positions of power in these states developed a despotic way of governing that was aided by religious authority.

Anthropologist Leslie White, in The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome (1959), states that the development of agriculture is the most significant change in human evolution because it enabled a much larger number of people to live in one territory, farming led to a sedentary lifestyle, and animal husbandry provided a constant source of food. In addition to the increase in population density, there was also an increase in the size of society and the complexity of society, because a part of the population could devote itself to crafts and other occupations. Thus, there was a need to develop an economic system, and with it came the creation of a special political mechanism that White calls „the state-church“, and the end result was the division of society into a ruling class and a subordinate class. Thus there was a transformation from a society based on kinship to a society based on property.

In the book Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures (1977) Marvin Harris studies how chiefdoms transform into states. Whether the transition from chiefdom to the state will occur is largely determined by demographic, technological, economic, and ecological conditions in each individual case. Limiting factors like lack of arable land, space, water, lack of availability of animals and plants for domesticated, and suboptimal climate will block the growth in the size and complexity of redistributive networks and thus prevent the creation of clear distinction in rank and power. In order to achieve an asymmetric distribution relationship on a large scale, chiefs must control the critical flow of protein and calories from producers to them. Yam and cassava are not good sources of protein and calories, while cereals and corn are better sources of them. The absence of large ruminants and pigs suitable for domestication on the American continent caused a different evolutionary course there. More developed chieftainships have a complex hierarchization of related clans.

The evolutionary sequence of band-village-chiefdom-state is not directly related to the type of food production but to the possibility of its intensification. The ecological conditions most favorable for the intensification of food production are those based on cereals and ruminants, and such conditions existed in the Middle East, Southern Europe, northern China, and northern India. All the qualitative features of the state already existed at the level of the developed chiefdom, such as the intensification of production, the use of force to ensure the obedience of subjects, territorial expansion, and even the existence of slaves. However, the emergence of the first states from chiefdoms did not occur directly. "most advanced chiefdoms probably did not evolve directly into states. The incipient stratification on which they were based gave rise to political instability, factional disputes, insurrections, fissioning and migrations that recurrently dampened the elite sector’s ability to command goods and services and to monopolize police-military functions" (Harris, 2001: 101).

Harris singles out a few prerequisites for the creation of a state. The first condition is the existence of an energy base that allows the ruling class to maintain a permanent police-military apparatus, which requires the existence of either grain-based agriculture or rain-fed agriculture, which includes both grains and animals. The second condition was introduced by the anthropologist Robert Carneiro and it refers to the existence of ecological encirclement, when the area around the territory of the chief's rule is surrounded by an area much worse for agriculture (it can also be about isolation due to mountains or seas and oceans). In that case, the subordinate producers would not benefit by escaping from the territory of the chiefdom, because those neighboring areas do not provide better living conditions. This geographical and ecological isolation is called "ecotone".

Once the border of the state is crossed, there is a positive feedback loop, so the greater power of the ruling class allows for an increase in production and population, which allows for war to be waged on a much higher level and for the expansion of territory, and there is also enthusiasm and mystification of the people, which allows for the growth of power. All chiefdoms in the area are faced with two choices: either form their own states or become part of such an expanding state.

Geographical and ecological conditions continue to operate even when the border of the country is crossed. Those states that arose from the intensification of agriculture based on the flooding of large rivers, such as the Nile, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Indus, the Ganges, the Yangtze Yang, and the like, will take the form of what Karl Wittfogel called "hydraulic states". Another type of early state arose not in the area of southern Europe. The third type of state arose in Central and South America, where due to the lack of draft animals, and therefore the wheel, the development of mechanical inventions slowed down.

The states that arose in the valleys of large rivers were specific because the intensification of agricultural production depended on irrigation and river flooding, irrigation could be controlled by building and maintaining canals, while river flooding could be predicted by creating precise calendars. To maintain a large system of canals, a large centralization of decision-making was required, which led to an increase in the political power of the elite. Since the agro-management elite controlled access to the irrigation systems, they were able to remove all those who refused to submit to them. This relationship between technology and environment allowed Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, and China to have fundamentally similar political economies.

In these countries, there was the development of religions and philosophies that called for justice, mercy, and peaceful relations, and on the other hand, demanded submission to the authorities. However, rulers often had to resort to brutal force to punish disobedient subjects. Dynastic changes were accompanied by the decline in the quality of irrigation systems and the associated increase in the dissatisfaction of the subjects. The new dynasties renewed their hydraulic base and the power based on it. The special infrastructural peculiarities of hydraulic states conditioned the specific system of oriental despotisms, and in India and China, this form of production influenced structural and superstructural features until the twentieth century.

Civilization Cycles

Alfred Kroeber, in Configurations of Culture Growth (1944), concludes that all of the major civilizations that he analyzed went through the cultural climax, a period of rapid pulse-like growth and innovation, with major advances concentrated within that period. After the cultural climax period of stability and decline follows. Periods of growth are characterized by clusters of geniuses, who are responsible for the majority of cultural creativity in intellectual and artistic fields. The appearance of these clusters of geniuses is the product of the previous cultural development, but once they start to appear they can independently influence the trajectories of the cultural growth. This is, obviously, a deviation from his view in his earlier works, where he rejects the idea that individuals can influence the direction of cultural development.

Oswald Spengler, in The Decline of the West. 2 Vol. (1918, 1922) denies any immanent purpose to humanity because it is only an emanation of culture. Humanity and its improvement to perfection are the basis of historical continuity. However, since humanity has no purpose of its own, nor can it be perfected, there is no continuity in history. Humanity has no role in the creation of history, the improvement of the social order, or even in the creation of art, science, language, and similar phenomena. The units of the study of history are individual cultures. In his opinion, there were only a few such unique cultures, and the first ones appeared only 3000 years before the new era in Egypt and Babylon. After that, Indian, Chinese, and ancient or „Apollonian“ cultures emerged. In addition to these five, only three other cultures have emerged throughout history: Mexican, Arab (magical), and „Faustian“ (Western/European). These eight cultures make up the entire human history. These cultures represent organisms with their life cycle of birth, growth, maturity, old age, and death. Events within each culture take precedence, while relations between different cultures are secondary.

Cultures go through their stages of development in exactly the same way. All phenomena and processes, both mass and specific phenomena, such as the rise of great leaders, occur in every culture at a specific time. Since this whole process is subject to strict deterministic laws, it is possible to precisely determine and predict when a phenomenon will occur. As cultures go through defined cycles, what already existed in earlier cultures is constantly repeated in younger cultures. What governs these cyclical processes is the "cosmic pulsations" as the spiritus movens of history. In that sense, the actions of individuals, and even the whole of humanity, cannot change the predetermined regularities of cultural development. Although he emphasizes the deterministic nature of the development of cultures, Spengler, at the same time, believes that cultures can only be studied by the method of deep understanding - intuitive immersion in the subject of study.

Spengler believes that the most important and influential dimension of history is politics because world history is seen, above all, as the history of states and their wars. Countries exist to wage war, which is the eternal pattern of higher human existence. War is not only destructive but is also the creator of all great things. Victories or defeats in war bring everything that is important for a country and its people. Every culture experiences a "period of giant battles", that is, an era of great wars between different states of one culture. Western civilization entered this period with the Napoleonic Wars, so Spengler believes that the future will be a time of war that will involve the whole world and all continents. The victors of these wars will rule smaller states, the economy, and the people; smaller states will be only provinces and a means of meeting the goals of large states. Struggles within states are struggles of different "classes", and they take place in every culture. The clergy and the nobility make up the first two classes, while the rise of the third, the bourgeois class, led to a regrouping of the classes. The rationalization introduced by the bourgeoisie led to civil revolutions.

Spengler connects the emergence of culture with the emergence of the city, which is the birthplace of peoples, states, politics, languages, religion, and art. All great cultures are urban cultures, and the whole history is just the history of urban people. In contrast to the city, the village is ahistorical and lacks creativity. All nations that existed before the emergence of culture do not influence the development of culture. After the disappearance of their culture, the people, who represent the unity of the spirit, and not biology, fade away and become unimportant. At the peak, a culture reaches its apogee, that is, the highest point of development, which is inevitably followed by a decline. At the end of the decline of culture, as the last phase, comes the development of "civilization". Civilization represents the lowest stage of culture in which decadence and loss of creative power dominate. People in culture direct their energy inwards, while in civilization people direct their energy outwards. In civilization, there is a rise of the "fourth class", a formless mass that does not respect the past and has no future. Civilization also marks the end of the internal struggle of the classes. "inner religiousness" is emerging in civilization, because, due to the loss of creativity, people are turning to religion again. After the fall of civilization, the culture dies and so the cycle closes.

Arnold Toynbee studied historical civilizations, and based on that research wrote his monumental work, The Study of History, published in 12 volumes between 1934 and 1961. In this book, Toynbee presented universal history - a theoretical but also a theological-philosophical idea of the process of origin, development, and decay that every civilization must go through. He believes that the wrong approach to the study of history is to focus attention on individual nation-states. Analysis at the level of the nation-state, cannot adequately investigate external influences that had a key deterministic force in shaping society and historical changes, and therefore, long-term processes cannot be adequately understood. Instead, individual civilizations should be taken as units of analysis because civilization represents the lowest level at which human behavior can be fully understood, as well as historical changes. In his research, Toynbee determined that during the history of the whole world, a total of twenty-one separate civilizations were created, of which only seven still exist.

All civilizations must go through periods of growth, decline, dissolution, and collapse. For the whole logic of the process of life of civilization, the most important thing is to understand the mechanism of "challenge and response". Before a civilization is born, the most important challenge is the physical environment. When the challenge of the physical environment is too strong, human energy and creativity will not be enough to create a civilization in response. If the challenge is too weak, it will not require the engagement of energy and creativity necessary for the creation of civilization. This means that special challenges of the environment are needed for a civilization to emerge in response to it.

"Creative minorities" are those who create the type of response necessary for the emergence of civilization. The creative minority consists of exceptional individuals who have great creative power in various spheres - economy, religion, politics, technology, science, and art. Due to the huge contribution of the creative minority to the emergence and development of civilization, the masses are beginning to follow it voluntarily and express admiration and awe for it. In the periods of growth of civilization, there is a "process of etherealization". Etherealization represents the progressive improvement of creative potential by eliminating unnecessary elements, which leads to increased control over society and culture.

When the creative minority begins to lose its creative and spiritual energy, this minority is transformed into a "dominant minority", which bases its power only on pure force. The dominant minority creates a "universal state" that serves only as a means of domination. These changes lead to periods of trouble - class struggles, local conflicts, wars between different states within one civilization or wars between civilizations, demoralization, and mental problems in the general population. In these periods the destructive action of the "internal" and "external proletariat" took place. The internal proletariat consists of economically and politically deprived parts of the population within civilization, while the external proletariat consists of people who are in contact with civilization but are in a subordinate relationship to civilization. The internal proletariat creates a "universal" religion and church in order to oppose the dominant minority, while the external proletariat strives to introduce its own cultural patterns into civilization. If the internal or external proletariat succeeds in overthrowing the dominant minority, ecumenical religion and external influences will be accepted.

All this inevitably leads to the collapse of the state through a series of fractures, which were followed by short periods of recovery, but the final epilogue is certainly the collapse of civilization. The decline of civilization can be temporarily prevented when an exceptional individual comes back from a retreat to regenerate civilization. Isolation from the external environment allows that exceptional individual to experience spiritual, moral, and creative regeneration. The regenerated leader then returns to civilization and inspires the great masses to follow him and experience moral rebirth. However, even this process does not enable the prevention of the final collapse of civilization.

The Clash of Civilizations

In The Clash of Civilizations (1996), Samuel Huntington hypothesizes that states are increasingly cooperating based on a common culture, which will, in the future, lead to the creation of a world in which there will be separate and conflicting civilizations. He believes that seven or eight such separate civilizations will emerge: Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western, Latin American, and (potentially) African civilizations. Each of them has all the elements needed to build a common culture: language, history, identity, customs, institutions, and religion. This clash of cultures, that is, civilizations, will become more important than ideological, political, and economic differences or similarities. Huntington especially emphasizes the difference and potential for conflict between Western Christianity and civilization, which promotes democracy, pluralism, secularism, rule of law, and human rights, on one hand, and Islamic civilization which promotes the idea that God rules the universe, and rejects secularism, gender equality, and homosexuality.

In a similar vein to Huntington, Roland Inglehart and Christian Welzel, created the so-called Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World. They classified all the countries from which they had empirical data on a chart with two dimensions: 1) traditional values - secular rational values and 2) values of self-preservation versus the values of self-realization. All countries are classified into nine major cultural fields (civilizations): Confucian, European-Protestant, Catholic-European, Orthodox, Islamic, African, Latin American, South Asian, and English-speaking.

The Civilization Process

Alfred Weber studied the civilization process. He defines and limits civilization in a very specific way, different from most other sociologists. In his approach, civilization consists of three sub-areas: the intellectually formed image of the world and the ego, the cosmos of pragmatic knowledge, and the intellectual tools for mastering life (technical knowledge). These three parts of civilization and the civilization process are only aspects of the same developmental logic. When the process of civilization begins to move in a certain direction, it continues to move strictly following that developmental logic. Knowledge and intellectual ideas that are acquired in the process of civilization are "pre-existent" phenomena. This means that this knowledge and ideas are not "created", but only "discovered". He thus wants to say that science and technology only reveal facts about the outside world, which already existed before, and were waiting to be "discovered". Scientific knowledge and technical discoveries, unlike cultural emanations, can be fully transferred to other historical areas. The only preconditions for the spread of civilizational knowledge are sufficient psychological (civilizational) development of another historical organism, which adopts new knowledge or technology, as well as the existence of mutual communication between two historical organisms. The process of civilization, in the end, will lead to a single-world civilization.

The historian and feminist Mary Ritter Beard in Woman as Force in History (1946) argued that women’s most important role was in civilizing men and society writ large. Women ‘‘lifted’’ men out of beastly and uncivilized existence. The patriarchal bias of historians prevented them of realizing that the whole Civilization was the product of positive work done by women.

In Civilization and Its Discontent (1930), Freud delves into the intricate complexities of civilization and human nature. He provides an exploration of the inherent tensions and conflicts that arise within the fabric of society. By examining the nature of human desires, instincts, and the impact of societal norms, Freud unveils the discontent that underlies the veneer of civilization. Freud posits that civilization, by its very nature, necessitates the suppression of certain human instincts. He argues that the establishment of societal structures demands the repression of individual desires, particularly aggressive and sexual drives. This repression is essential for maintaining order, preventing chaos, and enabling cooperation among individuals. However, this suppression of instinctual desires results in fundamental discontent within individuals, creating a perpetual tension between civilization and innate human nature.

Central to Freud's thesis is the notion that human beings are driven by a relentless pursuit of happiness. Yet, he argues that true happiness is elusive due to the inherent conflicts between our instincts and societal constraints. The imposition of moral codes and cultural norms often imposes restrictions on personal fulfillment. Consequently, individuals experience a sense of dissatisfaction and frustration, leading to psychological disturbances. Freud asserts that civilization's inherent discontent arises from the perpetual struggle between the individual's instinctual desires and the societal demands for conformity.

According to Freud, the establishment of civilization demands sacrifices from its members. Individuals are compelled to relinquish their natural inclinations and submit to societal expectations. This surrender of instincts and desires is the price paid for living in a civilized society. Freud further contends that this loss is accompanied by a sense of guilt arising from the violation of one's own instinctual drives. As a result, individuals experience internal conflict and anxiety, often manifesting as neuroses and mental disorders.

Freud critically examines the role of religion within the framework of civilization. He argues that religion serves as a powerful mechanism to alleviate the discontent caused by civilization's restrictions. By providing a moral compass and promising an afterlife reward, religion attempts to reconcile the conflict between individual desires and societal constraints. Freud, however, views religion as an illusion, a form of wish fulfillment that distracts individuals from the harsh realities of existence. He suggests that this illusory comfort perpetuates the discontent within civilization by suppressing the truth of human nature.

Herbert Marcuse seeks to defend and adapt Freud's theory in his book Eros and Civilization (1955). He rejects Fromm's elaboration of Freud's theory because he considers it "revisionist." Freud believes that there is a synthesis of the instinct for life (Eros) and the instinct for death (Thanatos) in life, while Fromm diminishes the importance of the instinct for death or destruction. Marcuse believes that both instincts are important and that there is no need to diminish the importance of the instinct for death because the energy of destruction can destroy itself since it is limited by the limits of civilization. There must be destruction in the world in order to build, and vice versa, which makes both instincts paradoxical. The energy of destruction has helped build civilization, but it will gradually calm down, which will lead to changes in people's instincts and the transformation of culture. People will become capable of limiting destructive impulses and directing them in a positive direction, so bans will disappear.

In the two-volume book On The Process of Civilization: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations (1939), Norbert Elias studies how the rules governing the behavior of the aristocracy spread to wider strata of society. The spread of these rules of conduct is the essence of the process of "civilizing" Western European societies. The civilizing of society takes place on two levels, on the one hand, aggressive behavior between people is suppressed, while on the other hand, there is the development of very precise rules that regulate individual behavior. Control over individual behavior refers, above all, to the adoption of the rules of good behavior in social situations - the rules of etiquette.

The first volume of this book deals with the adoption of etiquette rules and is called The History of Manners. Elias follows the development of rules that regulate many areas: eating behavior, the way physiological functions are performed, regulation of sexual behavior and gender relations, and the like. He calls this process the "sociogenesis" of civilization. The rules of good behavior are adopted on the cognitive and behavioral levels by individuals. The main change on the individual level is an increase in the feelings of shame and anxiety concerning one's own body and satisfying the most basic biological needs. Behavioral changes are directly related to changes in the structure of the wider society. When the aristocracy became part of the court society, individuals from the aristocracy came to a state of greater physical closeness, but also greater interdependence.

To avoid conflicts, rules of good behavior were created that controlled the behavior of the aristocracy. With the declining rigidity of class stratification, people from different strata increasingly came into close physical contact and interdependence. Thus, there was a need to extend the rules of good behavior to the lower strata of society; first to the bourgeoisie, and then to other strata. Behavioral rules become part of the "habitus" that individuals adopt from birth and throughout life. This shaping of the mentality and behavior of the individual is a process of "psychogenesis".

In the second volume of On the Process of Civilization, subtitled State Formation and Civilization, the focus of research shifts to changes at the macro level and the process of "sociogenesis", the emergence of a social field that includes not only individual states but also the sequential sequence of evolution of interdependent societies. Over time, people, more and more, adjust their behavior in relation to other people, and to progressively stricter and more precise rules. Each individual action is increasingly regulated, in order to fulfill a certain social function. Behavior is, more and more, regulated automatically, from the earliest age, and it begins to impose itself as a compulsion that is impossible to avoid, even with conscious desire.

On the other hand, the state, headed by an absolute monarch, becomes more centralized and begins to monopolize the use of physical force and tax collection. It is the combination of control over the means of force and over cash flows that gives enormous power to the absolute monarch who imposes rules of conduct on the subordinate aristocracy at his court. The emergence of an absolute monarchy does not depend on the psychological character of the ruler but depends on the development of specific social structures, that is, figurations, which enable the emergence of absolute rule and a centralized state. The development of the division of labor, demographic growth, urbanization, the growth of trade, and the monetary economy, created the conditions for the emergence of an absolute monarchy. First, the war relations between the various feudal lords calmed down, which enabled the progress of the cities and increased the division of labor. In particular, the growth of trade and the monetary economy enabled the monarch to create an independent source of income regarding the feudal estates of the aristocracy. As the economic importance of land ownership declined, so did the economic and military power of the aristocracy.

The development of trade and the monetary economy also enabled the growth of the bourgeoisie, so the absolute monarch used this change in the relationship between the power of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, to increase his power even more. The development of centralized power conditioned the increase of administration and bureaucracy, which, together with the increase of the economic power of the bourgeoisie, enabled the emergence of a modern state. The process of development of civilization and civility is long and takes place over several generations. The main change occurred in relation to the source of control over individual behavior. In the Middle Ages, external coercion prevailed, while later, internal, psychological control of the superego began to be the main source of control over individual behavior. Elias did not view this process as positive or negative, but viewed it neutrally and emphasized that arbitrariness in choosing which type of behavior to choose is the basis of good behavior.

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