The History of Civilizations – The past explains the present.

1. The History of Civilizations – The past explains the present. By Fernand Braudel

2. Question Under Discussion…. • A fairly unusual one. • “Can the history of Civilization help us to understand the present time and thus, necessarily the future – for today can hardly be understood except in relation to tomorrow?” • May sound complex but my aim is to unravel this.

3. A background to the text… • The way to study history is to view it as a long duration. • History means an understanding of both past and present. • Complexities in defining the term ‘Civilization’. • Since history has expanded toward social & economic, history of civilizations no longer plays such an aggressive role.

4. Civilization & Culture: The origins and fortunes of these words. • Two words which cover so huge an area: ‘Civilization’ & ‘Culture’. • Civilization and Culture, both born in France at about the same time. • Toward 1850, civilization and culture moved from singular to plural. • Arrival of anthropologists & ethnographers led to danger for term civilization.

5. Attempts at a definition… • Historians who have concerned themselves with civilization have left us in great uncertainty as to what they actually mean by it! • Noauthors have felt the need to provide an actual definition of what civilization truly means. • I will present to you various attempts…

6. Guizot: “Can be seen as our starting point” • Civilization = a two-fold progress, ‘social’ & ‘intellectual’. • In an ideal world, a harmony between the two. • Civilization as embodied in ‘a people’. - “A great theory with a small result one might say”.

7. Burckhardt: “Quite a different world from Guizot’s”. • West not examined in its full extent, nor with regard to the entirety of its past. • Highly luminous moment – ‘The Renaissance’. • Triad that explains all of man’s past can be related: State, Religion and Culture.

8. Spengler: “Every culture is a unique experience”. • Even if one culture derives from another, it eventually asserts itself in its full originality. • Method for the historian of civilizations is straightforward, distinguishing and studying originalities. • Civilization defined as the ‘unavoidable end’. • All civilizations/cultures can be reduced to destiny of spiritual values.

9. Toynbee: “Civilization is a voyage not a port”. • Civilization = smallest unit of historical study, when trying to comprehend the history of one’s own country. • Religion as most important concern of the human race. • Only 21/22 civilizations worthy of a name. Five still with us today. • Dares to compare things that happened centuries apart.

10. Alfred Weber: Yes, the Sociologist brother of the great Max Weber! • Opens his explanations to various disciplines. • Admirably demonstrates the establishment of the first crop of civilizations. • A ‘Spirit of the age’ implicit in his thinking. - Doubts whether Weber has formulated a satisfactory definition of a civilization.

11. Bagby: An original position, uniting history and anthropology. • Can be no science of history unless the domain of history is simplified. • Man must be compared with man, our investigation must move from one civilization to another. • Hierarchy of civilizations. - Doesn’t attempt a serious definition anymore than any of the previous authors.

12. History at the crossroads… • History of civilizations is at a crossroads. • Must fully understand all the discoveries made by different social sciences. • Presents a plan that could be used if he found himself writing “an endless work on civilization and civilizations”. • 1. Make a break with certain habits of mind. 2. Seek a definition of civilization. 3. Summon all specialists in human sciences. 4. No conclusion but suggest specific tasks.

13. Necessary Sacrifices.. • Renounce certain ways of speaking. • Renounce the linear. • Renounce any cyclical explanations of the destiny of civilizations/cultures. • Reject the restricted lists of civilizations which have been suggested to us.

14. Criteria to be retained 1 … Cultural areas: • A civilization is a space. • Add some sort of temporal permanence. • “Totality”. • Mauss: Owes much more to geography than usually stated.

15. Criteria to be retained 2… Borrowings: • Micro-elements are constantly on the move. • Civilizations are simultaneously exporting & borrowing in turn. • Some cultural elements are contagious.

16. Criteria to be retained 3… Refusals: • Not every exchange proceeds straightforwardly. • Every refusal is of singular importance. In summary… In the definition we have borrowed, there are three factors at play; Cultural area, Borrowings and Refusals. Each opening up its own possibilities.

17. Toward a dialogue between history & the human sciences… • A historian cannot manage alone. • Geography – location is not just an accident. • Demography – Growth, migration etc. • Sociology/Economics – Relations, social structures, classes etc. • Concern to build models. • Nothing to assure us that all civilizations follow identical cause & effect throughout history.

18. History – Face to face with the present… • Feels unable to come to any bold conclusion. But states that “History is called upon to demonstrate its usefulness regarding the present”.

19. The Longevity of civilizations… • Any society is deeply involved in a civilization. • Societies lead us into a huge historical movement. • Civilizations are realities of the ‘Long Duration’.

20. The permanence of unity & diversity throughout the world… • Technical progress has multiplied the means available to man. • Civilization is not equally distributed. • World is being violently propelled toward unity, while at the same time remains fundamentally diverse.

21. Revolutions which define the present age… • Toward 1750, world with all its many civilizations underwent a series of upheavals. • Man is changing his appearance. Beyond Civilizations • Huge diffusion at work. • Revenge of singular on the plural.

22. Concluding comments… Toward a Modern Humanism • Need for a new, third word? • Georges Friedmann – ‘Modern Humanism’. • Man, civilization must overcome the demand of the machine. • Accepting/hoping that the doors of the present should be wide open to the future. • Present cannot be the boundary.