Barbarism and Civilization - Friedrich Engels: Barbarism And Civilization, Herodotus And The Barbarians, Toynbee's Rhythm Of History
world carries originally connotation
Barbarism and civilization are salt and pepper concepts that are inextricably interlinked. In the Western world, "barbarism" is derived from the classical Greek word barbaros (barbarian) that referred originally to foreigners who did not speak Greek. In the modern world, barbarism carries a negative connotation of unrefined and savage. "Civilization" is derived from the Latin word civis (citizen) that referred originally to those living in a Roman city. In the modern world, civilization carries a positive connotation of education and sophistication.
Although "barbarians" and "barbarism" come from the ancient world, "civilization" does not. Fernand Braudel maintains that "civilization" first appeared in 1732 in regard to French jurisprudence that "denoted an act of justice or a judgement which turned a criminal trial into civil proceedings"
(p. 3). In 1752 the statesman Anne Robert Jacques Turgot used "civilization" to describe a process of being civilized. "Civilization" stood firmly against its opposite of "barbarism." By 1772 "civilization" and its mate "culture" replaced "civility" in England and fostered Zivilization (civilization) alongside the older Bildung (culture) in Germany (see Braudel, p. 4).
Additional Topics
Against this backdrop, the dual concepts of barbarism and civilization emerged in the works of Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), who was influenced by Lewis H. Morgan's (1818–1881) pathbreaking study Ancient Society (1878). Engels writes: "Barbarism—the period during which man learns to breed domestic animals and to practice agriculture, and acquires methods of incre…
Paying close attention to the ancient Greeks and Romans, Arnold Toynbee did not subscribe to a linear, hierarchical view of civilization. Even Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's dialectical approach to history resulted in successive stages of development toward a desired end (see Marx and Engels, pp. 23–40). Although Toynbee's own vision of human history was nostalgic for the lo…
A closer look at China validates Toynbee's suspicions. China had ancient words for both "civilization" and "barbarism" that are still in use today. Wenming refers literally to a bright and clear culture that possesses writing, art, and literature. In China's classical world, the most used term for barbarian was hu (beard), which gave rise to expressions su…
Non-Han peoples as "outsiders" were "dynamically and inextricably intertwined" with Chinese civilization (Smith, p. 11). Confucians felt that barbarians could adopt Chinese culture and become Chinese (see Ebrey, p. 179). Therefore, the history of China is the history of barbarian withdrawal and return. The pressure of the Ruzhen (Jurchen descendants of the Xiongnu) inva…
Arrian. History of Alexander and Indica. Vol. 1. Translated by P. A. Brunt. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976. Braudel, Fernand. A History of Civilizations. Translated by Richard Mayne. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Bury, J. B. The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000. First published in 1928. Caesar, Julius. The Conquest of Gaul. Translate…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments