Civilization

Comparing Concepts and Identities

Bibliographic Data

ID3866133
AuthorsPim Den Boer (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume1
Issue1
Publication date2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueContributions to the History of Concepts (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1807-9326 • E-ISSN: 1874-656X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/187465605783406442
OpenAlexW59603644
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This article is a transnational comparative study of the history of the concept of civilization. It starts with a brief review of the meaning of concepts that historically preceded it, such as civilitas and civilité. Next, it focuses on the appearance of the concept in eighteenth-century England and France and the ways it was used by different political theorists and polemists, mostly in the sense of politeness. During the nineteenth century in the colonies outside Europe, in Africa, in Asia, and in America, the concept of civilization played a key role in the discourse of colonization. First it was used from above, by the colonists, but later on it was appropriated by the colonized. At the end of the nineteenth century, civilization acquired one more layer of meaning as it was incorporated into nationalistic discourse. Eventually, the concept also became so internalized that the majority of people in a country could identify their own nation as the supreme form of civilization

Archaeology · Civilization · Epistemology · Politeness · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · European Political History Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions

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